Last week I posted an idea on my social media which received a lot of attention. I shared a picture of two small sheets of paper with literary elements or guiding questions for students to look for when reading a short story. I called it an annotation guide and explained that my sophomores’ annotation and comprehension skills increased when I winnowed down their analysis tasks to 3-4 things.
Many readers were frustrated when I didn’t post a resource or file they could use immediately with class. However, I wanted some time to work on this, as the only versions I had used were last minute ideas in English 10. If I posted what I used, I would inevitably have readers telling me they weren’t quite advanced enough for AP Lit.
I spent the afternoon reflecting on this lesson and creating an assignment you can use with AP Lit as well, all free downloads from this blog post. Thank you for your patience with me as I fine-tuned the lesson!
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Why Use an Annotation Guide?
An annotation guide is a list of skills or comprehension questions that students look for when highlighting or annotating a text. I often assign annotations to check for close reading, but lately I’ve been noticing that many students struggle with this assignment. Some students don’t like annotating, claiming they comprehend just fine without it. This is probably true, but it makes it harder for me to see their thoughts as they read a text. Others prefer highlighting, but they tend to highlight like they would a science textbook – words they don’t know, main ideas of a paragraph, etc. This can interfere with character, conflict, or theme-focused analysis. And we all know students who just highlight ¾ of the story or random words and phrases because they aren’t quite sure what they should be looking for.
An annotation guide limits students’ observations to a small number of things. This helps those students who aren’t quite sure what to look for and indicates a stronger expectation of what kind of analysis is expected. While it’s ideal for use in lower grades, such as middle school and 9-10th grade ELA, it can also be used in higher levels for focused analysis.
How I Used It With Sophomores
“Lamb to the Slaughter” – Honors English
I first used this idea with my Honors sophomores a few weeks ago. I love teaching “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, but I can never quite find the right activity to go with it. In redesigning the lesson, I also wanted students to understand that we were studying the story under the lens of our theme Making Assumptions. I wanted them to think about the story as a cautionary tale, not just a thrilling tale of murder.
To help my students read it in a way that fed into this discussion, I asked them to highlight in three colors the following categories: Theme, Clues & Foreshadowing, and Character Details & Change. Many were forced to go back and reread elements of the story, since clues and foreshadowing often aren’t noticed until after an event unfolds. This increased their close reading and comprehension in our discussion the following day. I also enjoyed hearing them scrutinize their observations of Mrs. Mallard early in the story, since they were studying character details and change. More noticed the subtle remark that she was pregnant that way, a detail that most miss in the reading.
“The Pedestrian” – English 10
I next used this activity with my on-level English 10 students as we read Ray Bradbury’s “The Pedestrian.” This is another story that often confuses students. They read too quickly and miss the emphasis of the bleak and dystopian setting, elements that prove important for later in the story. For this reading, I used the same file but adjusted it for students to analyze setting, conflict, and character details. Since there is only one character, the task seemed fairly simple at the outset. However, Bradbury’s writing is fairly thematic and figurative, so students found it sufficiently challenging.
Both of these files can be downloaded and used as is, if you wish. They’re editable as well, so you can change up the targeted story or the focused skills as needed.
Annotation Guides for AP Lit
Several people reached out asking for examples on how to use annotation guides for AP Lit. I was hesitant to respond right away, as I hadn’t practiced or envisioned it with my AP Lit students. However, I did understand the merit of this assignment. I graded annotations with my AP Lit students all of last year and often found myself underwhelmed with their analysis and insights.
However, my goal with the sophomores it to help them identify particular skills in a text. Then, through discussion, we discuss the impact or function of those skills. With AP Lit, highlighting only gathers evidence. The real trick is using that evidence for commentary. I thought about splitting the task into highlighting for finding evidence, followed by commentary for the function of a particular skill. This led to this lesson, which I will be trying out with my AP Lit students next week.
The Lesson
Step 1: Students select 3-4 skills to highlight in their reading. I studied the AP Lit Essential Skills from the CED and narrowed down to the skills to only ones pertaining to identification.
Step 2: After reading and highlighting (and annotating, if desired), students examine the skills again. This time, show them the remaining skills, ones that analyze the function of a text.* Students must select one of these skills to correlates with the skills they used in highlighting.
*Several skills ask students to identify and study the function of a skill, such as those in figurative language. I included these skills in both steps of the lesson. Basically, the skill might not change from step 1 to 2, but some will. See my student example to see what I mean.
Formative Assessment Ideas: After highlighting for several skills, you could limit students to just one skill to analyze in a strong paragraph, which would make a good formative assignment. Simply change the instructions in the file after downloading.
Summative Assessment Ideas: Currently, this annotation guide directs students to write an AP Lit-level paragraph analyzing each chosen skill. While that is reasonable, it is a big assignment. This would make a good summative assessment after practicing evidence and commentary with texts for several days.
Here’s the annotation guide I created to use in AP Lit. Download it and edit however you’d like.
How I Will Use the Annotation Guides in AP Lit
My students will be doing this assignment this week. I plan to assign the highlighting activity with “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” allowing students to select their own skills. We’ll come together and share our observations in class the next day. Then, I’ll ask them to select one coordinating skill to analyze the function of in a strong paragraph. After our short story unit, I’ll assign out three different short stories:
- “EPICAC” by Kurt Vonnegut
- “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker”
- “Charles” by Shirley Jackson
These stories are similar in length and in difficulty. I’ll allow students to pick whichever one interests them. Their assignment will be to highlight for skills and write 3 paragraphs analyzing function for their final assessment. (I think I’ll only ask for three paragraphs, letting them toss out the skill they don’t want to write about.)
The AP Lit Essential Skills are an excellent course guide, but it can be overwhelming to teach each skill. Some, such as CHR 1.E (The function of complex character details) and SET 2.B (The function of a setting) are difficult to analyze outright. But skills like CHR 1.A (Character details, perspective, and motives) and SET 2.A (Setting details) are perfect for annotation. This activity works great for helping students find those introductory skills to use as evidence, then analyzing the function of a skill afterwards. In this, they develop commentary, an underdeveloped skill in most high school students.
Closing Thoughts
I worked for about an hour to develop this lesson for AP Lit, but since I haven’t used it yet my plans may change or evolve. As I said, these annotation guides are fully editable, so change it up however you want! Or use it with a different class! Annotation guides are simply a tool to help students navigate a text, then prepare them for discussion or written analysis afterwards.
Also, I intended to print out a short story and annotate it with a sample annotation guide. However, my printer is completely out of paper. My apologies that I don’t have more examples to share with you!
I would love to hear how you use annotation guides in your classes. Comment or send me an email if you have any feedback for me!
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