Color coding - grammar, outlines, graphs, etc

We used color to highlight all the verbs in a sentence, or highlighted with the same color all the parallel clauses in a sentence. Color was a way to make grammar visible and learn it faster. I also posted these colorful sentences on a bulletin board right in my kid's line of sight.

An outline for a paper on male and female roles had all the topics about women in pink letters and all the topics about men in blue letters.

Paragraphs in a draft may be written with color fonts (keyed to the color of the topics in the outline if you really get going). When the paragraphs get to their definitive form, we change the color of the font to black. It is nice to see the paragraphs in your paper turn progressively black. It gives me a feeling of progress and accomplishment.

If possible, I like to leave what I am working on in the middle of my desk, in a way that makes it Very Clear where I stopped last night. (It is much better when I can keep my desk uncluttered, but that does not always happen.) It is nice to take one look at my desk and know what I need to do next. It saves a lot of wondering... "Where was I at? Where *is* my draft and what are all those papers covering it? what was I thinking last night?"

Anyhow, hope this helps someone. Luiza

Tags: color, grammar, organization

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lorri Centineo on September 1, 2009 at 8:04pm

Where *is* my draft?

This is why I only 'write' on the LIME GREEN laptop!!!

Permalink Reply by Tricia Harr on October 10, 2009 at 9:10pm

Thank you for sharing this. It makes a lot of sense and I can tell it works to keep you on track.
I am going to try this with my son.

Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on December 11, 2011 at 11:29am

This is great, Luiza!

From an ESL teacher here's one potential color coded system for parts of speech:

COLOR CODED
PARTS OF SPEECH

A KINESTHETIC LESSON

Materials:

Several sheets of construction paper that have been marked with the parts of speech. Laminate the paper after labeling each sheet. Each part of speech gets its own color. Following are my examples.

	nouns = dark blue
	pronouns = light blue
	action verbs = dark green
	linking verbs = light green
	adjectives = purple
	adverbs = orange
	conjunctions = white
	prepositions = tan
	interjections = hot pink

You can also make punctuation signs.

	Periods, question marks, and exclamation points are put on stop signs.
	Commas, colons, and semicolons are put on yield signs.
	The beginning and ending quotation marks each get one yield sign which are attached with enough yarn to surround several students. When used in a sentence, the yarn from the quotation marks cards surrounds those students holding the words from the direct quote.

http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/grammar/partsofspeech.html

Permalink Reply by Luiza on December 11, 2011 at 12:22pm

Love it. Thanks for posting.

Permalink Reply by Luiza on December 11, 2011 at 12:27pm

Let me add on qualification to my enthusiasm. I like the idea of color coding parts of speech. I would go easy, though, in expecting a dyslexic child to learn to *name* the parts of speech. My emphasis would be on using color to help kids develop something like a holistic intuition for syntax. The right labels can wait...

Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on December 11, 2011 at 1:43pm

Agree, Luiza. Would be overkill at first - But if you're working on 'periods', putting in stop signs at first, etc. seems like a reasonable idea...

Grammar is often taught with terminology that just adds to the complexity of knowing how words work together. If students can break down the parts and begin to relate them - they can always add on the technical words later.

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