Every-Day Edits -- printed copy for each students, transparency copy
for use as a class
Lesson Plan
Too often we teach skills in isolation. We teach and test, and then move on to the next skill. We assume that students retain skills once they have mastered them for the test. But the key to true mastery lies in frequent reinforcement of skills. Frequent reinforcement helps ensure true mastery over time, improves students' writing skills, and is one sure way to boost test scores.
One way to ensure frequent reinforcement of basic language skills is to set aside 10 minutes each day to practice those
skills. This is simple to do with Education World's Every-Day Edits feature.
In this daily activity, students read a timely passage and find ten errors of capitalization, punctuation, or grammar
in that passage. Every-Day Edits make a nice bell-ringer activity for students to do on their own. But you might also
use it as a whole-class activity each day as students return from morning recess or after lunch. The activity offers
and excellent way to help settle down and focus students. And as a bonus -- the timely passages, arranged by month,
provide interesting information that builds cultural literacy.
A Daily Procedure
The Every-Day Edits can be used in many ways. Here is one possible procedure that you might use that turns the activity into a game that students will enjoy and from which they will learn a great deal.
Copy the day's Every-Day Edits activity onto a transparency. As students
return from recess or lunch, hand them a copy of the day's passage. Immediately, they settle into finding the ten
errors of capitalization, punctuation, or grammar included in that passage.
Give students 5 minutes or so to find and mark ten errors in the day's passage.
Divide the class into two teams or more. The teams you establish in this way will be "permanent teams" (for at least a month).
Start with one team and ask a student on that team to identify an error in the passage. If the student correctly identifies one of the ten errors in that day's passage, a point is awarded to the team. Then it is the other team's chance to identify an error. Go back and forth until all ten errors have been found in that day's passage. (Students might even find additional errors in a daily passage. Give credit if they offer an idea that would improve the passage.)
Keep score over the course of a month and award a special treat (an ice pop, a homework-free-night coupon, or something else that students will value) to members of the team that has the highest score at the end of the month. You might change the makeup of teams for the following month.
Feel free to adapt this activity in any way you see fit. For example, one day a week you might make the Every-Day Edit activity an individual (not team) activity. On that day students will do the activity on their own. How many students correctly identify at least 9 of the 10 errors in that day's passage? You might award the teams a point for each student who achieves a score of 9 or 10. (Note: Doing this once a week will enable you to measure individual growth and identify students who might need additional help.)
Assessment
As a result of this reinforcement of language skills you should see improved student performance over time; the use of this activity should result in improved achievement test scores too.
Daily Language Practice Builds Skills, Test Scores