Keep It, Change It, Junk It

How do students become better writers? They write!  It's not rocket science.  If you want your students to improve their writing, provide them with uninterrupted, daily writing experiences.  My students spend at least 30 minutes a day writing. I am proud of that fact.  

One of the skills we are practicing now is producing writing grounded in evidence.  Sound simple?  Absolutely not.  A large majority of todays' students struggle to support their writing with appropriate evidence.  Therefore, students must be explicitly taught how to gather and use evidence in their writing.  Then, they must be taught how to evaluate if they have achieved that.

One day, while my students and I were analyzing our evidence, one of my students suggested we use a strategy one of his past teachers used: "Keep It, Junk It".  This teacher had shared her strategy for writing a summary at a school PD we had earlier this school year, so I was familiar with it.  However it didn't fit our need perfected, so I adapted it. "Keep It, Change It, Junk It" has become a strategy we use to revise our explanatory and opinion writing.

Keep It, Change It, Junk It

An effective explanatory or opinion essay isn't worth a hill of beans without well-chosen relevant evidence.  We must teach our student to produce writing grounded in evidence from literary and informational texts because evidence plays a key role.  I've taught my students to use "Keep It, Change It, Junk It" while revising.

Teach the Strategy

Student need to be explicitly taught new strategies.  "Keep It, Change It, Junk It" needs to be modeled by the teacher numerous times until the student is comfortable implementing it into their own writing toolbox.  I've created a powerpoint that is ready to go to help you teach this effective revision strategy to your students.  It has multiple practices, as well as an exit ticket.  You can access it here at Scribd.  You can access bookmarks here.

The Steps

The steps are easy to follow.  Model this strategy regularly with your students.  Encourage them to use it independently. You might conference with a group of students who would benefit from using this strategy in their writing.  

1. Identify the topic sentence.
2. Read the rest of the paragraph.
3. As you read each sentence decide to keep it, change it, or junk it.
4. If you decide to "Change It", make appropriate revisions to the sentence.  
5. If you decide to "Junk It", remove the sentence from the writing.

This strategy has the power to transform a student's writing. Giving students strategies to use during the revision process helps improve their writing.  This strategy can create independent students who can determine if their writing is grounded in evidence. Get the word out: "Keep It, Change It, Junk It" is a revision strategy we must teach our students!