Annotation
This presentation highlights the differences in annotation by grade level. It also includes some nice pointers about what your teachers expect from you at that grade level.
1) Use a pen so you can make circles, brackets, and notes. If you like highlighters, use one for key passages, but don’t get carried away and don’t only highlight.
2) Look for patterns and label them (motifs, diction, symbols, images, behavior, whatever).
3) Mark passages that seem to jump out at you because they suggest an important idea or theme—or for any other reason (an arresting figure of speech or image, an intriguing sentence pattern, a striking example of foreshadowing, a key moment, etc.).
4) Mark things that puzzle, intrigue, please or displease you. Ask questions, make comments—talk back to the text.
5) At the ends of chapters or sections, write a bulleted list of key points. This not only forces you to think about what happened, see it whole, and identify patterns—but you create a convenient record of the whole work.
6) Circle words you want to learn or words that jump out at you for some reason. If you don’t want to stop reading, guess, then look the word up and jot down a relevant meaning later. You need not write out a full dictionary definition; it is often helpful to put the relevant meaning in your own words.
2) Look for patterns and label them (motifs, diction, symbols, images, behavior, whatever).
3) Mark passages that seem to jump out at you because they suggest an important idea or theme—or for any other reason (an arresting figure of speech or image, an intriguing sentence pattern, a striking example of foreshadowing, a key moment, etc.).
4) Mark things that puzzle, intrigue, please or displease you. Ask questions, make comments—talk back to the text.
5) At the ends of chapters or sections, write a bulleted list of key points. This not only forces you to think about what happened, see it whole, and identify patterns—but you create a convenient record of the whole work.
6) Circle words you want to learn or words that jump out at you for some reason. If you don’t want to stop reading, guess, then look the word up and jot down a relevant meaning later. You need not write out a full dictionary definition; it is often helpful to put the relevant meaning in your own words.