Glossing: A 21st Century Revision Tool

Bob Alexander, PaTTAN Consultant

No matter how much technology changes our profession there will never be an advance sophisticated enough to replace the writing conference as the most effective formative assessment tool available for gauging students’ writing progress. However, I must offer the concession that there are, and will continue to be,technological advances that will improve the facilitation of a writing conference. Usually, the result of a writing conference entails that someone is going to be writing and rewriting. It then follows that ultimately, someone will be reading and rereading. This is not new news for ELA instructors. However, what is new is this revision technique, “Glossing” that streamlines the revision process for teachers and students, allowing for more effective conference time, writing and revision time, and instructional time in general. The great thing about Glossing is that it uses innovative technology to maximize time.

Glossing: “Puttin’ on the Ritz”

Generally, when a student finishes a writing conference, he/she has received feedback and, more often than not, is charged with revising the draft discussed in conference. With the demands for assessment as well as progress in instruction, finding the time to revisit the draft as many times as is necessary to ensure leaning goals have been achieved may prove challenging. Having students put a “Gloss” on the paper is a quick and easy way for instructors to measure the growth and change of writing over multiple drafts.

The Glossing “How To’s”

To put a “Gloss” on the paper, use the following process:

•  Carefully coach the student through the conference and make sure there is a process in place for notating and/or recording feedback. The students should always leave a conference understanding where they are in the writing process. Transparency is essential to progress.
•  The student utilizes feedback from the conference to revise the specific draft. On the revised draft, the students apply the following process:

1. Either with a highlighter, or with the highlighter function in word, the student highlights the changes made from the previous drafts. In some cases, it may be a line, sentence, or two. In some cases, it may be an entire paragraph. Either way, it is important to highlight or “Gloss” the changes.

2. In the margins of the paper next to the gloss or with an arrow pointing to the change, the student writes why they made the changes. If details were required to better illustrate an example, a student would write just that. I added this detail to strengthen my example. This is important because it requires a student not only to make revisions, but also to use the language of the revision process to illustrate understanding of why the change(s) were made. This understanding is essential for a student to take ownership and move forward in the process, and it is important for a teacher in assessing the next step(s) of the process.

3. Students must turn in the “Glossed” draft along with the previous draft for teachers to review. The teacher can quickly look at the original draft, and then refer to the glossed draft to see the specific highlighted changes. A double check of the students’ margined explanation provides further evidence of the studentsunderstanding of the revision. It is not necessary to read the entire piece of writing, but rather, teachers can focus attention directly to the glossed portions of the piece.

Benefits

Glossing is not the end-all be-all of revision techniques, but it is a great tool for the teacher who uses conferencing in conjunction with other formative assessment techniques. As a regular part of your coaching and instruction, glossing can save you time and engage students in taking an active part in the writing and revising process. Give it a shot, and have students put on the gloss