Targeted+Highlighting

Highlighting is defined as emphasizing an especially important detail or event.
In student terms, it means using a special marker to mark areas in reading passages. Students do need to be skilled in translating key information from a reading passage. Other than rereading over and over (and wasting time), the students are trained to use the highlighter. At the Elementary setting, I have seen some students cover the majority of a passage with a highlighter. This does not help them. Norman Herr's (2008) "The Sourcebook for Teaching Science (Strategies, Activities, and Instructional Resources gr K-6)" is a treasure for Science teachers. He has a passage on making an outline or grid for understanding essay questioning (pg 50). You use boxes and underlining to identify key parts __ **in** __ an essay question and then grid these aspects to improve understanding to answer the essay question. I find that you can also use the same idea in highlighting reading passages.

The document below was authored by me to be a summation of the characteristics and uses of the mineral Quartz. As a group, I had students model strategic highlighting (without a highlighter) to identify key information. We used boxes, ovals, underlines, double underlines, and arrows to simplify understanding the passage. The first half was modeled by me with last half left to the students.

My directions for this activity were:
 * Box all references of Quartz
 * Double underline different quartz types
 * Circle (Oval) Products/Uses made from Quartz
 * Underline Quartz facts and connect with arrows to appropriate Box or Circle

Benefits

 * Promotes Science-Reading integration
 * No need for an actual highlighter.
 * Students will be able to understand reading passages and test questions more quickly and accurately.