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Inside Writing Communities, Grades 3-5
Program 14: Modeling Revision
Nicole Outsen guides her fifth-grade students through revising an introduction to a newspaper article. She uses her own research notes to model the thinking and decision-making that writers do.
Watch the 30-minute video “Modeling Revision.” Apply what you learned in “Learning to Revise” as you watch the extended video of a classroom example.
Answer the questions that follow each segment, jotting down your answers in your notebook or using them as discussion starters.
Nicole Outsen’s Class
Nicole Outsen and her fifth-grade students are writing newspaper articles as part of a multigenre project on the Lewis and Clark expedition. After sharing an introduction to an article she’s writing and getting feedback from the students, Nicole revises the introduction in front of the class.
- Nicole purposely has written an introduction that needs lots of revision. How would the lesson be different if she had used an introduction that was authentic rather than one written with the lesson in mind?
- How does this activity help build trust in Nicole’s classroom? What specific evidence do you see that her students feel safe?
- What do the students learn by listening to Nicole talk about her revision as she writes? What do they learn about newspaper articles from this exercise? About writing from research notes?
- How could you offer opportunities for your students to see you revise as you write?
