Nurturing Thoughtful Revision Using the Focused Question Card Strategy

Because revising can feel overwhelming even for competent writers, the author designed the Focused Question Card (FQC) strategy to ease students through a critically important aspect of the writing process—revision. The strategy is ideal for writing intended as thoughtful reflection of thinking over time and can be used with students from fourth grade through graduation school. Once students have brainstormed ideas and begun drafting, they are encouraged to formulate a “revising” question to clarify the content of their writing. Next, students read aloud their question to a partner; the listener responds, both verbally and in writing, and roles are reversed. Initial challenges of using this strategy are that students often write editing questions instead of revising ones, that they are reluctant to read their papers aloud to their partners, and that teachers frequently allocate insufficient classroom time to implement the strategy fully. However, once students have “lived” this strategy, they understand how powerful it can be for them as writers.