Susie was lucky. She
went to a school that let its students own their own textbooks, and her
teachers expected her to write in them when she read her assignments. She liked fluorescent highlighters, and green
was her favorite color. She used a green
highlighter pen when she read history.
She used blue when she read science because she did not really like
science, and she thought blue was an unhappy color. Although she neither owned a black light nor
looked at her notes in the dark, she thought the idea of having notes that
might glow in the dark was cool. When
she read her assignment, she highlighted anything that she knew might be
important. She highlighted the dates and
the names of the important people. When
she read about a law that was voted on by Congress, she highlighted the name of
the bill and what it was about. Often,
she would end up highlighting entire paragraphs. Sometimes she pressed down so hard that that
dye bled through the page. That could be
confusing when she turned the page and saw unimportant sentences that seemed to
be highlighted. When she was finished
reading, she closed the book, satisfied that she had read the material and
noted what was important with pretty colors.
Susie had never been taught how to read informational texts
like history and science. Years ago,
some teacher had talked about underlining important information in the
text. She saw that some of her friends
had highlighted their textbooks instead of underlining, and she liked the way
that made the information pop out. So
Susie decided to use highlighters, too.
The night before she studied for a test, she liked how all she needed to
do was re-read the highlighted passages.
Unfortunately, Susie’s tests grades were dropping. Earning high grades used to be quite
easy. Last year, all she had to do was
read over the highlighted passages a few times and then repeat what she had
learned on the test. But that strategy
was no longer working. Now, her teacher
asked questions that required her to do more than recall information. Susie did not know what she was doing wrong,
and she was frustrated. She was also
scared. She no longer felt she was in
control.
Susie’s story is not uncommon. Her highlighting technique was adequate for
the expectations and demands of the elementary grades, but now that she was in
the eighth grade, she needed a more effective system. Unfortunately, no one in her school taught
study skills. All of her teachers were
under great pressure to cover the curriculum, and they did not have the time to
teach something they assumed students already knew. Susie’s parents asked Soar For Success to
help.
We told Susie we could help her. We would build on what she was doing and show
her a technique that is effective and more efficient. What’s more, this technique would not only
help her right now, but she could use it in her high school and college classes.
We would teach her what we at Soar For
Success call Interactive Annotation.
First, we put all her highlighters in a desk drawer. There are many great uses for highlighters,
but noting what is important in texts is not one of them. Everything that has been colored with one of
these pens looks the same, and what we want our students to do is to
differentiate between main topics, primary facts, and examples and
illustrations, and we tell students to write notes in the margins. Instead of a highlighter, we use a pencil.
We call this study technique Interactive Annotating because
the student must interact with the different elements of the reading
assignment. After pre-reading, the
student is asked to put the main idea (or thesis or argument) in brackets. Key facts – names, dates, etc. – are
underlined. Only the name should be
underlined, not what the person did. After
the student has finished reading the assignment or when s/he refers to the text
when studying for a test, we want just the name to stand out. We do not want to lose that name with line
after line of underlined material. In
the margin, a one or two-word summary is written beside anything that is
important. A check mark can be placed
beside interesting information, important examples, helpful points, or other
content, which is important but secondary to the main point.
[Hernan Cortes was a Spanish Conquistador who conquered
Mexico and caused the fall of the Aztec nation]. In 1519,
Cortes landed in the Yucatan Peninsula and began his
conquest of Mexico.
There, he encountered Geronino Mexico conquest
de Aguilar, a priest who had been shipwrecked many
years before. Aguilar
knew the Mayan language and
served as Cortes’ translator. Cortes used his soldiers translator
and cannons to massacre thousands of natives, and
he burned their cities.
Many of these soldiers had been massacre
hired in the island of Trinidad. ✓
The student placed the main idea in brackets and underlined
only the date and the two names. By
looking at the right hand margin, the student will be able to see the key
points at a glance. The student thought
that knowing that soldiers have been hired in Trinidad might be helpful to know
and placed a check mark to indicate that this might be important, but not as
important as the other items that had been annotated.
Captions of illustrations should also be annotated. One of the margin notes beside a sentence
that is supported by a picture might be, “See Figure 7.1”
Finally, when the student pre-read the assignment, s/he read
two of the questions that were placed at the end of the unit. While reading, s/he found the answers. Beside the questions, s/he wrote the page
numbers on which the answers were found.
Susie was lucky. She
was allowed to mark up her textbook.
Many students, however, are loaned their texts by the school, and they
are not allowed to write in the books. They
can take notes on paper while they read.
At the top of the page, they record the assignment (p. 87-94). On the left side paper, they write MI for
main idea, and then summarize the topic.
This is followed by the page on which the main idea is found. They skip a line and then record the first key
fact. They use the right side of the
page like the margin of the text, and they record the one or two-word summary
there. Their notes might look like this:
April 4, p. 87-94
MI Hernan Cortes
– Spanish Conquistador – conquered Mexico
and caused fall of Aztecs (p.87)
1519 –
Cortes landed Yucatan Peninsula, began Mexico
conquest
(p. 87) Mexico conquest
encountered Geronino de Aguilar, shipwrecked
priest he spoke
Aztec, translated for
Cortes (p. 88) translator
massacred
Aztecs, burned cities (p. 88) massacre
had
hired soldiers in Trinidad (p. 88)
When a student interacts with a textbook in this way, two
things happen. First, the student must
pay closer attention to the text. By
asking, “What is the main idea, what is the primary information, what is of
secondary importance?” the student is forced to focus and determine how one
piece of the assignment is related to another.
Second, interactive annotation causes the brain to begin to learn some
of the material. This means that the
student is more likely to remember the assignment the next day and will do
better in the class discussion. This
also means that the student will not have to wait until the night before the
test to memorize everything. Some of the
material will already be in long-term memory.
This approach also makes studying for tests much
easier. The student does not have to
waste time re-reading the assignment.
Instead, by looking at the annotations, the key points become
immediately clear:
Cortez –
Conquistador – conquered Mexico – fall of Aztecs
Aguilar – translator
Mexico conquest
massacre
These annotations are almost like study cards. Interactive annotation is a really effective
way to read a text. It improves
understanding, increases retention, and makes studying for a test much easier.
But the student is not quite done with the assignment. There is one more step. It is called post-reading, and it takes only
about 30 seconds.
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