Red-Green Dot Writing

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we will be doing a 10 minute writing activity to start class. Students will use their 3-brad folder for their journal writing, and these folders will stay in the class. This sheet will be in the  pocket of the folder, and students will set it on their desk when writing so it's easy for me to access.

Every student will start with the first focus item "neatness" as their assignment, so the box next to #1 will be checked for each student when I hand out the sheets. While student are writing, I will rotate around the room, marking a red dot next to writing that does not meet my standards for neatness, and a green dot next to writing that does meet my expectation for neatness. This is the brilliance of the red-green dot writing technique: I only find two examples in each student's work, and they are redirected IN THE MOMENT. It only takes a few moments to "grade" each student's paper, and they don't have to wait 24 hours (or longer in some cases) to see feedback on their writing. I will tie this into my super improvers wall as well, and provide acknowledgement for improvement.

Students will also "grade" each others papers by marking red/green dots on their partner's paper! What an excellent way for them to show that they truly understand the focus! Seeing how they mark the dots on a peer's paper and then listening to the students explain the reasoning behind the dots to one another are two great ways to informally assess student understanding of the focus as well.  

As individual students show mastery of their assigned focus, they will be assigned a new focus at their own pace. So if Johhny shows mastery of neatness after two journal entries, he will be assigned focus #2 capitalization and will receive red/green dots only for capitalization. Suzy might need more time to master neatness, and not move on to capitalization until her fifth journal. 

A mastered focus can be reassigned at any time if the student has forgotten This technique differentiates each students' assignment so they are each working on the skill that they need most.  

My hope is that I can work with the language arts teacher on my team so that I can add "other focus items" that correlate with what students are learning about in language arts. I would also love to differentiate these as well based on the recommendation of the LA teacher.