Skip to main content

Getting Started with Annotation

I got a really great question in an e-mail this week, and thought I would share with everyone how I introduced close reading and annotation to my classes. I have the opportunity to loop with my students, so we start close reading in seventh grade, and by the time they get to eighth they are usually masters of it! By the ISAT this year, I had students annotating their reading passages with their highlighters, and I couldn't have been more proud.

To start with, I pulled up the first page of the Hunger Games on google books and projected it on the screen. I have an entire blog post about this and the nonfiction article here.

We created a key together similar to this one:
Everyone needed to agree on using the same key (this way it was easy to grade, and we were all consistent, so students could work together) I tell them they can use any colors they want, as long as it is marked in their key. 

***Students can always add more, I wouldn't want to prevent them from doing that, but I only check what is on our agreed upon key. I have students put the annotation guide in their Interactive Student Notebook from Ms. W at Tales of Teaching in Heels. You can check out her blog post and freebie teaching annotation handout here!

Next, we started with the first on the list, and went through the text looking for figurative language. It was kind of like a word search puzzle, which they enjoyed. You could even make it a game, the person to find the first example of figurative language can come up and squiggly line all the other examples of figurative language up on the board with the markers.

Do this with your group, modeling it on the board for both the fiction and the non-fiction articles.

Next comes the fun part...

Pass out a one page copy of another fiction or non-fiction article, and have students do it in groups/partners. Kelly Gallagher has tons of AoW (article of the week) on his web page, I usually use the Scope magazines. I do this over the next week or so, having students identify and share out (where I will project it and we mark it together), before having them go solo.

Before they work in partners or solo, always create a key with them together on the board. Eventually, you may decide on a "fixed" key for fiction and non-fiction, but it's important to identify which key you are doing (fiction or non-fiction).

I end up leaving these on the board once they are satisfied with which markings we are always going to use.

Non-Fiction Key:

Vocabulary (must define)
Main Idea
Details
Important Facts/Statistics
Questions
Connections

Fiction Key:

Vocabulary (must define)
Figurative Language
Characters/Setting
Plot/Theme (Write theme in margin)
Connections
Questions

Students must label their close reading handout EVERY TIME with the key. This helps them, and you, along with their name at the top right hand corner. I will be assigning numbers this year so that I can have student helpers organize papers for me.

I hope this helps with a practical application of starting close reading and annotation in your classroom! I feel like the simpler, the better with close reading "mechanics", since it is a very rigorous activity. The process of setup should not be intimidating for students. Make sure to offer TONS of encouragement as you model the process with them!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Before the School Year Begins...

I decided that before I can start posting about what I'm doing this year, I needed to share some of my favorite strategies from last year that went really well with the students. I was completely inspired by Kelly Gallagher after reading devouring all of his books at the beginning of the school year! I had the opportunity to go to a Kelly Gallagher workshop at Judson this spring, and it was absolutely amazing! He was so nice when I went up to him (I was terrified and starstruck), and even wrote "You're Welcome" on this piece of paper, because my students actually asked me to THANK HIM for changing the way we read novels in class.  Students + asked me + to say thank you to an author + about school stuff = UTOPIA! Here are some of my abbreviated notes from the day: His TOP Points: Kids should write 4X more than you can physically grade  Students suffer from word poverty. Must get students reading more in order to be exposed to vocabulary. We ne

RAK Classroom Kit + Enjoy the Magic of The Holidays at Oakbrook Center!

Last week The Middle School Mob hosted a FB Live Holiday Hop, and I shared how I do a RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) activity with my students during the holiday season . This was my first time doing a FB live and I had so much fun! You can check out the RAK Classroom Kit here If you live in the Chicagoland area and want to have a fun family outing this Christmas season, be sure to check out my post over at Modest House, Extraordinary Home ! Save Save Save Save

Writing Notebook: Finishing up "Write Ideas" and first Invitation: AAAWWUBBIS!

Happy Monday!! Today I am continuing on with the Writer's Notebook! Last time I left off, students had just finished their "100 Things I Love". After that, students completed their writing territories, which I got from Nancie Atwell's book   Lessons That Change Writers.  We spent the first day discussing writing territories out loud, going through the list in detail, so that students had ideas of what to write about. I told them to think of it like the caption for a picture. One to two sentences that could become something more. Students had to complete this for homework. We also completely numbered our table of contents so that we could add in sections and start working in other parts of the notebook.  Students wrote their writing territories on these pages. Then we moved on to the Writer's Eye (I). Students had to place terms that described them within their "I" or around their "Eye". I created my o