Prove It!

"Finding text evidence isn't always easy and it sure isn't fun!" These are words spoken by my 5th graders. Getting my students to highlight text evidence was nearly impossible until I "wised up" and decided to make it fun!



I ran across this photo about two years ago and changed my ways from that moment on! First Grade Bangs had a brilliant idea to make labels for her student's highlighters.

I went straight over, downloaded and printed these, and labeled my students highlighters during my conference period. Since I had 75 kids that year, I had the last batch of students do their own.
Then, we practiced! The kids loved it! We of course had the chat about not going "highlighter crazy!" and a few tried to make rainbow text evidence...but all in all, it was amazing!

I will say, I am a bit of a highlighter snob though and use ONLY the BIG Sharpie ones. The students might bring others, and they are welcome to use those for other things...but for text evidence, I buy these, hand them out (and take them up.)


These highlighters are not the student's to keep. We know as teachers...we have to protect our nice supplies. You can buy multiple colors in these depending on what you need, they last a long time and they are super cheap!

Finding text evidence is so important for building strong readers! Why not make it fun? Now my students enjoy proving their answers and it helps me see more of their thinking!

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