Over a year ago, I learned about the power of simplified close reading annotations at a general education PD session at my district (shout out to my district which happens to have an incredible professional learning department). I used this strategy last year by taking the time to teach my students the importance of annotating text with a purpose. My students really enjoyed the activity.
What Does It Mean to Annotate a Text?
This refers to when we guide our learners to mar a text to show if anything sparks interests, connections, questions, etc. Learners can also annotate to show something they don’t understand, etc.
It is a best practice to train readers to use proper annotations and we can do that by providing them with an annotation key such as the ones in the following images:
The reality is that annotation can be as simple and as complex as we want to make it for our students. It is up to you and the level of your learners.
In the images above, you can see some pictures of how I conducted this activity late in 2019 in the traditional classroom with much simplicity and success. I gave every student a handout of the annotation key and instructed them to keep it in their binders for the entire semester. This way, I wasn’t making copies of the same thing all the time, instead, the readings was what changed each time.Â
If we have been connected for a while, you already know that my favorite types of resources are those I can use over and over again, but I also want these resources to be effective and practical. As a teacher in the classroom during a pandemic and 30+ students in my classes, I try to keep things as low prep as possible. Just keeping it real.
This semester, I have found a way to recreate close reading activities digitally with Google Jamboard.
These types of reading annotation activities also have many benefits:
- Students receive a ton of meaningful repetitions in the TL.
- It encourages students to make deep connections.
It activities critical thinking skills such as analyzing and interpreting texts - It assists students in keeping track of key points of what they are reading
- It encourages learners to make inferences and draw conclusions.
- It is a 100% reusable activity, simply add any text to it.
In this video, I walk you through how I set up a reading annotation activity for my students with a simple Google Jamboard Template.
You can access the free Jamboard templates by clicking in one of the buttons of your language choice below:
Looking for a Jamboard PLN?
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If you are in Instagram and we are connected, don’t forget to tag me in your stories or posts or DM me if you use this resource. I always love to see how you implement it 
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Need more focused reading activities?
German version coming soon and many more practical & highly engaging activities to come. Follow my Tpt store for the latest updates!
OK, silly question….you make as many copies of the jamboard with the article to annotate as you have students? What is the easiest way to do this? I love Jamboards, but always hesitate to use them because of making copies for different classes, etc.
Thanks,