Publishing small moments can be a daunting task for young writers. Most students will brainstorm their writing topics, plan out their story, and write out a draft. Then they will say, “I’M DONE!”
However, there is still more to be done. Here are the final steps of publishing small moments for young writers.
Revising Small Moments
Revising is an important part of writing. This is when students reread their writing to make sure it makes sense. Revising gives students an opportunity to reflect on their writing and make it even better.
Some writers may notice that some of their writing doesn’t look right. It is crucial to let your students know that they should not focus on fixing mistakes at this time. They will have the chance to make corrections during the editing stage.
I like to model five ways that students can revise their writing. Using exemplars (I call them teacher examples) I model adding words, adding details, removing words, changing words, and asking a peer to help them revise their writing. Though I encourage them to use as many ways as possible, I am ok with them using at least three ways.
Do you need a supplemental video to teach your students how to revise their small moments? Watch Revising Your Small Moment on YouTube, and share the video with your students!
Once your students are comfortable with their revisions, it is time to move on to editing their writing.
Editing Small Moments
During the editing stage, young writers make their stories better by fixing all the mistakes they made in their first drafts. This helps readers understand the story our students are trying to share.
Students can check their spelling to make sure they have spelled their sight words correctly and used everything they know about spelling to help the spell unknown words. Students will also check their punctuation, capitalization, spacing, and letter formation to make sure their writing ‘looks right’.
When teaching students how to edit, it is important to have them use a checklist to keep track of what their writing goals should be. I have my students use an editing checklist for themselves and a separate one for their peers.
Do you need a supplemental video to teach your students how to edit their small moments? Watch Editing Your Small Moment on YouTube, and share the video with your students!
At this point, your students should have revised and edited their drafts. Now, for the moment they have been waiting for… It is time to prepare their writing for publishing!
Publishing Small Moments for Young Writers
At his stage, young writers should be comfortable with the way their small moments sound and look. This includes matching their sketches to their words and making sure their writing looks neat. If not, this is the time to go back to the revision part of the process to see if there is anything they want to add, change, or remove from their story.
I then gather their writing pieces and publish them through Student Treasures™. This site offers students the opportunity to become published writers just like the authors they have grown to admire. These beautiful keepsakes are also great to share exemplars with future writers throughout your teaching career!
Publishing small moments for young writers is an exciting time and should be celebrated. It is important to teach students to have pride in their finished products. Our published book from Student Treasures™ then becomes part of our classroom library so that students reread their writing and become an inspiration for their next story.
The amazing part of this process is that students have the opportunity to order a copy of their published small moments for themselves! These books can be given as gifts to family members to showcase a young writer’s work, or simply shared amongst friends and family. If you are interested in publishing your students’ small moment stories, you can get started with the program here.
Do you need a supplemental video to teach your students how to publish their small moments? Watch Publishing Your Small Moment on YouTube, and share the video with your students!
Throwing a Publishing Party
Last but not least, I host a publishing party for my students to share their writing with family members or peers from other classes. This is a great opportunity to build confidence in a young writer’s abilities and set them up to write even better stories for the next writing unit.
I hope you found this small moment writing process helpful. I hope it inspires you to help young writers find the magic in small moment writing.
For easier access, I have put all the suggested YouTube videos into a single playlist.
Recommended Posts
If you missed my last article, read Teaching Small Moment Writing in K-2 to find out how I teach small moment writing with my students.
Also, consider filling your class library with small moment mentor texts to give your students examples of how they can write their own small moment stories. For a few of my recommended favorites, check out Best Mentor Texts for Teaching Small Moments.