Teaching great proofreading and editing skills

Overview

To make improvements to their work, children need to be able to evaluate their word choices and sentence construction and the impact these have on the reader, but they also need to proofread and check for errors in spelling and punctuation. And we see how it can be helpful to separate out these processes when teaching. Proofreading and editing feature significantly on the curriculum, so we take the time to break down what is specified for each year group. There are suggestions too on what can be done to support children to proofread accurately, such as offering checklists that draw attention to specific punctuation (commas, dashes and brackets, etc) or supplying a viewfinder that pupils can use to scan their work. Children can be given the opportunity to edit their work independently by writing for the same purpose across different text types. For example, we consider how a heavily modelled piece of persuasive writing in the form of a letter can lead to a persuasive newspaper article that pupils write and edit independently. Looking in more detail at checklists, we are shown some examples of what might be provided to each year group to match what’s on the national curriculum, and we end with pictures of pupils’ work where this process has been applied.

Course Materials:

Presentation Slides - Download

.pptx file

Training Handout - Download

.pdf file

Course Creator

An experienced primary school teacher and senior leader, Shareen currently runs a successful education consultancy in London. Working with LAs across the country, she has an extensive track record of raising standards in English. Writing and advising for Letts, HarperCollins, Rising Stars and OUP, Shareen also acts as a subject expert on reading and grammar for the DfE.

About the Course

These sessions focus on deepening and developing subject knowledge in primary English. Key areas (e.g. grammar, writing and spelling) are explored in depth, so that teachers can feel confident when delivering them in the classroom, and there are plenty of practical ideas to try too.