Ryan Writes #5: Never too late to Annotate

I'll try to remember this as best as I can, but I heard a quote that went something like...

...a book is never truly owned until it is annotated and the margins are full of marks...

I don't know. What I do know is that I dread writing in ANY book, even workbooks. I remember back in Japanese class how I would photocopy the pages of the workbook to practice my kanji instead of just writing it in and tearing it out. It hurt me psychologically and I blame my upbringing in a poor private Catholic school. Our teachers would never let us write in the books...ever. Even if we knew the books were falling apart because they had already seen two generations of students (Mrs. Czerniecki made a point of singling out students who were kids of students she taught before), we still were forbidden from making it worse with our notes and doodles. And so, I never learned how to annotate.

Annotating is like having a conversation with the author. A note like "this is interesting" symbolized with a little asterisk mark or underlining a passage that was maybe a bit too confusing at the time signifies active learning. Making the effort to write down a note registers that information in your brain, repeating over and over again through each reread. It is like leaving comments in a youtube video or blog (like and comment below!)

Students are simply not embracing this idea of annotation. It is work, yes, but they fail to see how much it helps, and honestly, how much fun it could be. Imagine getting a book back at the end of the year after annotating it up at the beginning and seeing what interested you and intrigued you. Imagine constructing personalized assessments based off of what the students annotated. There is so much to be done to help the students see the importance of taking notes and writing in the margins. It sure would have helped me, as I am finally getting into the practice.

Kids...please...annotate your reading.