Annotating
Overview
When annotating, students engage deeply with a text and make their thinking visible while reading. By focusing their Attention on reading with a purpose, students identify and analyze the components of a text. Students can annotate to highlight the structure, arguments, or evidence; make connections and inferences; and question the text, which helps build their Critical Literacy.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how this tenth grade teacher asks her students to annotate during a close reading. By connecting the reading with an essential question and giving annotation reminders, students can read with a specific purpose and tackle a complex text.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Learn how Hypothes.is allows students to annotate any text on the web. With this browser extension, students can actively respond to online texts and their peers, increasing their digital citizenship and information literacy.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Metacognitive Supports Strategies
Checklists and rubrics help students understand expectations as they navigate more complex tasks and assignments.
Setting overall goals with actionable steps for achievement can help students feel more confident in their skills and abilities.
Journaling allows students to reflect on their thinking and feelings, process their learning, and connect new information to what they know, supporting their identity development and Sense of Belonging.
When students reframe negative thoughts and tell themselves kind self-statements, they practice positive self-talk.
Pre-assessments are tools or activities used before instruction begins to help educators understand what students already know, understand, or can do—and where they may need support.
Student reflection on learning, particularly when done collaboratively, is critical for moving knowledge of content and strategies into Long-term Memory.
When students engage in a dialogue with themselves, they are able to orient, organize, and focus their thinking.
When students monitor their comprehension, performance, and use of strategies when reading and writing, they build their Metacognition and actively participate in the reading process.
