Color Coding Your Math Classroom
Aside from the fact that we don’t live in a black and white world, color is just fun! It is eye-catching and can be a useful tool in the classroom. Bright colors have grabbed children’s attention since birth and mesmerized them. As teachers, our goal is to do the same with our content. One great color-coding tool I like to use in my classroom is highlighters. Students enjoy using them, and they are useful for helping keep students engaged and organized in their note-taking. Keep reading for some tips on color coding in the classroom using highlighters.
Why Bother With Color-Coding?
Color-coding is a helpful tool to engage your students. Most kids are drawn to color more than dull black and white. For example, whenever I copy a regular math practice sheet on Astrobrights paper, my kids become more enthusiastic about completing the assignment. It’s just natural to be drawn to color.
My favorite way to color code in my math classroom is with highlighters! I love them because they can be purchased anywhere and are relatively inexpensive. I use my classroom budget to purchase my 5th graders a five-pack of highlighters that can be used all year. The pack I ordered this year is the School Smart brand that includes thin pink, blue, yellow, orange, green, and purple highlighters.
If highlighters aren’t your thing, you can also use colored pens or colored pencils instead. Here is a great buy on Amazon. I don’t recommend using markers because most colors are to read after you underline or mark over with them, and they tend to bleed through the paper.
Setting Up the Routine
When I first stumbled onto color coding as a math teacher, I didn’t immediately have a system in place – we just highlighted important information as we found it. That worked okay for a while, but I still had several students who always seemed to ask the same questions. I started noticing that when we used the same color for the same operation, they caught on more quickly. I knew I was on to something!
For example, when we started our fraction unit, some of my 5th graders were still mixing up the numerator and denominator. Once we assigned a specific color for each term, they began to make the connection. I also noticed that students who struggled more with the concept were highlighting their independent problems just like we did the practice problems, even though that was not required. The visual cue from highlighting helped them make connections that were a struggle before.
Where to Start
I introduce highlighters during the first week of school. I pass out the boxes of highlighters to students and talk about how they are tools we will be using all year. I do this so that my students will understand the importance of taking care of them. Then, I give the kids a simple highlighting activity for them to gain some practice using the highlighters.
With my 5th graders, I usually begin with a basic multi-digit multiplication problem. This allows me to access prior student knowledge while also introducing a new 5th-grade skill by showing the students’ standard algorithm side by side with a partial product method. This allows students to make connections between the two processes.
Just the Beginning
Using highlighters in this way is just a starting point! You can color coding almost any topic to help students make stronger connections. Below are just a few examples of how I’ve used color coding in my math classroom:
- Guided Notes
- Fractions
- Division
- Multiplication
- Volume
- Geometry
- Place Value
- Rounding
One Last Thought
I hope you will give color coding a try in your classroom! It’s a great way to engage your kids while covering your content. My favorite way is to weave color coding into my guided notes so kids can go back and refer to them anytime throughout the school year. For more information on how I use guided notes in my classroom, click here.
