¶ … Lesson for Teaching COPS

Pre-skills: The major pre-skill necessary for COPS editing is the development of clear handwriting, and a basic knowledge of writing skills (especially recognizing proper nouns for purposes of capitalization and learning the correct usage of basic punctuation). A rudimentary understanding of spelling mechanics is also necessary to avoid student discouragement in the editing process.

Teaching COPS: First, a series of no less than three sentences should be written on the board, with intentional mistakes in punctuation, spelling, and capitalization, and where possible in lineation and word/letter spacing. Using the COPS strategy as a class, letting each student speak only once until all others have had a turn, the instructor should call on individual students to point out one mistake in the paragraph; first noting capitalization errors, then looking for "overall" (spacing, clarity, and handwriting issues) mistakes, then punctuation irregularities, and finally spelling mistakes.

If the students do not collectively recognize every mistake, the instructor should then go back and point out what was missed, ensuring that the students have a firm grasp of the necessary pre-skills before going deeper into the technique. Once the sentences on the board are correct, a handout can be distributed to the students with two or three longer intentionally incorrect paragraphs on it, with the sentences spaced out to allow room for easy correction. Again as a class, each of the paragraphs should be gone through using the COPS strategy, with each student marking the corrections on their own paper. Finally, students should be assigned a short writing topic, and should then trade papers and apply the COPS editing strategy to their peers papers.

Reflection: I believe that this lesson plan will allow the instructor to accurately assess the student's capabilities before moving to individual work. In addition the group work will help those struggling with the concept while allowing those with more mastery to demonstrate their skills, enhancing esteem and enjoyment of the learning process for all.