How do I teach my kid to edit their writing?
The school buses are rolling, your kids are suddenly having trouble waking up in the morning after a summer of rising inconceivably early, and hope and possibility are squeaky in the air. Yup, it must be the beginning of a new school year. Happy autumn to every parent adjusting to a new school year, whatever that looks like for your family.
June Writers is also making the switch to the new school year. A few weeks ago, we wrapped up production of Level 4: Grammar and Punctuation for Life. The full level is available now to kids who want to think deeply about the peculiar conventions of the English language, from the underlying grammatical structure of English to how to use semicolons for maximum impact on the pathos of your writing. Note that we routinely assign certain practices from Level 4 to students in other levels, including Levels 2 and 3, to help them develop a firmer grasp of commas, verb tenses, and other challenging mechanical concepts.
Now that Level 4 is wrapped, we’ve turned our sights to the production of Level 5: Solo Editing. As with our mechanical instruction, we incorporate editing skills throughout all of our levels. We make editing suggestions on all writing practices, expect your child to submit iterations of most practices after a certain point in Level 2: Arguments in Microcosm, and offer dedicated lessons on editing in all of our levels. So, what’s different about Level 5: Solo Editing? Check out our summary of the stages of children’s intellectual development as writers and critical thinkers and how these stages interact with editing skills below to understand what to expect. Yes, editing is far more than correcting grammar mistakes!
The Developmental Stages of Editing
Intellectual stage: Fundamental mechanics and physical stamina (Level 1)
In this stage, kids are developing the basic physical mechanics of writing, and enough stamina to develop increasingly coherent and sustained written thoughts.
Step #1 - Concept: Writing is often a process. Kids learn that we use writing to communicate what’s in our brains and hearts with other people across space and time in many situations. When the stuff in our brain and heart is complicated, it takes multiple drafts to figure out what we want to say.
Step #2 - Concept: Audience. Kids learn that, in most writing situations, they are not writing only for themselves. Rather, there are specific people or groups of people who will read what you write, and their experiences will affect how they read your writing.
Step #3 - Concept: Deliberate editing. Kids learn that, for the reasons above, it’s useful to have deliberate processes for editing their writing. Otherwise, they might feel overwhelmed or miss opportunities to communicate with their audience. June Writers teaches a three-step process for this development level.
Step #4 - Skill: Cleaning up your text. Kids learn that the first step in our three-step process is cleaning up spacing, capitalization, and other blunt messes in their writing so they can clearly see what they wrote. Kids are learning that their text needs to be readable.
Step #5 - Skill: Clarifying your argument. Kids learn to edit the content of what they’re trying to say to make sure that it is clear and well-organized enough for their audience to understand.
Step #6 - Skill: Aligning your mechanics with conventions. Kids learn to read their text out loud and listen for places where the grammar and mechanics sound wrong, as well as correct spelling, and otherwise clean up the rest of the mechanics of their writing so that they are consistent and aligned with relevant writing conventions.
Intellectual stage: Argument development & organization (Level 2)
In this stage, kids are learning to create and write complex arguments of increasing length and using various forms of organization. We encourage kids to look for connections and complexity within their arguments and to make what they’re arguing clear, but we don’t ask them to question whether the argument is valid or in need of fundamental editing.
Step #7 - Skill: Habitual editing. Kids learn that writing is the fruit of a thought process in which they have to think through the elements of their argument and the connections between their ideas. Kids learn that they almost never write a perfect argument on the first try; they get used to working on multiple drafts of a text.
Step #8 - Skill: Editing the organizational structure of an argument. Kids learn how to take an argument and organize the basic point using different organizational schemes.
Step #9 - Skill: Editing for your audience. Kids learn how to use the core classical tools of rhetoric to dissect the disposition of their likely audience and edit the way they present their argument to make the most effective use of those rhetorical tools.
Intellectual stage: Deep argument analysis (Level 3+)
In this stage, kids learn how to pick apart and improve the fundamental elements of arguments, including arguments written by other people and the arguments kids write themselves.
Step #10 - Skill: Solo deep content editing. Kids learn to clearly see what they are arguing and then pick apart the assumptions, elements, and rhetorical techniques in their claims to note weaknesses, fallacies, and missed opportunities. Kids learn that it’s OK and expected to change their argument based on careful thought, and how to use a process to figure out what they think about a topic. *Note that this is one of the most uncomfortable and difficult tasks that humans can learn to do.*
Step #11 - Skill: Solo deep word editing. Kids learn to edit the mechanics of their writing to make use of style strategies to appeal to their audience and to improve the flow and impact of their style and mechanical choices.
Step #12 - Skill: Soliciting and using editing feedback from other people. Kids learn to solicit and use editing feedback from other people, and to give useful and civil feedback in return. *Note that this can be a highly emotional process for most people of any age, including kids, but is a much easier process to acclimate to if kids are used to the rest of the steps above, particularly Step #10.*
Eager to get your child started on their editing journey? When you join June Writers Academy, you have immediate access to our private membership site, where you’ll find our entire curriculum. As part of our commitment to the importance of editing, our private website has a dedicated page with a collection of all of our editing practices. We will release Level 5 in September 2023.
Join June Writers Academy today to begin your child’s editing journey!
