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Annotate While Reading

Tags

ELA: Reading All Ages Strategy

Skills

Working Memory Attention Verbal Reasoning Verbal Memory

Annotate While Reading

All students, particularly those who forget key details

Instruction And Practice

  1. Objective: Students will jot notes in their text while reading to help them focus, engage more closely with the material, and help with retention.
  2. Direct Instruction: Explain why annotating is useful: Writing notes and keywords for yourself as you read will help you remember main ideas and make key connections more effectively than just highlighting or underlining.
  3. Model and Practice: As a small or whole group, go through a text and show examples of what and how to annotate. Notes can include a short definition of new vocabulary, a sentence or keywords summarizing the paragraph or main point, comparisons to student experiences, recurring themes in the book, or ideas for the paper they will need to write. They can even sketch a quick picture of a character or event. (See next slide for student checklist.)
  4. Teacher Notes: a) Remind students they can draw a line to write in the margin or top/bottom of page where there is more room. Or use sticky notes when they can't write directly in the text. b) Encourage students to re-read their notes and use their most important ideas for studying or writing.

*student* Checklist: Annotation Tips

  1. Jot notes on the page, including a short definition of new vocabulary
  2. Write a sentence or keywords summarizing the main point of what you're reading
  3. Write comparisons to your own experiences, recurring themes in the book, or ideas for your paper
  4. If it helps, sketch a quick picture of a character or event

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

By taking short notes in the text while reading, students are thinking through the information, narrowing down main points and drawing conclusions more actively than when they simply highlight or underline what is already written in the text itself. Annotating will improve memory of what was read and help with capturing the great ideas and connections made while reading.

Best-suited for students with weaker: Attention, Cognitive Flexibility, Inhibition, Long-Term Memory, Metacognition, Short-Term Memory, Processing Speed, Working Memory (Source: Digital Promise Learner Variability Project)