Anothereffective way to teach students to monitor their reading comprehension is tohave them color-code the text. To do this, I give each student twohighlighters, one yellow and one pink. I ask them to read a difficult passagewith the highlighters in hand, and highlight every single word in the text.They use the yellow highlighter for words, phrases, sentences, or entirepassages they understand; they use the pink highlighter for everything they donot understand.

            I wouldn’t ask my students to do thecolor-coding assignment without doing it myself; and I invite you to try theexercise by color-coding the Steven Pinker passage found in Figure 4.3. (Thispassage is not one I’d use with adolescents; I chose it to help adults see thevalue of this exercise.) Remember to highlight every word, pinpointing exactlywhere your comprehension breaks down. If you were in a classroom with otheradults, I would then place you in groups and have you discuss your troublespots.

            Color-coding comprehension has manybenefits:

·      It provides thereader with a focus.

·      It motivates thereader to concentrate in order to come up with as few pink-highlighted passagesas possible.

·      It shows thereader where to slow his or her pace.

·      It alerts thereader to the importance of context in trying to make meaning.

·      It encourages thereader to revise his or her comprehension while reading.

Because we cannot replace schoolbooks every year, we cannot have studentswrite

 Scores or color code in their books. Usingsticky notes is one way to get the same results without physically marking thebooks. Students can score themselves, note where their comprehension falters,or write questions on the slips as they read. They can remove the notes aftereach chapter; attach them to a sheet of notebook paper, and turn them in asevidence of their having interacted with the text. I often ask students to chooseone of their sticky notes and write a reflection to be turned in with it.