(Active Reading) – Employ techniques of active reading, critical reading, and informal reading response for inquiry, learning, and thinking. (Word count 387)

Each year, annotating meant something different. For me personally, it consisted of mostly highlighting whatever I felt seemed important and by the time I needed to use the article for an essay all the “annotating” I did meant nothing to me. I would sometimes highlight entire paragraphs which did not help me in the slightest. This was a common occurrence and by the end of highschool I no longer even annotated articles, I would just highlight a quote I liked. When receiving the annotation guide at the beginning of this year I realized that there was more to annotations than just highlighting, and for a matter of fact I believe I used a highlighter only once this year. 

Looking back now, I can definitely see clear improvement in my annotations which led to a better understanding of the articles. This was very beneficial when it came to using the articles in my essay. I was able to form opinions, create an extended response, as well as asking questions. 

Annotating to understand the text, as well as questioning what I was reading guided me the most throughout my marking of articles. An example of both understanding the text and questioning can be found in Paul Bloom’s article “Is Empathy Overrated” (Image 1).

Starting right off on page one I am forming my own opinion as well as defining words I am unsure of to better my understanding. The dark green refers to words I needed a definition for and the light green were my thoughts along the way as well as important points to refer back to. I chose to underline and box words or sentences that I deemed important. I was able to use these annotations to help create a claim and respond to the informal reading response questions (image 2).  

Another way I was able to express my thoughts and extend my understanding of a reading was in Garnetter Cadogen’s personal piece, “Walking While Black”. I was able to explore relationships between this piece with the world, and personal experience (Image 3).

From my connections I was able to create a text to self connection and add in my own personal experience. This allowed me to make my own meaning from what I read and begin to create an almost connection between me and the author in my own essay (Image 4).