Color Coding Writing

In our school we implement the Write Tools curriculum school wide. The Write Tools curriculum teaches students all of the parts of a writing piece by color-coding, through the use of highlighters. Green represents the introduction and conclusion. Yellow is used for the "big ideas" or main ideas. Pink is used to represent "tell me mores" or little details.

During writing we always focus on the process, and when we get to our rough draft we highlight to make sure we have all of the important parts. There is no "right formula" of colors as long as you start and end with a green, and have a yellow followed by a few pinks repeated throughout the piece.

I start by modeling an essay as a class. I start with a green (introduction). Then the modeled formula goes as follows: big idea, detail, detail.  (Or yellow, pink, pink as the kids refer to it!)

As the students are building their sentences they also build a Unifix cube tower to represent their story. This hands-on portion really allows the students to double check that they have each of the important elements within their writing. I also have the students tell a partner their story while stacking each color on their tower, all before they even begin writing their rough draft.

The students have really enjoyed using the color-coding during writing. I have seen such an improvement in organization in the few short weeks that we have been putting our highlighters to use!

If you'd like to try out a color coding lesson, grab our Writing Activity at our Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

Cheers,

Abby, Katelyn, & Liesel