The Editing Game

By Michelle Tucker ©2010 Michelle Tucker

     Kids like games, so why not make the editing of their writing, a game also?!  I have to thank Sandi Smythe for giving me this idea, although I have tailored the editing game to either my teaching style or students' needs over the years.  The editing game motivates students to proof read their own writing.

     Here's an explanation of the editing game. 
1) Put the "red pen" in the hands of your child.  You pick a different color pen.  You set up a score sheet, simply with your initials at the top in each color pen you are using. 
2) The rules of the game are this, after the child has read a sentence of his/her writing aloud, it is fair game.
3) The first one to catch a convention error, whether it is an error in: spelling, punctuation, grammar, capitalization, etc., gets the point.  The point is recorded in that person's column.  The person who caught the mistake, corrects it with his/her color pen on the paper.  After a while, the child wants to catch the mistakes and will carefully look for his errors.  This is what you as a parent or teacher want. 
4) So, at the end of the child reading his paper and playing the editing game, the player with the most points wins. 
5) If the child wins, I give him/her a prize.  If I win, the child owes me a chore.  The child has to do something, like dust my room.  Sometimes, I have given a candy bar and when I win, the child gave me a candy bar.  Whatever reward you decide, as long as it motivates.

     I did come across some glitches.  For instance, some students would make more mistakes, just to get more points.  In a class room, I would find a couple students doing this.  Often my lecture about doing one's best didn't change them.  So, I gave them the red pen, and made them correct what they knew, before they sat down to play the editing game with me.  Then, if they still had errors (hoping to cash in on them), during the editing game, I would quickly fix them before the student got a chance.  I would do this if I knew the child was being dishonest.  Sometimes I would say, "You get the first one, but from then on, you fix it for free.  I don't want to reward you for making the same mistake again and again."  Afterwards, I would have a talk with them about the writing process and how proof reading is supposed to be after the student seriously tried to write his/her best.  A second glitch, was when a student didn't know the grammar rules and what was right or wrong.  You can only hold your child accountable for what he or she has been taught.  So, if your child has been taught basic capitalization and the punctuation for the four sentence types, plus words that he/she used, which he/she should spell right, then just proof read for these.  If you have a large classroom, it will be difficult to sit one on one with each student to play the editing game; however, an aide, or resource staff member could take a struggling student one-on-one.

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