1st Edition

Real Revision Authors' Strategies to Share with Student Writers

By Kate Messner Copyright 2011

    How do you show students that revision is more than a classroom exercise to please the teacher? Take them into the real world of writing for publication. In Real Revision, award-winning author and teacher Kate Messner demystifies the revision process for teachers and students alike and provides tried-and-true revision strategies, field tested by students' favorite authors. Kate takes us on a behind-the-scenes look at how more than thirty-five authorsincluding Julie Berry, Watt Key, Loree Griffin Burns , Jane Yolen, Lisa Schroeder, Suzanne Selfors, Eric Luper, Danette Haworth, and Kathi Appeltrevise their works, often many times over, before they appear on library and bookstore shelves. Using successful strategies from her own classroom, Kate teaches how authors use research, brainstorming, and planning as revision tools; how they revise to add detail and make characters stronger; and how students can use those same techniques for all kinds of writing in the classroom. Real Revision features dozens of reproducible 'mentor author pages, with quotes from the authors about their revision processes, and includes related classroom-ready activities. For any teacher who wants to produce strong real-world writers, Real Revision will infuse the classroom with new energy as students use mentor authors as models for their own revision and writing.

    Chapter 1: Real Revision: Where Stories Start to Sing; Chapter 2: Creating a Revision-Friendly Classroom; Chapter 3: The Elephant in the Room (And It's Ticking Away the Minutes!); Chapter 4: Back to Brainstorming; Chapter 5: Real Authors Don't Plan ... Or Do They?; Chapter 6: Big-Picture Revision; Chapter 7: Returning to Research; Chapter 8: Magic in the Details; Chapter 9: Are the People Real?; Chapter 10: Whose Voice is It Anyway?; Chapter 11: The Words We Choose; Chapter 12: Cut! Cut! Cut!; Chapter 13: Talking It Out; Chapter 14: Clean Up: The Copyediting Process; Chapter 15: What If the Writing Is Already Good?; Chapter 16: Technology Tools of the Trade; Chapter 17: The Revision Classroom, Revisited

    Biography

    Kate Messner is the award-winning author of more than a dozen current and forthcoming books for young readers. Her first novel, The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z., won the 2010 E.B. White Read-Aloud Medal for Older Readers, while its follow-up, Sugar and Ice (Walker/Bloomsbury, 2010), was a Junior Library Guild selection. Kate is also the author of the popular Marty McGuire chapter book series and Silver Jaguar Society Mysteries with Scholastic. Kate lives on Lake Champlain, USA.

    "This is more than a bunch of lessons on revision--it is a book about creating a classroom where revision is valued. For anyone working to create a more authentic writing workshop, this book is a must-read." - A Year of Reading blog
    "Outstanding! She shows just how she is able to manage this sort of real revision while also managing the realities of teaching in a time of tests and standards." - Educating Alice blog 
    "Messner gives tips on creating a revision-friendly classroom and creating a space safe to talk about student writing, along with many ideas on brainstorming, planning, researching, and copyediting. " - Book News
    "The book is such a gem that you'll definitely want your very own copy." - Ink Rethink blog