Learning to Annotate Unfamiliar Texts!

Throughout school, learners will receive unfamiliar texts that they will need to comprehend independently. Annotating is a skill that can help learners complete this process effectively. Annotating is a necessary skill that learners should master to help them prepare for standardized testing. Annotating helps learners better comprehend and analyze a text. In this one-time class, learners will be introduced to the basics of annotating and analyzing unfamiliar passages. 

We'll start the lesson by learning how and why we should annotate as we read a text (even texts that are introduced to us outside of English class). After we have a thorough understanding of how to annotate, we will read a short story together. The story we will use as a learning tool is "The Birthday Party" by Katherine Brush. As we read the text, we will highlight and annotate the text to achieve a greater understanding. We will annotate the text for character information, the setting, the tone, unfamiliar vocabulary, and the theme. These concepts will briefly be discussed, but learners should have some familiarity with these concepts prior to joining this lesson. The main focus of this class is learning how to annotate and analyze unfamiliar passages. 

By the end of class, learners should have confidence when starting to read a brand new, unknown text.