But it’s messy…

Today, I had the chance to teach a full writing workshop lesson because the teacher I was scheduled to work with had a meeting. As I quickly scanned the unit resource, I realized the lesson was a revision lesson…my favorite. The students in this third grade have just started writing literary essays about short videos. It has been super engaging.

During today’s lesson, I modeled studying an exemplar and a writing checklist as a way to set goals. When it came time for the students to use the checklist to study their own writing, they were quickly able to identify ways they could make their essays better.

“Do I rewrite it?” many students asked when thinking about adding paragraphs to their essays.

“But where do I write that?” they asked when trying to add introductions or details.

I stopped the whole class to share my revision toolkit, something our staff developers introduced to us many years ago (you can read more about that here). I demonstrated how I might use different size post-its depending on the different kinds of revisions I wanted to make. The kids were excited to try for themselves.

After one little guy’s paper was covered in post-its he asked, “Do I rewrite it now?” When I replied “No.” He said, “But it’s messy.”

Looking up at the clock and realizing we only had a few minutes left, I stopped the entire class again. “Stand behind your chairs!” I instructed and then told them that we would be doing a quick gallery walk to celebrate the messes we made today…the messes that showed that we had taken steps to make our writing better. Those messes were worth celebrating!

Published by Jessica Carey

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I'm a mom of three daughters and a literacy coach in CT. I love to learn and share with others.

9 thoughts on “But it’s messy…”

  1. Writing is messy and with your skillful teaching the kids got to experience the joy of the mess! Brilliant move to celebrate with a gallery walk! Kids (and teachers) are lucky to have you!

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  2. This brought me back to my first year teaching writers workshop and the lessons on revision. We called it “surgery” and it became the trend to have the biggest mess. They’d show it off in the share, but I love the interruption to do a quick gallery walk! Fabulous!

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  4. I think this is great. One of the things that has happened with computers is that we don’t see the trail of revisions that a piece has gone through to get to a final product. I think it’s so important to see that there needs to be mess. I used to have a poster that showed Elizabeth Bishop’s rough draft for one of her famous poems. It would be even better to have one from an author that the kids all admire. I think the gallery walk was very wise and probably very impactful.

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  5. Jessica,

    I love everything about this post. It reminds me of how my teaching benefited from the work many teachers did before students arrived in my classroom. “Do I rewrite it now?” is the gold in this post. Love the photos and the process. All of it is perfect! 🤩

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  7. How lucky are the classes you teach in. There is so much learning and celebration in the mess. Yes, the gallery mess walk was the perfect way to end.

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