By Laurie Miller Hornik
“Will We Have to Annotate?”
Many of my students begin a class text by asking, “Will we have to annotate?” Their hesitation is understandable.
Most of us don’t annotate when we read for pleasure – and I don’t require it for independent reading either. But in certain contexts, annotation is a powerful tool, and middle school is an ideal time to learn how to use it well.
In science and history class, students might annotate to identify information. But in English class, annotation serves two key purposes:
★ Annotating for Your Present Self: Engagement
The first purpose of annotating is to help the reader engage with the text in the moment. Annotating puts the reader into conversation with the text, deepening the reader’s thinking.
Every reader approaches a text a little differently. We vary our speed, which words or sentences we linger on, and whether and when we go back and reread sentences. Similarly, annotating is an individual act: there is no single right way to do it. If your annotations help you read more closely and think more deeply, you’re doing it right.
I think about this when I see my students jotting their emotional reactions in the margins: Whoa! and Yay! and OMG! While writing Yay! when something positive happens to a character doesn’t show deep thinking, it might show emotional engagement, which can also be an important aspect of reading.
This kind of annotating serves the reader’s present self: it helps them engage in the moment. Annotations written for the present self might not be useful later, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth it in the moment.
★ Annotating for Your Future Self: Preparation
Sometimes students need to annotate to prepare for a discussion or for writing about the text later. In these cases, students can think of annotations as notes to their future selves – ways of holding onto their thinking for later.
When it comes to annotating for the future self, some types will be more helpful than others. Emoting on the page – Yay! or Oh no! or Wait, what? – will probably not be useful during a discussion or when writing an essay. Nor will asking questions that will be answered further down the page.
Students will annotate most effectively if they know what they are annotating for: Will there be a discussion tomorrow about the different leadership styles of Ralph and Jack from Lord of the Flies? Will students be writing an essay about who is responsible for Juliet’s death in Romeo and Juliet?
Teaching “Annotating for Your Future Self”: A Three-Step Process
Teachers can help students learn to annotate for their future selves by breaking the process down into three manageable steps:
STEP 1. Identifying
Students identify the most SALIENT parts of the text. As they read, they mark passages that seem interesting or important, even if they aren’t sure why. If they have been given a focusing question or theme – for instance, in advance of a specific discussion or essay topic – they can identify passages that connect meaningfully to that question or theme.
After marking several passages, students return to them and narrow their focus to just a few that still feel most important.
STEP 2. Expanding
This is the step where real thinking happens. Students choose a passage they marked for its saliency and think about what is interesting or important about it. What do they notice? What do they wonder? What larger ideas do they hear? Students freewrite in their notebooks to develop their thinking: the goal is for students to EXPAND their language, to get a lot of ideas out. Freewriting allows students to see their thinking on the page.
STEP 3. Distilling
Finally, students read through their freewrites looking for the idea that feels most important and condensing it into a short, clear note. This is now the annotation, which they record in the margin or on a post-it to connect it physically to the relevant spot in the text.
These steps can be taught one at a time. If students are reading a text at home, they might mark some salient passages as they read and then work on steps 2 and 3 in class the next day. Once students become more proficient, step 2 will fall away, and they will be able to annotate without that intermediate step.
Annotation Tips to Keep in Mind
★ Re-Teaching
At the beginning of the year or whenever the book is more challenging or of a new genre, teachers can re-teach the annotation steps one at a time. As students read (for homework or for classwork) they can do step 1, marking the salient parts and do steps 2 and 3 in class together.
★ Purpose
Teachers can set students up for success by being clear about what the purpose of annotating is in any particular circumstance. Is it to help them read more deeply? Is it to prepare for tomorrow’s discussion? For next week’s essay? Help students consider what kind of annotations will best serve their purpose.
★ Process over Product
Sometimes students see annotation primarily as a product. They pull out all their highlighters and turn each page into a piece of art. This is time consuming and pulls students out of the text itself. This kind of annotating is not really a reading activity, and it’s worth helping students move away from it to more productive kinds of annotating.
Laurie Miller Hornik is a K-8 educator with over 30 years of experience. Currently, she teaches seventh grade English at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in NYC. Laurie is the author of two middle-grade humorous novels, The Secrets of Ms. Snickle’s Class (Clarion, 2001) and Zoo School (Clarion, 2004). She publishes humor at Slackjaw, Belladonna Comedy, Frazzled, and on her own Substack, Sometimes Silly, Sometimes Ridiculous. She also creates mixed media collages, which she shows and sells locally and on Etsy.
