WHY HIGHLIGHTING IS HELPFUL

Our brains tend to filter out "things that are seemingly unimportant" and pay attention to "things that are seemingly important".Highlighting tells the brain “THIS IS IMPORTANT.” This process helps students revise both the content and organization of writing samples.

2

Depth of Development: the Key to Ideas

Controlling Idea

Main Ideas

Major Details

Specific ExamplesAnd Elaboration

Main Idea (Use Blue)

Major Details (Use Orange

or Pink)

Supporting Details and

Examples (Use Green)

Highlighter BreakdownHighlighter Breakdown

Step One: Main IdeasGo through the writing sample and mark the topic sentence of each paragraph with a BLUE highlighter.

Step Two: Major DetailsGo back through the writing sample and highlight in RED or PINK the sentences that are used to elaborate or develop topic sentence.

Step Three: Supporting Details Now highlight in GREEN the sentences that provide specific examples, anecdotes, facts, and statistics to fully develop the major details.

What is elaboration?• Fully developed paragraphs,

thoughts, ideas• Elaboration is scored in IDEAS• Too much brevity and your paper

will NOT earn a passing score• Use DRAPES to add elaboration

What is DRAPES?D-dialogueR-rhetorical questionA- analogyP- personal experienceE- exampleS- statistic

Football is about to be abolished!!

Oh No!

You must come up with reasons this SHOULD NOT happen!

Think Pair and Share

Football is about to be abolished!

You must come up with reasons this SHOULD NOT happen!

Football is about to be abolished!!

Football is a big money-maker…•D-Scott Brady, our athletic director, said, “Last year, profit from football tickets alone made $18,000 for the school.”•R- Do you know how much an average spectator spends at a game?•A- football games bring in cash the same way that rain brings in crops.

• P- Last week, my friend Dottie and I went to the football game and here is what we spent….

• E- One example of profit is in concessions. Chocolate alone brings in …

• S- 62% of our student body bought at least one ticket to a game this month, at the cost of $3 each.

Football is about to be abolished!!

How many DRAPES should you use for each reason?

2 or 3 would be awesome!

DRAPES

Now let’s practice…

What color highlighters would you use on the following paragraph?

You need to stop giving us too much homework. We complain because of the amount. Kids just skip their homework because they have practice or “better things to do.”

Every sentence is a topic sentence and should begin a new paragraph!

You need to stop giving us too much homework. We complain because of the amount. Kids just skip their homework because they have practice or “better things to do.”

(“lack of development”)

This is a Level 1 paragraph…

We must add subtopics and development (DRAPES).

What color highlighters would you use on the following paragraph?

Another reason we complain about homework is the amount you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. We complete too many problems in math each night. We dislike all of this work.

There are only blue and red sentences. We must add elaboration (DRAPES).

Another reason we complain about homework is the amount you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. We complete too many problems in math each night. We dislike all of this work.

(“minimal development”)

For every red sentence, try to add AT LEAST one green DRAPES sentence!

This is a Level 2 paragraph…

What color highlighters would you use on the following paragraph?

Another reason we complain about homework is the amount you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired. Each night, we complete too many problems in math. Why should we complete 30 word problems if you can tell we know the material in 10? We dislike all of this work.

Another reason we complain about homework is the amount you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired. (P) Each night, we complete too many problems in math. Why should we complete 30 word problems if you can tell we know the material in 10? (R) We dislike all of this work.

For every red sentence, there isONE green DRAPES sentence.

(“sufficient development”)This is a Level 3 paragraph…

An additional reason we complain about homework is the quantity you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired. Even 30 minutes of work for each subject quickly becomes two hours of additional time out of our day. Our workload in math makes the problem worse as we do too much. Why should we complete 30 word problems if you can tell we know the material in 10? I know that reducing our workload to only a few problems would give us the desire to complete all of our assignments. We could become better students if you thought about your assignments.

What color highlighters would you use on the following paragraph?

An additional reason we complain about homework is the quantity you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired. (P) Even 30 minutes of work for each subject quickly becomes two hours of additional time out of our day. (S) Our workload in math makes the problem worse as we do too much. Why should we complete 30 word problems if you can tell we know the material in 10? (R) I know that reducing our workload to only a few problems would give us the desire to complete all of our assignments. (P) We could become better students if you thought about your assignments.

(“consistent development”)This is a Level 4 paragraph…

For every red sentence, there areTWO green DRAPES sentence.

An additional reason we complain about homework is the quantity of worksheets you give us. How much we have to do is not fair to us or to our families. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired, and my family wants to have some time to talk together. Even 30 minutes of work for each subject quickly becomes two hours of additional time out of our day, and I may miss the family meal. Additionally, our workload in math makes the problem worse as we struggle to complete assignments. Why should we complete 30 complicated word problems if you can tell that we know the material in 10? I know that reducing our workload to only a few problems would give us the desire to complete all of our assignments and turn them in on time. We could become better students if you thought about your requirements of our time out of school.

What color highlighters would you use on the following paragraph?

An additional reason we complain about homework is the quantity of worksheets you give us. How much we have to do is not fair to us or to our families. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired (P), and my family wants to have some time to talk together (P). Even 30 minutes of work for each subject quickly becomes two hours of additional time out of our day (S), and I may miss the family meal (P). Additionally, our workload in math makes the problem worse as we struggle to complete assignments. Why should we complete 30 complicated word problems if you can tell that we know the material in 10 (R)? I know that reducing our workload to only a few problems would give us the desire to complete all of our assignments and turn them in on time (P). We could become better students if you thought about your requirements of our time out of school.

This is a Level 5 paragraph… (“full development”)