Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

E X A M P L E   1.12.

Recommendation 1 

(continued)

Using color-coding to evaluate student writing

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Use the following color-coding strategy to evaluate your own paper. Highlight, under-

line, or change the color of the text using the colors below to identify different text 

features. After color-coding, make a list of your reflections based on your color-cod-

ing and discuss any revisions you plan to make to your paper. 

• 

Orange

: plot summary (orienting the reader to the facts)

• 

Green

: supporting detail (examples, evidence, quotes)

• 

Blue

: commentary (deeper thinking, interpretations, conclusions, insights, opinions)