What is annotation

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What is annotation?

• 1. Marking the text to identify important
  information and record the readers ideas
• 2. Highlighting key ideas
• 3. Writing marginal notes to make connections
• 4. Posing questions and interpreting ideas

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Why annotate?

• It is a writing-to-learn strategy that helps
  readers reach a deeper level of engagement.
• It makes the readers dialogue with the text
  (Probst) a visible record of the thoughts that
  emerge

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Ways to respond to reading
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Ways to annotate

• The First Method Annotating directly in your
  textbook is the most obvious and simple method
  (downside you cant resell this 50 book!)

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A Second Method a notes journal
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Notes Journal uses

• Use with informational texts because they can be
  used as study guides for tests
• Add class lecture notes into them
• A variation is to use index cards
• one side information, the other side
  interpretation

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Another method

• Use Sticky Notes or Highlighter Tape
• Pro Theyre removable! place small post-it
  flags in corresponding margins
• Oruse Highlighter tape that can later be erased
  with a fingertip or eraser.
• Mark the text you want to comment on, and then
  record your thoughts in a separate notes journal
  you can turn in.

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Benefits of Annotating

• If youre a proficient, fast reader you might
  complain it slows you down.
• However, remember, youre not reading these texts
  for enjoyment, but rather to learn information
• It helps you see that reading (like writing) is a
  PROCESS
• It forces you to be an active reader and improves
  your comprehension (an ACT )

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More advantages

• Youll reflect on things you might not have paid
  attention to in the past the writers craft,
  connecting the story to other ideas, reflecting
  and trying to find deep meaning.
• It helps you understand things that you are not
  always interested in. (think ACT passages,
  college textbooks)
• Surface meaning just isnt enough now that youre
  at higher levels of learning

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Still feel slowed down by this technique?

• To help with the problem of flow interruption,
  mark important passages or quotations with an
  asterisk while reading, then go back and record
  thoughts in margins.
• It allows you to quickly find supporting evidence
  to incorporate into your analysis writing later
  helps with preparing for essays, etc. (this is
  HUGE for college!)
• Its helping more than just your reading process,
  its helping with your writing as well.

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Read to Learn! Read to Write!

• sourcePorter-ODonnell, Carol. Beyond the
  Yellow Highlighter Teaching Annotations Skills
  to Improve Reading Comprehension English
  Journal vol. 93, No. 5 May 2004.