Annotating a text

[Kezia]

I taught my son annotating recently in our homeschool.  It was putting notes into the margins, interacting with the author by writing thoughts, interesting things, underlining unknown words, predicting what might happen, any questions you have as a reader, noting literary elements….

 

I just put him into public school and the teacher told him to annotate an informational text. I wondered why annotate such a text?? He says she wanted the main idea of each paragraph underlined. He didn't add this but why not underline the supporting points also and call it a beginner outline basics. Is finding the main idea really called annotation? 

[domestic_engineer]

Sure, I'd call it annotation.  As you've noted there's a difference (in my mind) in HOW one would annotate fiction and annotate non-fiction.

I think underlining the main idea of a paragraph can be helpful .... helpful for creating a quick mental outline of how the piece is progressing ... or helpful for creating a quick landmark if you need to refer back to it to answer a question ... or simply to keep you focused on the text.   I imagine "identifying the main idea of a paragraph" is also some state standard that is being taught.

[Clarita]

I'm confused why wouldn't you put notes on an informational text by "writing thoughts, interesting things, underlining unknown words, predicting what might happen, any questions you might have as a reader" (I'll admit maybe noting literary elements might be strictly in the realm of reading a more literary piece). I have done that to an informational text in real life. 

I think the finding the main idea thing is just what the teacher was asking students to do because they may think that the majority of students are prepared to do what you asked of your son to do. I agree with @domestic_engineer, it might be some state standard that is suppose to (or was suppose to) lead into what you were asking your son to do. 

[Clarita]

Also adding it may seem more pointless if the informational text given by the school was a poorly written piece specifically conjured for an assignment, compared to in real life someone might be reading an information text written by someone who was passionate about a topic and the reader is reading it to glean information about the topic. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

I don't know enough information.  Is this a first lesson out of a series of lessons that the teacher might do?  Underlining the main idea is a great way to start such a sequence.  Or perhaps as Domestic Engineer pointed out, this meets the state standard for this particular grade level.  You could ask the teacher what is he/she is planning to teach on the subject but the thing about public school is that you are giving up control over what is taught, when, how, and in what sequence. 

[Kezia]

He told me this was his first assignment for reading. He is 12 so I was doing annotation with him a little early. The practicing we had done was solely narrative fiction, but I saw he was trying to do what I had taught him on his assignment. I told him he was doing great. He doesn’t write enough in the margins but we had just started so he was doing okay. 
 

He told me the next day that she said annotating was just to underline the main idea not all that other stuff. I don’t know if she said “You are doing it wrong!” or “Hey, all I really want here is the main idea underlined.”

 

I feel so sad to put him back into public school when homeschool was working so well for us (well minus some attitude from him). I also put him back in now instead of the fall so we abruptly stopped in the middle of some things I had planned to finish. So I took it personally and was hoping I had taught him correctly. Mainly I didn’t want my child to think my teaching was severely lacking in this area. I would have encouraged note taking or outlining from this informational text. 

[Kezia]

18 hours ago, domestic_engineer said:

think underlining the main idea of a paragraph can be helpful .... helpful for creating a quick mental outline of how the piece is progressing ... or helpful for creating a quick landmark if you need to refer back to it to answer a question ... or simply to keep you focused on the text.   I imagine "identifying the main idea of a paragraph" is also some state standard that is being taught.

I do not disagree with underlining the main idea as being helpful. And I am certain that it does have to do with state standards. This is part of STARR practice questions. My son says they do this “annotating” one day and answer attached questions the next. The questions are super easy, and I am betting it is to help focus on the parts of the text that can help answer those STARR questions. She told him no thoughts, no opinion on what the author may be trying to say. No questions in the margins. 

[Kezia]

17 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

but the thing about public school is that you are giving up control over what is taught, when, how, and in what sequence. 

Yeah ☹️ and I am wondering if this is me all sad and teary over losing that control and being overly critical of what annotation is vs isn’t. Maybe annotation is any interaction with a text, even just underlining the main idea (likely topic sentence then) in every paragraph. Or maybe they are labeling something a nice term of annotation so it sounds good and advanced , but really teaching it as just underlining the main idea. 
 

