1. Close Reading with a Pencil
Annotation:
Close Reading with a Pencil
Annotation is the art of reading with a pencil. When you read a story or another article or essay, you should have a pencil, a pen or a highlighter in hand to read actively.

2. Set Your Intention To read you must have a purpose:
to understand, remember, or enjoy
Read actively to make meaning
Decide where you are most comfortable
Free the space and your mind from distractions
When you begin to read, you have to set your purpose. Read with an active mind. Find a comfortable place and free the space and your mind from distractions.

3. How to read to remember! Read with a pen or pencil in hand
Use shorthand marks in the margins
Underline key ideas and images
Note where you have questions
Circle vocabulary words
With a pencil in hand, you can erase or feel like any marks that you make are not permanent. A pen can be bolder and more permanent and a highlighter is almost too easy to use and people often highlight too much of a text. The reason to write in your book is to help your brain remember and retain the ideas, images and information. Basically you should use shorthand marks in the margins, underline key ideas and images, note where you have questions and circle any words you don’t know.

4. Reading a Short Story Underline the details that show scenes
Note important information to convey a character’s personality
Put POV or point of view in the column to note where the narrator is present
In that next close reading, underline the details that show scenes, suggest images and convey a character’s per

5. What to do as you read?
Express any emotion that you feel like pleasure, surprise, anger, confusion
Recall personal associations with actions or conversations in the story
Create headings to identify different scenes
Underline or highlight any passage that is significant
The physical process of moving your hand and using a pen or pencil will help you to understand and remember the story. As you read, it is OK to notice your emotions like surprise or anger. You can make associations with the characters or a conversation. You could create headings for different scenes in the story. Always underline the parts that are significant to you.

6. Reading “The Necklace”
Written by Guy de Maupassant in 1884
Set in France
Universal themes of desire, class, pride & identity
Read the story through quickly
Our first story will be “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. He wrote this story in France in 1884, a time when the middle class was growing but when poor people enyied those who were richer and had more opportunities. Always read a story though once without stopping or marking in the book.

7. Click the Image Below to View the Annotation
Annotation is the art of reading with a pencil. When you read a story or another article or essay, you should have a pencil, a pen or a highlighter in hand to read actively.

8. Produced by Carol Hamilton Summer Institute, 2004
The End
Produced by Carol Hamilton
Summer Institute, 2004