Editing checklists seem like a great way to get our students to self-edit. But my experience has been one that looks like this …

Your students probably never do this, but mine seem to just check off each task without actually doing it. Therefore, this makes for an unproductive writing conference. More importantly, students never learn to edit their own work.

To eliminate the “checking frenzy”, I started requiring the students to provide evidence of their editing. This not only improved students’ self-editing skills but obviously their writing! I also love the way this implements grammar into the students’ writing versus working on grammar in isolation.

This checklist fits perfectly with Step Up to Writing and The Six Traits. This particular example was used with 6th through 8th grades.  Email me if you are interested in a copy or want to discuss how to modify this for your classroom.  Coming soon to the interactive tab, examples of student notebook pages used with editing and grammar!