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Annotating Your Reading. Take out paper and prepare to take notes!. What do I do?. As you read, choose passages that stand out to you and make note of them ( ALWAYS include page numbers) .
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Annotating Your Reading Take out paper and prepare to take notes!
What do I do? • As you read, choose passages that stand out to you and make note of them (ALWAYS include page numbers). • Write your response to the text. These could be insights you have about what is going on in the story, questions, reflections, or identification of some kind of literary technique.
Choosing Passages from the Text: When deciding what to make note of, look for quotes that seem significant, powerful, thought provoking or puzzling. For example, you might make not of: • Use of stylistic or literary devices • Passages that remind you of something you’ve seen earlier in the book or in another reading • Shifts or turns in the plot • A passage that makes you realize something you hadn’t seen before • Examples of patterns: recurring images, ideas, colors, symbols or motifs. • Passages with confusing language or unfamiliar vocabulary • Events you find surprising or confusing • Passages that say something about a particular character or setting • Make connections between different characters or events in the text • Analyze a passage and its relationship to the story as a whole
Example Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop . . . [s]omehow it was hotter then . . . bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum. . . . There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself. I might annotate this passage because there is an ALLUSION in it. The narrator is alluding to, or making a reference to president Roosevelt’s speech: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” This lets us know that the story takes place during the great depression. I might annotate this passage because it describes the town of Maycomb. The narrator shows the reader that it was “tired” and “old.” We also notice that the streets are not paved (“red slop”) and that there are “Hoover carts” which point to the fact that this is not a wealthy town. I might annotate this passage because it has figurative language. The narrator uses a simile to compare the women to “soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and talcum”
Example #2 – Why is this important? “I told Calpurnia to just wait, I'd fix her: one of these days when she wasn't looking I'd go off and drown myself in Barker's Eddy and then she'd be sorry. Besides, I added, she'd already gotten me in trouble once today: she had taught me to write and it was all her fault." Where is Scout’s mother? Who taught Scout to read? Who usually teaches a child to read (besides a teacher)? What does this reveal about Calpurnia’s relationship with tis family? What race is Calpurnia?
Your Assignment: • In groups of 3-4 you will… • Read chapter four together – you may designate one reader or you can take turns, but you must read ALOUD. • Find THREE things to annotateand explain your choices. • Make sure this is analysis – don’t just pick randomly. Your group will be asked to share their findings with the class.
