Writer's Workshop: Reread, Reread, Reread

How many times do students turn in writing in your writing workshop that makes absolutely no sense?  You hand it back to the student and tell them to reread it and they kind of look at you funny.

We're supposed to actually reread what we write?

Before the teacher tells us what's wrong and what needs to be changed?

Ughhh....

My teammate, Jamie, shared this great idea with me that I wanted to pass on so I'm linking up with Ideas by Jivey's Workshop Wednesday today to share.

I love to use whisper phones when my kiddos read because this helps them hear themselves read.  However, I only have six whisper phones in my room and with 20 kids, it's hard to have one available whenever it is needed.

So allow me to introduce the latest and greatest invention to help you hear yourself read....Your index fingers!

Do you know how it is when you have a cold and your ears are all stuffed up and you can hear yourself?  If kids use their index fingers to plug their ears, they can instantly hear themselves without having to talk louder than a whisper.

We used this strategy last week when we were working on rereading our writing....About every 5 minutes I would say "Stop and reread" and the students would plug their ears and whisper read what they had just written, making any changes as they "heard" their writing in a new way.

Amazing...and so simple!