I have after schooling/summer plans. I don’t want my kid to lose confidence in me as a teacher. 
 

 

[8filltheheart]

Have you read How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler? Adler doesn't restrict his commentary to literature.  He definitely addresses nonfiction.  He discusses everything from how to use the table of contents, indexes, etc in addition to the content.  For a young child, finding the topic sentences might be a simple objective.  I'm not sure that public school textbooks are good examples since everything is already snippet summations, but using that practice as a way to learn to take notes can be developed over time into something more complex.

[Jean in Newcastle]

22 minutes ago, Kezia said:

Yeah ☹️ and I am wondering if this is me all sad and teary over losing that control and being overly critical of what annotation is vs isn’t. Maybe annotation is any interaction with a text, even just underlining the main idea (likely topic sentence then) in every paragraph. Or maybe they are labeling something a nice term of annotation so it sounds good and advanced , but really teaching it as just underlining the main idea. 
 

I have after schooling/summer plans. I don’t want my kid to lose confidence in me as a teacher. 
 

 

You were teaching him a more complex way of interacting with written material. But the teacher wants him to do only what she’s teaching the class and nothing else. (This is one reason why I homeschooled.  ). I’m sorry that you had to put him into public school. 

[domestic_engineer]

1 hour ago, Kezia said:

I do not disagree with underlining the main idea as being helpful. And I am certain that it does have to do with state standards. This is part of STARR practice questions. My son says they do this “annotating” one day and answer attached questions the next. The questions are super easy, and I am betting it is to help focus on the parts of the text that can help answer those STARR questions. She told him no thoughts, no opinion on what the author may be trying to say. No questions in the margins. 

It sounds like you and your son were way ahead of everyone else on the skill of annotating. Good job!!! For all we know this could be PS kids’ first attempt at annotating.

But you could frame it to your child as a test-taking strategy. When it’s a timed assessment, you don’t have the luxury of interacting with the author - that’s not even the point.   These underlines will help him quickly find answers if he needs it. 

So I’d just frame it as a form of annotation that one would use in a timed-test situation. In a literary analysis/book discussion situation you’d use a more personal, multi-layered form of annotation.   Being adept at both forms is necessary for different aspects of school and life. 

[Clarita]

4 hours ago, Kezia said:

I have after schooling/summer plans. I don’t want my kid to lose confidence in me as a teacher. 

Hugs.

[EKS]

On 3/27/2023 at 2:21 PM, Kezia said:

I wondered why annotate such a text??

I annotate differently depending on the text and the purpose.  Annotation isn't just for literature and I'd argue that it isn't even mainly for literature, unless, of course, you're an English major.

On 3/27/2023 at 2:21 PM, Kezia said:

Is finding the main idea really called annotation? 

Finding the main idea is an important skill.  It can be one thing you do when annotating.  It may be easy in texts that are fairly formulaic in their approach, but it can be tricky when the author seems intent on obscuring their thoughts in a mass of what appears to be--and what may actually be--nonsense.  Unfortunately, way too much writing in the humanities is like this.

Here's an example of this from Judith Butler, who is famous for her unintelligible prose.  It's funny, because when you listen to her speak, she's easy to understand.

Quote

It is, however, clearly unfortunate grammar to claim that there is a 'we' or an 'I' that does its body, as if a disembodied agency preceded and directed an embodied exterior. More appropriate, I suggest, would be a vocabulary that resists the substance metaphysics of subject-verb formations and relies instead on an ontology of present participles. The 'I' that is its body is, of necessity, a mode of embodying, and the 'what' that it embodies is possibilities. But here again the grammar of the formulation misleads, for the possibilities that are embodied are not fundamentally exterior or antecedent to the process of embodying itself. As an intentionally organized materiality, the body is always an embodying of possibilities both conditioned and circumscribed by historical convention. In other words, the body is a historical situation, as Beauvoir has claimed, and is a manner of doing, dramatizing, and reproducing a historical situation.

 

[Shoeless]

That's a mighty tasty word salad. 🥗