On Friday, October 31, 2008, Mr. John Antonetti gave the keynote for our staff during the district inservice. Following the keynote, K-5 educators had a breakout session with Mr. Antonetti in which he talked about Writing as a Model and Measurement of Thinking. During this breakout, Mr. Antonetti discussed with us a way to teach writing backwards so all children could learn to write.
While Mr. Antonetti discussed several areas, the one thing that I will take back to my classroom is the students marking their work. He suggested no more than four items that students mark. Each item is marked with a different color in highlighter.
So, let’s take the following assignment. Write about your favorite animal. Tell the characteristics of it. Tell why you like it. There are three components. As a second grade teacher I would always stick to the main idea. Each component would have a different color. So, students then go to there work and highlight each component in the designated color. For example, if the students favorite animal as a lion, and favorite animal was supposed to be in green, then the word lion would be highlighted in green. Then, if a student finds a component missing, then he would add it to the bottom of the paper starting with the corresponding color of highlighter. When it is time for me to grade the paper, I can easily see how the student is thinking and grade accordingly.
Just two weeks ago, my students took a benchmark reading test. There were two constructed response questions on the test. About half of my class forgot something in their responses. I was frustrated as I had gone over it during the test, pointing out each component. Yet many students answered only part of the question. So, if I had taught them to use this technique to check their writing with the criteria and mark each with a highlighter, would more of the students answered all parts of the question? I will try it again in 6 weeks after having taught this strategy and see. I am very hopeful.
