District 200 Teacher Feature-An Annotation Lesson

We all know that a large part of Common Core is the act of close reading. Close reading can be quite a daunting task to start with however, because students often lack the foundational skills that are needed to successfully close read a piece of text. A sixth grade teacher in our district is working hard to make sure her students have the skills necessary to close read. She began at the ground level with talking to her students about how to truly read deeper in a piece of text and then how to record their thinking through annotation.

What do you want students to show you?

The teacher began with the end in mind. What were the skills she wanted her students to demonstrate by the end of the lesson? These were then posted on the board for all students to see. The objectives are addressed by the teacher at the start and end of each class period. Sometimes one student will read them to the class, other times the teacher asks the students to read them silently and reflect on their learning towards meeting the objective.

Be clear about the language

As teachers, we often post objectives or goals on the board and they remain there, hanging out in the shadows and part of the background noise. This teacher not only reviews and discusses the objectives with her students, but she also makes sure they understand the words that make up the objectives. Sometimes in the daily rush of things, we can forget that some of our students aren't exactly sure what we mean by "inference" or "evidence".

Get them hooked when they walk in the door

When students enter the classroom they are directed to complete an entrance slip that allows the teacher to quickly assess which students have grasped the concept covered the day before. The additional question about what they are annotating makes a connection to independent reading as well as other subject area classes.        
                                                              

                                    

Gradual release gets us to mastery

An anchor chart assists students with annotating their text. The teacher modeled how to use these symbols to annotate during a close read she modeled to her class. This "I do" lesson was the first step in the gradual release of responsibility where the teacher explicitly showed the class her thinking. In the next "We do" lesson, students partnered with the teacher to work on a close read as a whole class. 

"We do together"

In the next stage of the lesson, students worked with a partner to do a close read of Gary Soto's poem "Ode to Family Photographs". The poem was read several times and during the second and third read, students annotated the text. Each student has a blue card that reminds them of annotation symbols that can be used. These symbols are the same as shown on the anchor chart, but having this card allows students to keep this information in their binder for use in their science and social studies classes as well. 

Annotating on our own- "You do"

When students independently read, they are also annotating the text. This allows the students to have effective and engaging book talks with the teacher and provides the teacher with a formative assessment to determine the student's understanding of annotating text.