I just completed reading the article suggested by Dr. Slick entitled "Beyond the Yellow Highlighter: Teaching Annotation Skills to Improve Reading Comprehension."  I have seen some of those textbooks referred to in the first paragraph that have almost every word on the page highlighted.  When I've purchased used textbooks, I look through them to find one with no or at least very little highlighting.  I was taught to be very specific about what I highlighted or marked in the text.  The reasoning was that if I used the book to take a test, how would I find the important points if everything was highlighted?  I learned to actually annotate the text instead of just using a highlighter.  I am also a huge fan of sticky notes.  Some of my teaching books look like they have multi-colored whiskers!

 

Annotating text is an extremely important skill.  I began working in earnest on annotation with my third graders about three years ago.  It dawned on me that handing them a highlighter or asking them to underline important sentences really didn't help them.  I discovered I had to be very specific in teaching them reading strategies.  This article is very enlightening with some new ideas for me.

 

I never thought of using student responses to text to determine the way they think about the text.  I do have them do a quick-write after their first reading of the text, which would be perfect for seeing how they think about the text. 

 

National Geographic magazine has been a perfect avenue for me to teach my students annotation since they are consumable.  All of our third graders are doing it now.  We select a specific reading skill to focus on for each selection and base all of the activities around that skill.  One was main idea and supporting details.  As the students read, they underlined the main idea of each subtopic and marked it with an MI.  Supporting details were marked with SD.  New vocabulary was highlighted.  If it was content specific, they used one color highlighter.  General vocabulary was highlighted in another color of their choice.  After each paragraph or other break in the text, students wrote a few words to remind them of important points.  If they had questions, they wrote them on sticky notes.  These are used on their question generation page where they are asked to come up with questions they still have about the topic after reading.  I encourage them to do some research and find the answers to some of their questions.

 

We do annotation with other texts also.  Students need experience with both literary and informational text.  After modeling text annotation several times, even my third graders caught on and were able to do a remarkable job on their own.

 

The bookmark on the second page is a great idea.  I plan on making a version of it to use at my school.  Annotations are also useful when students come together to discuss a text.  They can easily recall important information and compare their thoughts with others'. 

 

While most of my third graders are not capable of the detailed thought processes demonstrated on the annotations in the articles, they are at least on their way.  As they become comfortable with their metacognition, they are able to share easily with classmates and are not afraid of differing opinions.  It is an excellent way to facilitate the sharing between and among students of their reading.  Through these discussions students learn to engage more deeply in the reading of the text.

 

After posting and then reading this post, I looked at the article I had printed out and realized that I had annotated the text!  I have things marked and comments written in the margins, along with new ideas.  It really does just come naturally after doing it for so long.  I even write notes in my cookbooks - how much we liked a recipe, if anyone didn't like it, good for company, quick or easy to make, etc.  My cookbooks are more useful to me when I look for a particular recipe in the future.