Proofreading

I practice proofreading as learners hand their writing in, as I have shown in A Quick Proofread Together. But I also teach proofreading more formally outside the writing group, (i.e., when learners are writing short answers in response to exercises.) 

When we point out learners’ errors, we are doing the proofreading for them, not teaching them to proofread.

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.

Missing or Extra Words

If they have left a word out in their written work, they may automatically put it in as they read it aloud, and may not notice the omission. On the other hand, they may read their work as written, without the missing word. This will confuse them, and they may stop to look at the sentence again.

If they have written a word twice, or put in a word that doesn’t belong, they may skip over the extras without noticing them. On the other hand, they may read everything, exactly as written, and then struggle to make sense of it.

These are difficult errors for learners to spot. In both cases, they need to take their eyes off the page, listen as they say out loud what they want to say, and then adjust the text to match what they hear.

Many beginning writers have difficulty hearing and seeing at the same time. Sometimes it helps if I say the words they meant to write while they tap each word on the paper, until they come to the error and can see what is wrong. Sometimes they say what they want to say while I tap the words on the paper until we find the error.

Teaching Proofreading with the Language Experience Approach (LEA)

One of the advantages of doing language experience is that you put the periods in. They are all correct. If I’m using LEA, I’m glad that I get to teach periods from the start, rather than having to do remedial work with learners who write their own stories and have problems with punctuation. I say that the period is a “stop sign” for the reader, to make sure the reader reads the story the way the writer wrote it.

When I’m writing as the learner talks, I write the periods VERY LARGE (about the same size as the ball of the letter “a”) and make a big production out of doing so.

When I read the story back to the learner, I ask them to circle the periods as I read. This lets me know they’re following as I read and reminds them of the function of the period.

When the learner reads the story back to me, I ask them to tap the desk or stamp their foot at each period.

After we have read it several times, sometimes with me reading and sometimes with the learner reading, I ask them to copy the piece, either by hand or on the computer. When the learner copies the story onto paper or onto the computer, I ask them to check that every period has been copied correctly, and I check and ask for corrections if necessary. (I ask for corrections because this is not a writing task; it is a copying task.)

When the piece gets to writing group, I can hold it up as an example of good work with correct punctuation!