Description

Students will share their editorials with their groups and mark which parts help prove their point more or fit best with the original stance. Then students will have time to revise their editorials.

Objectives

• Students will evaluate and edit each other’s work, offering suggestions for revision.
• Students will revise their own work.

Common Core State Standards

Length

50 minutes

Resources

Handout: Group feedback for editorials 

Lesson step-by-step

Day 1

1. Groups edit editorials — 30 minutes

Distribute group feedback for editorials chart. Ask students to meet into their editorial teams from the beginning of the assignment. To begin, one person in the group will reading his/her editorial to the group. The group will discuss the editorial and answer questions together using the worksheet. The person to the left of the editorial writer will record the group’s feedback, then giving the sheet to the writer when done. Groups should first make sure the editorials fit the guidelines provided — that the editorial has a focused opinion in the beginning, that there are reasons for the opinion and facts to support those and that the editorial has a formal, objective tone. Then the group can discuss the strengths of the editorial and areas that can be improved (if a group member has to stop and have the writer reread a part, that may be a sign something can be worded better.) Group members should also tell the writer if there are parts of the editorial that are hard to agree with or don’t fit the idea of their newspaper’s opinion.

When students are done reading their editorials to the group, they can have group members review them on paper or screen for mechanical errors and editing.

2. Revise papers — 20 minutes

Provide time for students to revise their editorials. Announce that they need to bring a finished copy tomorrow and under the title type: “The newspaper staff voted ____ to ____ in favor of this editorial.” In the next class, they will vote on editorials like many real newspaper staffs do, and students will vote on whether they agree with the editorial (not the writing style, but the opinions expressed).

Day 2

Sharing editorials — This will probably take the entire class period

Have students take turns reading their editorials out loud to the class (this isn’t a speech assessment, so it may not be bad to allow students to read for each other if some students prefer not to read aloud.) When each student is done reading, ask someone else to summarize the main idea. Allow time for discussion if necessary before they vote. The writer may want to make comments in the margins if he/she would make changes based on the discussion (keep comments brief). Then have the class vote and count the number for or against the editorial. Report the number to the class, and have the writer mark it on his/her paper. Explain that most newspaper staffs are diverse enough that most editorials will be controversial, so having some “no” votes is usually a sign of an issue people have different views on rather than good or bad writing.

If your school has access to technology that would make it easier for students to read editorials or to vote on them (such as Google Docs and Forms), the process may be simpler and faster.