Document Cameras & Projectors: Cool Use #8 “Proofreading Analysis”

PROOFREADING ANALYSIS ————————————————-

CONTENT AREA: ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS OR FOREIGN LANGUAGE

GRADE LEVELS: MIDDLE OR HIGH SCHOOL

Evaluation requires a high level of cognitive processing. The following activity can be used to teach a specific grammar skill, as a review activity, or to reinforce the value of proofreading.

MATERIALS

- Document camera

- Projector

- List of sentences with mistakes to proofread

- Whiteboard or large sheet of paper that students can write on

PROCEDURE

BEFORE

1. Create a list of sentences that have strategically placed mistakes related to an instructional topic, i.e. spelling, punctuation, subject verb agreement, informal word choice, run on sentences, or other target forms. Decide how many mistakes to put in each sentence based on the students’ level. Write or type the sentences in a large, clear font.

DURING

2. Begin by teaching /reviewing a specific skill, such as how to punctuate direct and indirect quotations. Create sample sentences that contain mistakes with the target skill.

3. Using the  document camera, project the sentences onto a white board or a large piece of paper that students can write on.

4. Have students copy the sentences on their papers and work independently or collectively to make corrections.

5. Choose several students to come to the board/paper with the projected sentences.

Have students cross out mistakes and write their corrections directly over the image of the projected sentences.

6. Review student corrections as a class. Discuss target points as necessary, and have all students make proper corrections on their papers.

AFTER

7. Allow students to work independently on other sentences containing the target skill.

8. Assign homework related to target skill.

9. Assess students on target skill.

ADAPTATIONS

- Instead of creating sentences for the exercise, use student sentences from submitted writing. This adaptation generates added interest among students because they feel ownership of their own writing. Re-write or type selected student sentences if necessary for legibility. Omit personal information such as names. Even without identifying information, some students may nonetheless feel comfortable enough to volunteer, “That’s my sentence! I can’t believe I made that mistake!”

- Five sentences work well as bell work to focus students at the beginning of class while completing administrative tasks such as attendance or passing out graded papers.

- As scaffolding, write the number of mistakes in each sentence to the side of the sentence. To make the activity extra challenging, do not indicate to students how many mistakes are present.

- To increase difficulty level, include sentences that do not contain mistakes with sentences that contain mistakes. This is much like evaluation activities found on some college entrance exams.