Three step routines: Colour-coded feedback on writing

THREE STEP ROUTINES

Colour-coded feedback on writing

This isn’t exactly a routine but it’s the approach I now use to student writing after spending a year on the development of writing portfolios.

1 Yellow: Every mistake is highlighted in yellow and numbered in turn. There is a table under the student’s writing space which contains numbers. The learner has to self-correct each mistake in the table during a review phase of the lesson.

2 Green: Everything positive the student has done is highlighted in green. A three-tiered ticking system is also used ranging between one tick (very good) and three ticks (exceptional). Students have commented that this positive feedback is very motivating. Students can easily see how much good content there was in their writing.

3 Orange. Three things are highlighted where the student said something a certain way but there is an opportunity to develop of extend that language. I add these three things into the feedback table along with the suggested alternative. Students can then try to use that vocabulary with example sentences in a review stage.