Paragraph editing is a skill that is needed if you are going to be successful in business; both the traditional brick and mortar business, as well as online business. Proofing your own work is notoriously difficult, so it’s good to get some practice in using the work of others. this is just what Evan-Moor’s Daily Paragraph Editing for Grade 6 does.
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Evan-Moor kindly provided us with the Teacher’s Edition PDF version of this product for our review. Daily Paragraph Editing is available in both a physical book, as well as an enhanced E-book, which is what we are using. It also comes in versions for grades 2 to 8, which means you can use it for many years and grow with it.
What’s Included
There are 36 weeks of lessons included in this book, divided into 5 lessons a week. Each week a new story is divided into 4 sections for daily paragraph editing where students use proofreading marks to correct the text. They will be looking for such things as
- Capitalisation
- Punctuation
- Spelling errors
- Language usage (ex. subject-noun agreement)
- Underlining book titles
The fifth lesson each week is a writing prompt. The student will use the prompt to write a couple of paragraphs of their own before editing their work. They will learn that it’s easier to spot the errors in someone else’s work than their own and hopefully become aware that they need to pay particular attention to their work before handing it in.
This book doesn’t teach grammar usage, but is a lovely compliment to use alongside your regular grammar program of choice.
In addition to the lessons themselves, there are:
- Introduction to Daily Paragraph Editing
- Skills Scope and Sequence
- How to Use Daily Paragraph Editing (for teachers)
- Assessment Rubric for Evaluating Friday Paragraph Writing
- Answer Key
- Proofreading Marks
- Editing checklist (for students)
- Language Handbook: Basic Rules for Writing and Editing (a great student resource to keep for reference)
The Teacher’s Edition includes all of the above, including reproducible student pages. If you prefer bound student books, they are also available, but the Teacher’s Edition has the answer key and additional information, so it is preferable to get that.
How We Use Daily Paragraph Editing
Tristan worked on a lesson a day. They don’t take long, even for those who aren’t keen on pen and paper work, which meant it was easy to fit into our schedule and Tristan could mark off a lesson as complete in 10-20 minutes, which he loved.
There is plenty of scope for lots of guided work with these, as well as more independent study, if that’s how your child works best. With the Editing Checklist and Language Handbook, this is possible, and is how Tristan has been working.
It took Tristan a little while to get used to paragraph editing as it was a new experience for him. He did struggle and was missing many errors. Once he began to pay more attention to the side panel that gives some specific hints of what to look out for, and he made consistent use of the Editing Checklist, then he improved.
There were some errors that we became aware of that he was not yet familiar with, so then we would have a mini-lesson and he went forward to the next day’s work with more knowledge. He was very good at seeing these missed errors as opportunities for learning rather than becoming frustrated with them.
Tristan finds it fun to use the official proofreading marks along with a red pen to find the errors. Perhaps he feels more in control and like he’s the teacher for a change. I didn’t learn any of the proofreading marks at all until university, and some of these are still new to me, so this means Tristan is a step ahead by learning the right way to do things from the beginning.
Tristan isn’t a big fan of writing but I haven’t heard him complain aloud about it on Fridays when it’s time for him to write a paragraph or two. This paragraph is based on information that was learned in the story he’d been correcting earlier in the week, so that’s a nice way to round off the week.
What We Like About Daily Paragraph Editing
- Tristan likes the brevity of the lessons, and I like that he enjoys them.
- We both like that he’s learning the ‘proper’ way to use proofreading marks, which will come in handy during his education.
- I like the array of errors that must be searched out and found in the texts and how they aren’t always immediately obvious, but point to the importance of grammar in everyday usage (poor grammar on social media is one of my big pet peeves, but also shows a lack of care and/or education).
- Interesting and informative stories are used so children are learning additional information at the same time as spotting errors.
- Putting skills to work with weekly writing assignments.
Final Thoughts
Daily Paragraph Editing, Grade 6, has proved to be a useful addition to weekly lessons for Tristan (just as Evan-Moor’s Daily Higher-Order Thinking is for Kallista). He’s learning about real world editing (he knows I occasionally do editing of work for others in my virtual assistant capacity), and he’s already applying some of his skills in other areas outside of this class. The time commitment is short, and this pleases both of us.
Tristan, by his own choice (and happily supported by me), will continue to work his way through these lessons to improve his editing, and through this, his own writing skills as he becomes more aware of errors that frequently occur.
Where To Purchase Daily Paragraph Editing
Daily Paragraph Editing, Grade 6, as well as the entire range for grades 2-8 can be found on:
If you’d like to know more or would like to follow Evan-Moor, you can connect with them through their website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.
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