Using Highlighters instead of Red Pens

I just returned from a summer meeting put on by ATEG -- the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar -- and hosted by Amy Benjamin. The focus of the meeting was "grammar and meaning" and I think that all of the NCTE-Talk participants would have enjoyed the proceedings. The presenters recognized the importance of developing effective ways to make grammar relevant to students -- and not just in the college classroom. All of the proceedings were highly relevant to the high school, middle school, and even elementary school classrooms.

So if any of you are wondering, the grammarians seem to have put up their red pens -- multi-colored highlighters are the current rage -- and are now concentrating on developing methods to use grammar to improve both writing and reading at all levels. (If you have any grammar questions -- particularly about how to use grammar to improve reading and writing skills -- go to the ATEG Web site (http://www.ateg.org) and join their listserv -- you will be well served!)

Geoff Layton

Could you tell me more about how people are using highlighters? I use various colored pens -- red for simple mistakes in mechanics, spelling, grammar, green for things that aren't actually incorrect but need to be improved, and blue for, as my kids call it, "structural damage." (Structural and organizational problems-the big stuff.) My kids hate it when I grade things holistically-they love the color coding. So how do you use the highlighters? Will it fit in with what I do?

Charla Jane Hylton

Although I wasn't the "highlighter presenter," I'll try to give you a feel for the method.

It's important to recognize that one key to this year's grammar conference was moving beyond using grammar only for editing to getting grammar involved in the beginning of the writing process.

For example, if the lesson plan calls for teaching the use of the dreaded appositive, the student assignment would be to use the particular construction in a piece of writing. Grading it, then, requires only the teacher highlighting the correct usage.
The highlighters can also be used in class to have the students recognize their own use of grammatical constructions to create meaning. Student self-correction was another important learning method that was part of Amy's presentation.

Geoff Layton

I use highlighters and so do my students. I use them when they are getting their teacher edit. I highlight problem spots and give them a Writer's Ink assignment or two to address the problem. The students use them along with the checklists for good writing. We have one for persuasive writing and one for expository writing.

Patricia Edmondson

I have used highlighters frequently in writing workshop. When students peer edit, I specifically target items like clear topic sentences, use of textual evidence to support one's argument, expression of complete thought (as opposed to sentence fragment), etc. Students read each other's papers and highlight.

Another thing I like to do is print out the anchor papers from the state tests and highlight topic sentences, details and evidence used, strong vocabulary and word choice, and areas where evidence is not just present but interpreted, evaluated, analyzed. I highlight each of these items in a different color, so students can see that a 6 for topic development is not only a lengthy paper, but the paragraphs contain significant portions of analysis and evaluation. A paper that earned a 2 or 3 for topic development, on the other hand, is more of a formula paper. Although it is paragraphed and LOOKS like an essay physically, there isn't much substance to the discussion. I stole this idea from my English teacher brother in North Carolina, by the way.

Monica Bomengen

When we have covered a "technique" in writing style through literature, say the use of appositives (which is one of the first things we address in the Anglo-Saxon unit, where we discuss why it was utilized in oral lit), I have students model appositive use in their essays. I will ask they use, say, 2-3 examples of an appositive in their essay. Students are to highlight their appositives before they turn in their essays; that way I know that they know what an appositive is, and how to use it correctly. It didn't work well with me guessing which they considered to be an appositive.

Students who use computers can highlight in a color-coded manner; many do this, supplying an explanation sheet that states the appositives are yellow, the loose sentences are red, and so on. The idea is that after practicing these techniques a time or two, they then need to use several of these techniques as needed to improve their essays in future. I found that when dealing with my school's sophomores and juniors, many needed this kind of modeling and continued "requirement by choice" or they would slip back into the old form of writing. I like it once I can mandate 1-2 types of stylistic devices in an essay, and then require 3 or so "devices of choice" that they can use to improve their drafts. The students are then moving toward developing a richer voice in their essays. I'm no fan of formulaic writing, but I hope after a year of this, students will have a practical idea of what it means when someone says "you need to vary sentence structure, diction, etc."

Carole Ronane