Dick and Jane Revisited Revising Basals or Other Contrived Texts

1. Dick and Jane RevisitedRevising Basals or Other Contrived Texts James Brodie July 14, 2005 Greater Houston Area Writing Project

2. Objectives • To read a contrived story with an established purpose and audience. • To create and write questions that will help add information to a contrived story. • To revise a contrived story using revision devices. • To rewrite the newly created story.

3. TEKS • Reading/literary response. The student expresses and supports responses to various types of texts. The student is expected to: • offer observations, make connections, react, speculate, interpret, and raise questions in response to texts (4-8).

4. TEKS • Writing/processes. The student selects and uses writing processes for self-initiated and assigned writing. The student is expected to: • revise selected drafts by adding, elaborating, deleting, combining, and rearranging text (4-8).

5. Revision • “To revise is to ‘resee,’ to look at a work, a page, or a text again. It requires reflection and some sense of other possible options. If the writer’s rereading is sophisticated enough to recognize a gap between his intentions and what he sees on the page, he will want to rework his text” (Graves, 1994, pp. 225-226).

6. Revision • “Early revisions on a quickly written draft are the hardest because the writing has no clear form or direction yet” (Routman, 1994, p.164).

7. Revision • “I’ve learned that when students don’t revise their writing, it’s usually because they don’t know how. They don’t have methods for manipulating the page – adding information, deleting it, changing it, or moving it around” (Atwell, 1998, p. 162).

8. Revising a BasalLane, 1993, p.150 • Present an old story from a basal or elsewhere. Read aloud and discuss what reading between the lines means. Tell students they will be writing between the lines to tell the rest of the story. • Model the activity as the class participates.

9. Revising a BasalLane, 1993, p.150 • Break students into small groups. Students read the piece aloud and write questions. (Discuss use of * as a revision device) Best questions add more detail. • Students rewrite story on a separate sheet of paper. • Students share and discuss how questions help writers see more. • Compare original and revised story.

10. Try It Out • Partner up with someone and read the story. • Write pertinent questions designed to add detail to the story. • Write the answers to the questions as you ask them. • Insert the questions in the appropriate places into the story. • Share.

11. Adaptations • Students can publish revised basal stories, with illustrations, and present them to younger students. • Content to be revised can be chosen based on needs of students. • Can use the same techniques to revise other students’ writing.

12. Adaptations • Students can rewrite story in script form and perform it in reader’s theater. • Students can modify initial chapters or add to the endings of published books. • Evaluate basal writing, then a piece of literature. Compare and contrast evaluations.

13. References Atwell, N. (1998). In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading, and learning (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook. Graves, D. H. (1994). A fresh look at writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Lane, B. (1993). After the end: Teaching and learning creative revision. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Routman, R. (1994). Invitations: changing as teachers and learners K‑12 updated, expanded, and revised resources and blue pages (Updated, Rev., Expanded ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. (Original work published 1991)