Edit and Restore the Quotes

Here is a warm-up activity that I use to get my students acting like editors. The goal is for students to focus on writing conventions (spelling, basic grammar, punctuation, and capitalization). If I can get my students to constantly edit their writing, and ask clarifying questions about language, then I am on the right track. 

I have discovered that giving five quotes at a time works best (at least for my students). Keeping these activities short seems to maximize engagement. I also like to turn these tasks into competitions. I either group students in teams or have students complete them individually. The first team or person to accurately restore each quote wins! 

*I also love it when students argue with me about writing. If a student can logically explain why they inserted a period or comma to complete a quote–and their answer is correct–I typically give them credit for doing so.

Here is the Presentation format of these activities. It can be fun to display the presentation, and have students choose which set of quotes they want to edit.

Students need a pen and paper to complete each task. I also have a worksheet you can print out.

Here is the Google Doc of these activities:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L5E8nHOCuophv1mU_ORZjd_TFKydU46lrP9WHttxpXg/edit?usp=sharing

Here is a quick video explanation:

One Comment

  1. This is an ingenious way to teach peer editing skills! I LOVE LOVE it! You have an amazing insight on how to draw students into the lesson in an engaging way. I’d pair this with Ed puzzle to make separate versions of these exercises to ensure participation or perhaps Pear Deck so they can edit right on the screen.