Essential Middle and High School Reading Skill: Introductory Guide to Annotation

As a middle and high school classroom English teacher, I can’t tell you how many times I received the questions, “What is annotation?” and “Why do I have to do this?”

Basically, annotation means to take notes about a text while reading. Annotation helps students interact with a text, read with purpose, show their thinking on the page, and dive into a deeper understanding of a text. Ultimately, I want to help students be more skillful readers, both in school and in their personal lives in the future. 

Join me in my class as we define and break down the word “annotation,” discuss the importance of annotation, examine examples of different annotation methods both on paper and digitally, and practice utilizing these methods. I will have slides and will ask students questions throughout class to encourage participation.

This class is both for students who are new to annotation as well as students who have some experience with annotation but might benefit from a review and an introduction to different methods of annotating.