Activity Focus: During reading activity
Name: Critical Reading with Post-Its', go 3M!
Rationale: With this activity students are made to critically think about the text as they read it and create marks of what they thought where, and why. This will aid in any assignments that could be anticipated for the future. It will be a valuable source to look back on during discussion to illustrate arguments with in-text examples. This is also a good practice for college bound students, as well as a way to get students thinking about how they read and employing a critical lens as they read.
Procedure: The students will be asked to purchase post-it notes, unless the school is able to provide them for the students. The students will then use their post it notes to write down thoughts, reactions, and questions they have and stick them to that page in the text. Students will be expected to use no less then 10 notes for every 25-50 pages.
Time: This will be an ongoing process through the in-class and out of class reading time.
Citation: This is a procedure that has been modeled for me in my undergraduate and graduate learning experience.
Rational for use: I think this idea could serve as excellent scaffolding for introducing students to annotations and the idea of being an "Active Reader." I would also add that the instructor could acquire the multicolor Post-It Notes and assign each color a topic for annotation- blue for character development, red for major plot point, yellow for important quotation, green for symbols, figurative language, repetition, white for predictions. After establishing this language of color with the students, the instructor can discuss the novel in these terms with the students, "The was a big green event in last night's reading. Does anyone think they caught it?"
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