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The Highlighting Strategy
is a strategy which uses highlighting of main ideas and supporting details to help parents teach children to improve the organization of their writing.

Developed by Karla D. Rogers

Step 1: Introduction of the Highlighting Strategy

This strategy consists of teaching children to use highlighting of main ideas and supporting details. The strategy is presented as a way parents can help children learn to revise to improve the organization of their writing.
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Step 2: Modeling the Highlighting Strategy

All you need to get started are a handful of different colored highlighters, a sample essay you've written yourself, and a space to sit with your child. Have your child watch you use one highlighter to mark your essay's main idea or topic sentence and any coinciding sentences that support your main idea. Then use a second highlighter in a different color to mark all secondary points and following sentences. Explain to your child what you are doing and read the sentences aloud as you mark them. Discuss with your child what you see. For example, you may find that you need to add more details or expand on some ideas. Or, you may determine that your sentences need to be moved around to make better sense. Discuss with your child that by marking your paper you can see how you may like to revise or reorganize it. In short, you can see what belongs with what and where things go.
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Step 3: Scaffolding the Highlighting Strategy

Now, it's your child's turn. Ask your child to select a recent school writing assignment to revise. Your child should follow the same process that you modeled by using one highlighter to identify the essay's main idea and supporting information, and a different-colored highlighter to mark the essay's secondary points and details. Ask your child to read aloud the sentences that he or she believes belong together and then describe why they go together. Then ask your child to revise the paper based on what he or she has discovered from using the different colored highlighters. When your child is done revising the paper, ask your child to show you where details were added and sentences rearranged. Praise your child for all this effort!
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