Teaching Tip #167

Teacherscribe’s Teaching Tip #167

What a great idea to gauge whether students are “getting it” or not.  I could see this as either a great intro activity or exit slip.

Students could already have several Sticky Notes of each color and then paste them in their novels as they read and then turn the novels in on a Friday and I could look over them over the weekend to evaluate what areas are giving them trouble.  I could also mandate that students have to ask specific questions related to why they got it or how they are struggling or where they are stuck.

I could also see putting a pad of each color up by the board and having students go grab one color that illustrates where they feel they are at the end of the day’s lesson.  I know it might be a bit risky for a student to declare that she is stuck in front of her peers (if anyone watches what color she takes) but when I look at the stack of Sticky Notes and see that all the red are gone, then I know I can’t just keep plowing ahead.  Then I could ask each student who took a red note to write one question about the subject that they’re stuck on or make one statement about why exactly they think they are stuck and then put it on the board on their way out.

To flip this idea totally on its head, I could use these and put them on students’ papers.   A green note means your paper totally hit it out of the park.  Then I could write what I loved about it on the note.  A yellow one means that you’re on your way.  The essay needs another round of revision - and I could put yellow notes at the parts that are the most troublesome.  Finally, a red notes means either they haven’t committed themselves enough to the paper or they lack skills.  Again, I could put feedback and suggestions on the red note.

Or I could use them in every single essay to highlight the parts that are great, that are almost great, and that need massive revision.  Maybe I could just buy one of those super cool pens (well, super cool when you were in sixth grade) that has the red, blue, green, and yellow ink and do the same kind of thing.