Opinion Writing ~ Writer’s Check List

Confession time – I love making lists, and I especially love crossing tasks off my lists. So when it came time for me to devise a way to teach my students how to revise and edit their writing, I decided to go with a simple check list approach. Of course. 🙂

Writer’s Workshop Schedule

Let’s recap how I structure a typical 5-day writing week in my classroom:

• Monday – introduce the prompt and complete the agree/disagree analysis chart
• Tuesday – writer’s craft mini-lesson and complete the graphic organizer
• Wednesday – write the rough draft
• Thursday – revise and edit
• Friday – write final copy, reflection, and share/publish

I use the Writer’s Check List on Thursday as a way for my students to guide themselves through their revising and editing. I’m only one person and it’s just not possible for me to individually guide each student through that part of the writing process. However, simply telling students that they should revise and edit their writing is way too vague for 99% of your kiddos.

Students have their check list on one side and their rough draft on the other as they methodically work their way through each element. The check list is on the prompt paper they received on Monday so be sure to have students keep it in a safe place!

Opinion Writing Revising and Editing

Students place their Writer’s Check List next to their rough draft. Starting at the top of the check list, they methodically work their way through the list. Their goal is to find each element in the check list within their rough draft. For example, the first element is a hook – do they have an interesting beginning to their piece? If they can find just such a “writer’s hook”, then they can check it off the list as complete.

Here is an example of a student who is in the process of revising and editing their opinion essay.

Revising Your Writing

When a student can’t find an element on the check list in their rough draft, that’s when they pause to revise or edit their writing. In the photo below, you see one student who made a revision to his writing. While using the check list, he realized he had not included a topic sentence with his opinion clearly stated. For me, that was a “sorry, not sorry” moment because I was sorry he had left out such an important sentence, but I was also not sorry for the wonderful teaching moment that came as a result of the check list.

While using the check list, a student realized he had not included the all-important topic sentence. Here you can see how he revised his rough draft and made sure to clearly state his opinion.

Scoring Guide Aligned

The Writer’s Check List is aligned to our scoring guide, which helps students focus on meeting the standards set for students with opinion writing. Once they have gone through the check list, it’s time for some peer review. I’ll share more about how we do that part of the revising/editing process tomorrow. Happy teaching! ~ Sally

• Free Opinion Writing Prompt – Smartphones for Kids