Look it up

I really enjoyed the AP Stylebook section yesterday.  I always begin my year with an AP Stylebook quiz I found online several years ago.  It is much like the activity we did yesterday, where students are given a long passage and must make the corrections on the paper.  There are TONS of these on the web.  A Google search will bring them right to you.

When we begin editing, I make my students work in groups.  A copy of the stylebook is in the center of the group, and they are told to look up anything and everything they might have a question about.  I must admit that I usually don't see this happening.  As they are editing, I walk around and check over their shoulder to make sure they are really providing something of substance.  I spend an hour on editing marks and really encourage my students to use them.

Each story must go through two peer evaluations, and students must go back and show their revisions.  They then give them to me for a quick check through.

My biggest problem is to drive home the importance of the peer evaluation.  They don't want to do it, and they don't want to use the stylebook.

I think this method worked well when we were meeting with our mentors on Tuesday.  We sat around the table and each of us went over the other's stories.  I saw very clearly how everyone in my group benefited from the discussion, and was grateful for the feedback I got.

My group works together to edit our drafts for the Reynolds publication.

Part of the charge I feel leaving this Institute is in going back to a program I can push further than before, and an area I plan to push is in the editing process.  I am going to make Steve's mantra my own:  "Look it up."