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Using Every-Day Edits for Test Prep


Education World's Best Idea Ever feature highlights a favorite teacher-tested idea designed to help you teach a lesson, manage a classroom, communicate with parents, impress colleagues and administrators—and amaze them all with your energy and creativity!

I use Education World's Every-Day Edits as a bell-ringer activity. Students grab the brightly colored half sheet as they walk in, immediately sit down, and complete the day's edit as I take attendance.

The really fun part comes next! I keep on my desk a jar of popsicle sticks, with a student's name on each stick. When the morning's bell-ringer is completed, I draw a popsicle stick from the jar. The student whose name is on the stick has to identify one error and provide the correction. If that student is correct, I draw another stick and ask the second student to identify another error and so on. Each everyday edit contains at least ten errors. If students identify ten errors in ten tries, they earn a letter toward spelling "EDIT PARTY!" If one of the ten students doesn't have an answer or gives the wrong correction, the class doesn't get a letter on that day. When "EDIT PARTY!" is spelled out, students earn an edit party consisting of popcorn, apple juice, and free time. The edits on Everyday Edit are pretty easy for sixth graders, and yet they only earned five edit parties last year.

Here's the big carrot though: My students scored very, very well on the state test in language conventions. I believe it was because I gave them so many mini-lessons on grammar as we did the edits. The info on the edits also is fun and entertaining.

Submitted by: Susan R.

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