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...