The basic idea of the sentence card technique is to divide a rough draft into sentences, with one sentence on each card. Demonstrate the process of revising by adding, removing and rearranging sentences to improve the structure and content of the paragraph. Demonstrate the process of editing by selecting a single card at a time and examining it for style, grammar and spelling errors. Students can then practice revision and editing by creating a set of sentence cards for their own paragraphs. For advanced writers, you can use one paragraph per card for a similar demonstration.
To set up the demonstration, begin by composing a rough draft and polished draft of a sample paragraph. The rough draft should contain an irrelevant sentence, some missing information, an illogical progression of ideas and a handful of grammar and spelling errors. Write out each sentence of the rough draft on a sheet of paper large enough for the students to read from their seats. In advance or during the demonstration, write an additional sentence card that will add the missing information. Put loops of masking tape on the back of each card and hang them on the board.
The revision process involves refining the structure and content of the writing. After students have read the sentence cards up front, teach them that revising has to do with moving the cards around to improve the whole paragraph, not fixing individual cards. Interact with the students to help them discover the best logical order for the sentences, moving the cards around to implement their revisions. Remove the irrelevant sentence and tear its card in half. Add a sentence card to fill in missing information or logical steps.
Once the cards are in the right order, tell the students that it is time to start editing and that editing has to do with fixing the little errors on one card at a time. Work with the students to edit one card at a time by correcting spelling, style and grammar. Point out that if you had edited before revising, you would have wasted time editing the card that got torn up and failed to edit the card that got added during revision. Let students practice with their own paragraphs by writing existing rough drafts out onto index cards.