Annotating Text

OK, so today, we're gonna talk about

annotations. I've titled this board "Annotate that!"

because a lot of times in English class, we're going to read something,

and I am going to throw my hand up and say "Oh, and I want you to annotate

this. And there's going to be a collective groan from the class

because I think students get really frustrated with A) what

annotations are, and then B) what a teacher wants them to do with it. OK.

So we're going to talk about the purpose. But, at it's core, annotations are just

how to interact with the text. So if you're interacting with a person,

you're reading that person's body language, you are trying to figure out,

based on their accent, maybe where they're from, you're looking at

their clothes and the way that they use their hands when they talk.

Right? That's an interaction, and that's exactly what I want

you to do when you're annotating a text. But, since it's not a purpose,

or a person, we're going to have to sort of, talk about how to do that.

So the purpose of annotations are so that you are understanding

the text, plain and simple. I don't want you to get through

something, whether it's, you know, one paragraph or 30 pages,

and say "I have no idea what was happening, or I can't remember

anything I read." Um and so, our second purpose is

to track changes or progression in a text, ok. So, if you're reading

something and you feel like something is happening, the

author is changing a character's motive, maybe there's a new

point in this research paper that we're reading, or if we're reading an article,

maybe there's a new statistic that we need to take note of. That's going to be

something that sort of changes the direction of the text just like a

conversation: when you're talking to someone maybe they start going

in a different direction you can tell that when you're listening to them

but in writing a lot of times, we forget to track those changes ok?

So if we are understanding the text -- we know what the purpose is

we're tracking the changes or progressions then we'll be able to also understand

what we do know and what we dont' know so we'll be able to identify areas of interest

or concern. Um, if there's a word we don't know if there's um a topic or a reference we want

to know more about, that's something we need to mark in the text so that we can go

back to those things when we've finished reading. Ok, so there's a lot of different

purposes to annotation, but at the core, it all goes back to interacting with

that text and making sure we understand what's happening.

Alright, so there's a few different ways that you can annotate.

Um, One way is I'll usually say, Here are the things I want you to do today.

Circle or underline your main ideas. So, just the main the main points that

are being proven. Um, character or people names.

That seems silly because we're usually pretty good with names.

But, sometimes, um, location names will slip in there or

somebody's last name will be used in one paragraph and their first

name was used in a different one. And students get those names mixed up.

If you circle them or highlight them, we'll be able to understand a little

better where those names pop up in the text.

Um, vocab words. These can be things that you just really like. Some words

are really cool sounding. Don't make fun of me because I'm a nerd.

Um, but also sometimes there's words we don't know, and those words are

imperative for us to understand the text, so we need to highlight, circle, underline them -

do something, so that we can go back in and look up the definition.

And then, we can also circle or underline important ideas or events. Ok?

So that kind of goes back to what we were talking about with tracking the changes

or progression in the text. So the reason I said circle or underline

or you'll noticed that I've said highlight, is that I can't tell you what's gonna

be best for you. You are going to be able to look at a paper and say, "This

is how it makes sense to me." For me, I like to underline and I like

to highlight. Those are the two things that I do the most. So you can kind

of see, I've given some examples. You may like squiggly lines, you may like

circles. Straight lines are fine. Or you may like to box in your ideas.

Ok, so when we're looking at a text - move that out of the way.

Um I've sort of drawn out maybe a page of an article or a book,

um, something that we'd be looking at. Um, you're going to circle or underline

things, but I also want you to take notes in the margins, which I

understand sounds like a lot, but this is English class and again,

if you're really interacting with something, you're gonna do the most you can with it.

So, if we've got a text like this, One of the first things we may want

to do as humans is react. Ok, so are you surprised, confused, happy

sad? You can write those things down in the margins or use your emoticons,

use some sort of mark like a happy face, sad face, exclamation points, um

question marks to remind you, I got confused here, I don't know what

this is, right? Or, I can't believe he said that to her! and put an exclamation point.

That way, when we're talking about things in class, you'll be able to sort of glance

back over the page and immediately pick up where you had that reaction.

Another piece you may want to do with a bracket is to locate

important passages. OK, so if there is um a character monologue or a

speech that you feel like is really significant, and you want to talk about it,

put it in a bracket. Don't just say, "Oh I'll remember it's on page 47 because

you won't, right? Go ahead and mark it so that when you're flipping back through,

that's something that you'll see. Um, you also may want to jot a note

down. Like, the author wants us to know x, y, and z. If it's an article about, um,

population growth and there's a cause, like one underlying cause, that the

author really is focused on, you may want to note that out in the margin, just

so that if you get to talking about it with someone, you can easily go back in

and find that quote or passage. Um, and then over here, I just wrote

margin madness, OK? And I write all over the margins in my books, that are

mine, not the school's, but you can do it on post-it notes, and really what

you're doing is you're figuring out how you feel and how you think

about whatever this author has said. OK, so that might be making a connection

something that the author said makes you think of something else.

You may want to track themes or character changes. So if there's a lesson

that you feel like the author is trying to tell us, go ahead and jot that down.

I think the author is saying that love conquers all, right? Um, you may

want to ask questions like, I don't understand why he doesn't use this

statistic to prove the population growth is a problem. Or I don't

understand why this character doesn't like this one anymore. Um, those weren't

questions, but you could frame them that way. Um, and then give an opinion. If it's

a research article, you may not agree with what that person is saying. Go ahead

and write these things down in your margins so that if I ask you to do some sort of

writing, which I probably will, you've done all of the hard work already, and it's

in the text. And, with your circles and your underlines, and your boxes, all the

things that you're doing while reading, you've already front-loaded all the

hard work for whatever we're doing with this text.