Abstract: Editing is a powerful tool for writers, but are our methods of teaching it really demonstrating that power for young adolescents? The author, frustrated with students’ inability to edit, blames his own approach and, beginning with a grocery store epiphany, works to develop a more effective system. Elements of his successful approach include time to celebrate what is right with writing and the incorporation of effective, research-based instruction. Anderson offers a front row seat to “the express-lane edit” in action in his sixth-grade classroom.

Have you ever noticed students get it right sometimes and not others? They aren’t thinking – they’re rolling the dice. That’s not what I want, but how do I help students think?