Editing and Illustrating

Unit and Lesson Context

• Unit: Exploring Information Texts (Lesson 9 of 10)
• Year Level: Year 1 to Year 3
• Subject: English
• Duration: 60 minutes
• Class Size: 6 students

Australian Curriculum Alignment

• Content Descriptor: AC9E3LY06 - Plan, create, edit and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive written and multimodal texts, using visual features, appropriate form and layout, with ideas grouped in simple paragraphs, mostly correct tense, topic-specific vocabulary and correct spelling of most high-frequency and phonetically regular words.
• Elaboration Highlights:
• Using digital tools and print/dictionaries to edit writing
• Incorporating illustrations to support and clarify meaning
• Sharing texts for peer feedback and improving writing clarity and structure.

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Learning Objectives

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate basic editing skills to improve their own and peers’ writing by focusing on spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure.
2. Add illustrations that clarify and complement their written text.
3. Provide and receive positive, constructive feedback during a peer editing workshop.
4. Understand the purpose of editing in the writing process and how illustrations support meaning in information texts.

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Resources Needed

• Students’ drafts of information texts from previous lessons
• Red pens or pencils for editing
• Plain and coloured paper, pencils, crayons, markers for illustrations
• Visual editing checklists with simple prompts (e.g., capitals, full stops, spaces)
• Dyslexia-friendly printed word banks with common high-frequency and topic-specific words
• Digital devices/tablets (optional) with simple editing software or apps
• Peer feedback sentence starters (e.g., "I like how you...", "One thing you could add...", "Can you check...")

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Lesson Breakdown

1. Introduction and Purpose (10 minutes)

• Briefly explain the importance of editing to make writing clear and interesting. Explain how illustrations can help readers understand the topic better.
• Introduce the peer editing workshop as a friendly way to help each other improve work.
• Use a sample text (projected or on chart paper) and show simple edits (capital letters, spaces, full stops) and how to add a quick illustration to support the text.
• Refer to the editing checklist together to ensure students understand what to look for.

2. Guided Peer Editing Workshop (25 minutes)

• Pair up students (stable pairs or rotated) to share their drafts.
• Provide clear roles for each student: one reads while the other uses the checklist and red pen to suggest improvements.
• Encourage use of constructive language with sentence starters.
• Teacher circulates to support students needing extra help, particularly those with low confidence or dyslexia (using dyslexia-friendly readability tips such as reading aloud, breaking text into chunks, and using dyslexia-friendly word banks).
• Advanced learners can be encouraged to look at vocabulary choice and sentence variety during their feedback.

3. Illustrating Own Work (15 minutes)

• After receiving feedback, students return to their own work and begin adding or improving illustrations that connect with their text.
• Encourage creativity but with a focus on clarity: pictures should help explain or expand ideas in the writing.
• Provide scaffolds, such as labelled diagrams for students needing more support, and allow advanced students to experiment with digital illustrations if devices are available.

4. Sharing and Reflection (10 minutes)

• Invite students to share their revised texts and illustrations with the class or in small groups.
• Discuss what changes made their writing better or easier to understand.
• Highlight the role of feedback and illustration in helping the reader.
• Encourage students to speak about one thing they learned about editing or illustrating today.

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Differentiation Strategies

• For diverse learners: Use dyslexia-friendly fonts, provide oral reading support, chunk editing tasks into small sections, and allow use of learning aids like picture dictionaries or text-to-speech tools.
• For advanced learners: Challenge students to edit for sentence variety, use conjunctions, or add captions to their illustrations. Optionally, invite them to prepare a short oral explanation about their editing choices.
• For students requiring additional support: Provide paired adult or peer support during editing, use pre-prepared checklists with visuals, and allow oral responses or drawing as a form of feedback.

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Assessment

• Formative: Observe students during peer editing for engagement, use of checklist, and quality of feedback given.
• Summative: Review final drafts including edited text and illustrations to assess clear sequence of ideas, appropriate use of punctuation and capitals, and relevance and clarity of illustrations.

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This lesson empowers students to take ownership of their writing by making editing a collaborative, encouraging process paired with creativity in illustrating their work. The integration of peer feedback aligns with the Australian Curriculum’s focus on collaborative learning and digital literacy, while also accommodating diverse learning needs in early years English classrooms.