This talk will explore the means, methods, and benefits of students marking up their own texts. Annotation of passages and full-length texts encourages active reading, engages the mind, and serves as a reader’s roadmap through his own journey of a text. By annotating, students create their own study guide and are able to re-locate passages for future discussions and essays. This session will explore the difference in surface-level annotating and deep-dive annotating. Surface-level annotation requires students take responsibility for their own learning and empowers them to mark what truly stands out to them, generating rich class engagement. Deep-dive annotation rewards students’ focused, careful attention to a passage with deeper insights and appreciation of its beauty, giving them confidence to capably discuss a text in their own written work. The session will provide a chance to practice deep-diving in real time as well as lots of rubrics and examples to take back to your classroom.

Katie Sutton, with more than 20 years’ experience in Christian schools, teaches literature and Rhetoric at The Stonehaven School in Marietta, Georgia. After completing her undergraduate degree in English at Samford University, she spent a few years editing construction and hunting magazines before earning her master’s degree in medieval literature at the University of Toronto. She is happy to have found her home at The Stonehaven School, where she teaches 7th, 9th, 10th, and 12th grades.