Revision is what writers do.  It is at the very core of writing a text of any kind.  Oh, there are a few occasions where a writer seems to spill perfect words in perfect places onto a blank page and there is nothing to change – like the way my grandma made her apple pie with a delicious cookie crust.  Grandma didn’t need a recipe; instead she created her masterpiece every day, using the “feel” of the pie dough and adding a pinch of this and that.  But the truth of the matter is this: writers only stop revising because there is a deadline to meet!

    I remember when Rose and I were finishing up Nonfiction Mentor Texts. I kept bringing more books to add to our final chapter. Rose had to tell me: “Enough!  I am not adding one more book to the Treasure Chest!” Rose knew it was time to polish what we had and not continue to add to it.  While adding to a piece of writing is one way to revise, there are many other possibilities. Here are some suggestions:

Ø      Reread to discover the “inside story.”

Ø      Write a different ending.

Ø      Write the piece in a different tense.

Ø      Use a multigenre approach.

Ø      Write in the third person instead of the first person.

Ø      Write for a different audience.

Ø      Find your center of gravity and begin there.

Ø      Write the piece in a different format (a poem, letter, or feature article).

Ø      Try to collaborate with a peer who is writing on the same theme or subject.

Ø      Move words, phrase, sentences, or even whole paragraphs to a different location if it improves the piece.

Ø      Substitute: find nouns and verbs that are weak and replace them with stronger ones!

I think it is so important to allow students to pursue their own interests and theories about the world.  When they embark on a writing assignment of any kind, they need to have both purpose and audience in mind.  It is important to have that target audience in order for a piece of writing to have voice.  The mentor texts are the books that help students find their own voice.  Before our young writers compose text, they must be immersed in transacting with texts that can serve as models for the ones we hope they will write.   Of course, the writer's notebook is an essential tool for topic selection, collection of information, and experimentation with formats.  The final key is reflection, the component used throughout the writing process - like the glue that firmly cements all the pieces together.  Nonfiction writing takes a long time.  Most of us need to develop a level of expertise with our topic before we ever think about writing,  Students can find appropriate material in the classroom, the school library, the local library, and other places as well. Teach students how to conduct an interview. Often, fine threads of writing come from firsthand accounts, family history stories, and knowledge of experts we can seek out and question,  

I've been reading about One Little Word on Two Writing Teachers. I like the idea of adopting one word to guide you through the coming year. This is so much better than New Year's Resolutions which I invariably don't keep. The wrod that immediately jumped out at me was "reflect", and while I have thought of other words, "reflect" keeps coming back. I just looked through some notes I had in the back of my notebook and there it was again - a reminder to myself to reflect more in writing. Reflection is so important for everyone, but I think especially for teachers. We need to somehow build in more time to reflect on the successes and needs of our students, how our lessons went, and the words we chose to deliver those lessons. Reflection helps you move forward in the right direction. That is one reason we included reflection as part of our Your Turn lessons. So 2012 will be my year to reflect, and hopefully I'll be moving in the right direction.