Most texts that students read has been corrected and reviewed by teams of editors. Help students understand the need for following the rules of conventions in their own writing. Once your students have mastered several rules of conventions, play a game that will twist the rules on them and illustrate the importance of conventions and careful editing. Divide the class into partnerships. Give each student a paragraph of text that has been edited correctly. Write three new rules on the board. Each sentence must have a period in the middle of the sentence, have every third word spelled incorrectly, capitalize only words that should not be. Think of your own rules that you know the class will find humorous and create confusing text. After the teams of students edit with the new rules, have them read what as been edited. Discuss how confusing the text has become. This will drive home the point of careful peer editing.
Give your students the opportunity to turn a string of words into sensible text by adding conventions. Divide the class into responsible partnerships. Give each student a photocopy of a paragraph that has been typed with all the punctuation, capitalization and indentation removed. Instruct the peer editing teams to work together to put all the conventions back into the paragraph. Each team of students should present their new, improved version of the text to the class.
When students take on the role of teacher, they cement the concept in their own mind and offer the learner a new perspective. By the fourth grade, some students have the ability to become masters of certain areas of editing such as, spelling, indentation, capitalization and use of punctuation. Meet separately with students who volunteer to become the class expert of one area of conventions. Review the rules with these students for their particular area of expertise. Have them each make a sign advertising their help center. When classmates are in the editing stage of their writing, students may seek help at the appropriate help convention center. Rotate these responsibilities at least three times each year.
While editing, students can effectively help each other correct their text for capitalization using a fun activity, Give each team of editors two bouncy balls. Instruct one partner to read her paragraph aloud while the other partner listens critically. Every time there is a need for a capital letter, each partner must bounce their ball. If they both bounce the ball at the same time, they can feel confident of the need for the capital letter. If only one partner bounces the ball, he must defend his case for the use of the capital letter. Switch roles so that both partners have their text edited for capitalization.