I recently introduced doing annotations as one of a four-part response to a text.
1) Annotations - asking students to write down, draw… in any language… anything that comes into their heads as they are reading
2) Dialectical Notes - I asked students to re-read the text, and as they were reading, to find 6 to 8 chunks of text that they thought were important to the text. With these they did “quotations” and “responses” — which I described as extended freewriting beginning with and annotation.
3) Structured 5 paragraph response. I gave students these sentence starters. (Remember this is their first time with writing response to a text.) The students did their writing in Google Docs, and many shared these with each other when ready…
I <past tense verb showing emotion> <Writer’s Name> essay, “<Exact Title>,” from <Citation> because… <add 2 or 3 sentences>
One sentence <Writer’s Last Name> wrote that stands out for me is: “<Quote from writer’s text.>” I think this is <adjective> because… <add 1 or 2 sentences>
Another sentence that I <past tense verb> was: “<Quote from the text>.” This stood out for me because…
I do/don’t <adverb> agree with <Writer’s Last Name> that… One reason I say this is… Another reason I agree/disagree with <Writer’s Name> is…
What I appreciate about this writer’s work is… I look forward to seeing what <he/she> writes next, because… <add 2 or 3 sentences explaining what will bring you back to see more about this person’s thoughts.>
What I like about this overly-structured set up is that I could teach punctuation and capitalization one day, what a past tense verb is the next, and what a citation is tomorrow… all within the context of producing something.
4) Students published after proofreading and revising a bit. They posted their “Responses to Rothschild” on Youth Voices: http://youthvoices.net/keywords/rothschild
As important as the first step — annotations — was in this process (It can’t be skipped.), the re-reading and coming to a personal, publish-able response were important as well, I think.
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