Missing Words
If there is an occasional word missing, I comment, “I heard you say, ‘on the bus,’ but I don’t see the word ‘the’ on your paper. Can you put it in?”
If there are many words missing, it makes me think the learner may not be ready to write paragraphs on their own. For that day, I make a mental note of what is missing, and I put those words in later, when I’m getting the writing ready for the writing group. The next time I ask learners to write, I shift into the Language Experience Approach for that learner, and I write the story down.
Mainly I teach proofreading by doing it with learners. What follows is a more detailed description of working on proofreading with learners whose reading skills are very basic.
Whether they are working on writing for the writing group or a more basic task, such as writing one-sentence answers to questions, I ask them to read out loud slowly, with expression, and notice the two messages they get: one from their eyes (what they have written); and one from their ears (what they meant to write, which is what they say when they read the work aloud). The skill in proofreading is to notice when these two messages are different. When learners see and hear two different messages, they should change the words on the paper to match their intent.
For some tips on teaching proofreading to basic readers outside the writing group, visit the Proofreading page of "What to Teach Outside the Writing Group".