Search
Close this search box.

Lost in a Sea of Yellow: Teaching Students a Better Way to Highlight

yellow highlighted text
A lot of students are in love with their highlighters, especially those bright, fluorescent-colored ones. They use them to highlight course materials, sometimes underlining whole pages of text. When I first saw a text so fluorescent that it all but glowed, I wondered why in the world somebody would spend that much time underlining. Later I understood it was really a cry for help. “I can’t tell what’s important, so I’ll just highlight the entire section so I don’t miss something.” Highlighting can be a useful way of interacting with text, but it needs to be done in a thoughtful way.

To continue reading, you must be a Teaching Professor Subscriber. Please log in or sign up for full access.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Articles

I have two loves: teaching and learning. Although I love them for different reasons, I’ve been passionate about...
Like millions of people, I play Wordle each day in The New York Times. If you are unfamiliar,...
During my third year of college, another student that many of my friends interacted with, who tutored some...
If you have ever taught (or taken) an online class, you may have fallen into the trap of...
Exit tickets are simple diagnostic assessments given to students at the end of a class. The “ticket” in...
In one of the most memorable courtroom scenes in cinematic history, Tom Cruise is Lieutenant Junior Grade Kaffee...
I don’t usually gasp while reading how-to books for new professors. But then, I don’t often encounter revelations...

Are you signed up for free weekly Teaching Professor updates?

You'll get notified of the newest articles.