Fourth grade teachers around the state of Texas are rejoicing because the STAAR Writing Test is NO MORE! Although, we can’t completely forget about all elements of that test. Now, revise and edit strategies will need to be used by 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students.
The 2022 STAAR Reading Test will now include revise and edit questions for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade.
As a 4th grade teacher for 12 years, I have had the opportunity to try numerous revise and edit strategies. I want to share that knowledge with all Texas 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers.
If you’re looking for a hands-on way to teach your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students revise and edit strategies, this resource will help: STAAR Revising and Editing Strategies
Editing Questions
An editing question will ask for you to make a small change to a sentence. Changes can include errors in capitalization, punctuation, spelling, or word choice. You can go over these editing strategies with my Digital Revise and Edit Lessons resource.
These strategies will help with editing questions:
Focus on the individual sentence
It is more important to look at individual sentences on editing questions rather than the entire passage.
This is most important for your struggling readers. In the past, students with accommodations did not get any part of the editing section read to them. They had to read the entire passage and questions and answer choices on their own. Therefore, focusing on individual sentences is less overwhelming.
Have students underline or highlight the sentence in the question, so they can focus solely on that sentence.
Grammar Rules
Editing questions will cover the grammar rules you have already taught. Therefore, it is important to introduce and review grammar rules throughout the school year.
Sign up for my FREE Grammar Pacing Guide to access the best order to teach grammar skills in your grade level.
Students should reference the grammar rules in their writing notebook when doing practice editing questions. This will reinforce the grammar rules, so they can be more successful on the test.
Dictionary
Using the dictionary will help on many editing questions. Of course, there are misspelled words, and students can easily identify them using either the paper or online dictionary.
Additionally, students can use the dictionary to check past tense verbs or irregular plural nouns. Also, it is difficult for students to remember all the spelling rules, so knowing how to look up a base word will help them find the spelling of the plural.
Revising Questions
A revising question will ask for you to add, delete or change a word or sentence in a specific paragraph.
There are several strategies that will help you when answering a revising question
Read the entire passage
Since you will be adding or deleting sentences, you have to know what the passage is about. After reading the passage, have students identify the main idea.
In the past, students who received oral administration as an accommodation, got the whole revising passage read to them AND the question and answer choices. This will be helpful for your struggling readers.
Main Idea or Detail
When looking at a revising question that is asking to add a sentence, one thing should be determined first. Do they want me to add a main idea or detail sentence? That way you know what you are looking for when plugging in the answer choices.
A main idea sentence would an introduction or concluding sentence, so you have to think about the main idea of the passage or paragraph.
A detail sentence would be added in addition to what is already in the paragraph. Therefore, you have to think about what sentence works best with the sentences around it when reading the whole paragraph.
Plug It In
A question asking to change or add a word or sentence will require you to plug in the answer choices.
When plugging in sentences, always read the sentence before and after the sentence you are plugging in. Be aware that sometimes the sentence will repeat what is already mentioned in the paragraph.
If the question wants you to add a new sentence to the second paragraph, make sure you plug the sentence in each place. For instance, A. after sentence 10. The student will read sentence 10, then the new sentence, then sentence 11
It is time consuming to use this strategy with all four answer choices, but will make a difference in finding the correct one.
This strategy also applies when asked to insert a transition word. It is also important to read the sentence before and after, in order to make sure the transition word helps the paragraph flow.
Look at the Choices Carefully
There will be very small differences when asked to revise a sentence. It is imperative to look at the choice carefully, identify the differences, and remember grammar rules. This will help you pick the correct choice.
More revising strategies can be found on this blog post: Teaching STAAR Revising Strategies
Most importantly, the more you practice revise and edit strategies, the better you will get at them. I have several resources in my Teachers Pay Teachers store that are excellent practice materials for 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students.
