revising and editing

Are you sometimes convinced that your students spend more time erasing than writing?  If so, I have a simple solution for you.  First, understand the reason for the erasures.  The usual explanations for this are: 1) Some students want their first attempts at writing to be their final attempts!  They hate having to write pieces over again (...and shouldn't have to do that any more than necessary!).  Also, 2) A few clever kids erase a lot so that they don't have to write.  They're likely to be the same ones who sharpen their pencils endlessly or thumb through the dictionary with abandon (if you allow it).  Here are two solutions to the problem--all too simple.  Offer pens to your students to use during their drafting.  Even the little ones love to experiment with pens.  Of course, they can't erase with pens and must learn to cross out and write above.  Another solution is to furnish lots of pencils for writing---pencils without erasers!!  Just pop those little tips off so that no one is tempted to erase.  Problem easily solved!