Empowering Students to Write and Re-Write: Revising A Lead
Students often think that once they've written one draft, they're done! In his book Empowering Students to Write and Re-Write: Standards-Based Strategies for Middle and High School Teachers, Warren E. Combs offers strategies for changing student mindsets so that revision is an integral (and fun!) part of the writing process. Read below for steps to take when revising leads with your students.
Steps for Revising a Lead
1. Ask your students to read through a selected draft carefully from the beginning. Have them mark off the first two or three mental pictures that return to their minds as they read.
2. The students place a large #1 by the first frame. It is their Lead #1. Let students confer with a collaborative partner to choose the part of their drafts that serve as Lead #1. The partners may determine that a draft lacks a lead. If so, a student’s Lead #1 is null, and they move on to writing Lead #2. The partners may also discover that the lead contains several mental pictures. It may include one or more paragraphs. Often, Lead #1 is part or all of a first paragraph.
3. Brainstorm techniques for writing an effective lead for a first draft. Since many students have met different techniques for beginning their first drafts, help them create a list of possibilities. Prompt them with an obvious question like, "Do you think it is possible that you could have started your first draft a different way?" The answer “yes” signals buy-in.
Admit to your students that there are literally dozens of ways to start a draft. Ask them tell you some they know and list them on the board. Here’s a list of techniques for leads from one group of students:
4. Students may choose any of the techniques from the list as long as their writing 1) relates naturally to their draft and 2) truly introduces their selected first draft. Some students choose a fine technique for a lead that was not even on the list.
5. Just beneath the list of techniques for writing leads, write a #2, then ask students to write the beginning of their first drafts in an entirely different way, any way that they choose, as long as it is different from Lead #1. Give them four to six minutes to write five to seven sentences.
If some students sit without writing, help them circle a technique from the list and remind them with, "Get your pencils moving; the best way to think is to move your pencil and leave words on the page." Allow a bit longer than 6 minutes if you see most students using the time productively. Write your lead along with students.
6. Once you have brought the writing of Lead #2 to a close, move on without hesitation. Instruct the students to move their pens/cursor down the page/screen a few lines below Lead #2 and write the words Lead #3. Instruct them to begin writing the introduction to their drafts again, any way they want as long as it is different from the first two leads. Have them go back to the class list and circle a technique they have yet to use, or come up with one on their own.
Give them 5 minutes, or let them continue writing beyond 5 minutes if most of the class remains engaged in writing. Write along with your students, but you may need to prompt students to trust their minds and get their pencils moving.
Click here to see a real example of student leads written during this activity.
Click here to read sample chapters of Empowering Students to Write and Re-Write: Standards-Based Strategies for Middle and High School Teachers by Warren E. Combs.
Steps for Revising a Lead
1. Ask your students to read through a selected draft carefully from the beginning. Have them mark off the first two or three mental pictures that return to their minds as they read.
2. The students place a large #1 by the first frame. It is their Lead #1. Let students confer with a collaborative partner to choose the part of their drafts that serve as Lead #1. The partners may determine that a draft lacks a lead. If so, a student’s Lead #1 is null, and they move on to writing Lead #2. The partners may also discover that the lead contains several mental pictures. It may include one or more paragraphs. Often, Lead #1 is part or all of a first paragraph.
3. Brainstorm techniques for writing an effective lead for a first draft. Since many students have met different techniques for beginning their first drafts, help them create a list of possibilities. Prompt them with an obvious question like, "Do you think it is possible that you could have started your first draft a different way?" The answer “yes” signals buy-in.
Admit to your students that there are literally dozens of ways to start a draft. Ask them tell you some they know and list them on the board. Here’s a list of techniques for leads from one group of students:
- A series of related questionsMake sure that the list comes exclusively from students. At most, prompt them to include techniques they should have met. Students write their version of the list on notebook paper intended for revision.
- A quotation ( like to be or not to be or life is like a box of chocolates)
- A vivid little story (anecdote)
- A joke (clearly related to the main idea)
- A surprising or shocking opinion
- The story of how I came up with my topic or thesis
- Exciting, amazing, startling fact(s) or statistic(s)
- A vivid little mental picture (vignette)
4. Students may choose any of the techniques from the list as long as their writing 1) relates naturally to their draft and 2) truly introduces their selected first draft. Some students choose a fine technique for a lead that was not even on the list.
5. Just beneath the list of techniques for writing leads, write a #2, then ask students to write the beginning of their first drafts in an entirely different way, any way that they choose, as long as it is different from Lead #1. Give them four to six minutes to write five to seven sentences.
If some students sit without writing, help them circle a technique from the list and remind them with, "Get your pencils moving; the best way to think is to move your pencil and leave words on the page." Allow a bit longer than 6 minutes if you see most students using the time productively. Write your lead along with students.
6. Once you have brought the writing of Lead #2 to a close, move on without hesitation. Instruct the students to move their pens/cursor down the page/screen a few lines below Lead #2 and write the words Lead #3. Instruct them to begin writing the introduction to their drafts again, any way they want as long as it is different from the first two leads. Have them go back to the class list and circle a technique they have yet to use, or come up with one on their own.
Give them 5 minutes, or let them continue writing beyond 5 minutes if most of the class remains engaged in writing. Write along with your students, but you may need to prompt students to trust their minds and get their pencils moving.
Click here to see a real example of student leads written during this activity.
Click here to read sample chapters of Empowering Students to Write and Re-Write: Standards-Based Strategies for Middle and High School Teachers by Warren E. Combs.
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