I tried Rebekah O’Dell’s Flash Revision and loved the results. Later in the unit, one of my students asked, “Why don’t you help me with a timer while proofreading too? It’s harder than revision.”
He is right. Proofreading is harder and more tedious than most of the rest of the writing process. After a few iterations, this is where my Flash Proofreading lesson stands, and I’d like to share it with you:
- Spend 30-60 seconds bringing yourself to equilibrium and let go of anxieties related to mistakes. Tell yourself: “Everyone makes mistakes. There probably are mistakes in my draft. I’ll find them, fix them and learn from them.” I needed to add this step given how many of my students flinch and retreat in embarrassment and shame after they spot even a single mistake. This has a lot to do with their previous learning experiences. This step may be helpful in certain contexts more than others.
- Refer to your proofreading list. Page 144 of the third edition of Nancie Atwell’s In the Middle is the best resource on how to teach students to create and maintain a proofreading list.
- We’ll spend the next 10 minutes proofreading. I will let you know at the end of every 2 minutes. Sometimes, students don’t want my interruptions. Sometimes, students use my interruptions to move to the next item on the list. Yes, this means they don’t complete proofreading for certain items. Anything more than 10 minutes of proofreading doesn’t feel like a “flash” to my students.
- When the luxury of time is available, I go over their drafts and give each a score of the number of mistakes caught / total number of mistakes. This is extremely effective in building their confidence in proofreading and underlining its importance.
- When I’m sure students’ proofreading abilities have improved, I also get them to compare their scores to their scores from the last time we did this activity. There’s no better motivation than knowing that you’re getting better. I am particular about not doing it when I know this time’s scores are lower than last time’s. It could be an exceptional situation: illness, distraction, or fatigue. Even otherwise, I have learned the hard way that regression doesn’t lead to motivation. Possibly the only time this is justified is when you are convinced the students didn’t care at all. In my experience, this is extremely rare.
With many thanks to Rebekah O’Dell, I invite you to share what you do to make proofreading less overwhelming and boring for students. Leave a comment below or find me on Twitter @teachingtenets.
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– Aishwarya
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