Revise and Edit

1. Grade 4, Unit 1, Mini-Lesson 15 (15-20
min.)
Writing to Sources

2. OBJECTIVES
I will be able to:
Revise writing, including providing a conclusion.
Edit writing to check for correct spelling, grammar,
and punctuation.
Write complete sentences.

3. Remember, a writer can always improve a first-draft by revising
and editing it. When writers revise, they look for opportunities to
make their writing more appealing to the reader. When writing to
a prompt, they also make sure that they have addressed it
accurately and thoroughly. When writers edit, they correct errors
in capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and spelling. Today I will
model how a writer revises a text to make it more interesting to
the reader. I will also show you how to edit for the proper use of
capitalization in a quotation.
Why is it important to try to improve your essay?

4. Let’s read a section of my original
text, then compare it with a
revised version.

5. ORIGINAL
I can’t sleep. I keep seeing the faces of the last family I
helped tonight. They came in at 10:00 p.m. They’d
been rescued by helicopter from the roof of their
building. They’d been up there for hours waiting to be
found.
The mother and father had dark circles under their
eyes. The three children were frightened and
shivering.

6. Let’s label the columns:
Categories
“Solving Problems”
“The First Town Meeting”

7. Let’s label the rows:
Genre
Topic
Focus
Genre features
Use of graphics
Purpose of the text
(see Sample Modeling TE p. 30)

8. Let’s work together to fill out the
rest of our three-column notes.
Before we start, let’s take a look at
some questions...

9. Revised
I can’t sleep. I keep seeing the faces of the last family I helped
tonight. They dragged themselves into the shelter at 10 p.m.
They ‘d been rescued by helicopter from the roof of their two-
story house. They’d been up there for hours waiting to be found.
The mother’s hair was wet and tangled. The mother and father
had dark circles under their eyes. The three children hung onto
them tightly. Their teeth chattered from the cold.
(see Sample Modeling TE p. 32)

10. Let’s look at a sentence from my essay:
I said, “I can tell you’ve been protecting
Brownie, haven’t you?” and she nodded.
If we were to remove the words “I can
tell” from the question, how would I
need to change the capitalization?

11. I said, “You’ve been protecting
Brownie, haven’t you?” and she
nodded.
What changes were made to the
sentence?

12. Let’s take out our essays. Who
would like to share what they
have written?
Let’s look for opportunities to add
more descriptive details.

13. Now, let’s take this time to add
descriptive details to our essays.
(allow time for students to revise)
Who would like to share any changes
they made to their writing?

14. Let’s keep this lesson in mind as
we continue to revise and edit our
essay.