Sra. Spanglish Tech Tips: Prism

Highlighting is actual physical interaction that does not require readers to produce any new language, just interpret the input. Yet it allows readers to process and organize the input they are observing.

Color coded highlighting takes the interaction another step further with each color, allowing readers to demonstrate different levels of understanding without ever having to come up with words to express their ideas. It keeps the reader focused on the interpretation without interrupting that process to struggle with putting their understanding into words.

Prism takes that interaction and makes it social.

How it works

What it looks like

• Understand
• Mostly understand
• and Clueless

Here’s what I imagine my Spanish III kids might do with the first paragraph:

I had an amiga do some highlighting too so I could see the “results,” and it turns out there are two ways to review them.

One way, I can get a visualization by font size for each word. This could help me–and students–identify how much they really understand:

…as well as vocabulary we should discuss:

Visualizing by winning facet allows me to see where there is dispute:

Of course analyzing what is and is not understood just scratches the surface of what students can communicate with the highlighting!

Possible applications

Cultural comparison
For a quick comparison/contrast, you could have students analyze an authentic text with the categories

• familiar
• bizarre 
• different 

You could also have students give personal reactions to perspectives from the culture:

• I agree
• I disagree 
• I’m indifferent/unsure

Peer editing
You–or a student–could share a draft of their work and have peers make content suggestions:

• Strong point
• Please clarify
• Not helpful

Or you could have them identify issues with mechanics:

• Sentence structure
• Spelling
• Punctuation

or

They could even use it to make sure that necessary organizational elements are included:

• Thesis/topic sentence
• Supporting research
• Analysis

In-depth analysis
You could also see if students understand the main idea and important points in a text without having them explicitly say either. Perhaps you could give them a quote and highlight a text according to the sections that

• support the quote
• contradict the quote
• neither support nor contradict

Or you could draw comparisons to other texts:

• [character] would agree
• [character] would disagree
• I’m not sure

Or even other cultures:

• person from ___ would agree
• person from ___ would disagree 
• I’m not sure

You could then use any of these visualizations as a basis for discussion in class or in groups, or you could use them just for yourself to decide what you need to reteach before moving on. Either way, Prism gives you data that helps you and your students move forward.

Can you think of any other categories that might be helpful?