When teachers announce a new writing assignment, or a specific writing project, or even a single writing prompt, there are often multiple tasks for students to juggle. The teacher carefully and explicitly goes over every single required component and verifies that students understand the expectations. And yet, when the assignments are turned in, invariably, there are numerous writings that lack all the required components. Ugh! It’s frustrating to then spend more time going over the requirements again and then to have to provide more time for students to finish the task.

Here’s a hands-on strategy that ensures all required tasks are included initially. As you explain the writing assignment, identify a colored highlighter to be affiliated with each specific component. Then, as students include each component in their writing, they highlight their text with the appropriate color.

For example, in a first grade classroom that has researched and written animal reports, the teacher might have the students confirm that their writing contains the required elements:

• Highlight your title and introduction/beginning in pink.
• Highlight sentences about the animal’s habitat in orange.
• Highlight sentences about the animal’s physical description in blue.
• Highlight sentences about the animal’s diet in yellow.
• Highlight conclusion/ending in green.

Students use the highlighting strategy to assess whether they have included all required components for the task. For students of any age, using multi-colored highlighters just makes the revision process more fun. Of course, it must be made clear that if a student can’t highlight a particular skill or component (because it’s not included), then he should revise to add it in. Then he can highlight it.

Here are other ways to use highlighters for self-assessment:

Assess that all 3 required reasons are included in a persuasive essay:

• Highlight your first reason (with examples) in green.
• Highlight your second reason (with examples) in pink.
• Highlight your third reason (with examples) in yellow.

Assess the required elements within research writing:

• Highlight your thesis statement in yellow.
• Highlight each reason (topic sentence) to support your thesis in green.
• Highlight your first source/citation in pink.
• Highlight your second source/citation in orange.
• Highlight your third source/citation in blue.

Assess the required elements within content area writing, like a science lab report:

• Highlight your hypothesis in green.
• Highlight your ordered steps in blue.
• Highlight your conclusion in pink.

Assess the required figurative language elements included within a piece:

• Highlight the 3 required similes in pink.
• Highlight the 2 required metaphors in orange.
• Highlight the 2 required alliteration phrases in blue.

It’s limitless what you could ask students to assess! This strategy not only causes students to self-assess that they are including all required elements, but it also lets the teacher know the students’ level of understanding. By asking students to highlight particular skills or elements, you are confirming they understand what the skill is and that they realize where they have intentionally applied it. It’s a great way to check for mastery.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Conventions, Organization, Writing to a prompt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.