Annotation was never something that I necessarily struggled with, as much as it was an assignment I tended to spend an abnormally long time on. In my chosen writing piece, my literacy analysis project, I did change my style of interactive reading. For the first heavily annotated assignment (for the Discourse project), I focused more on the different varieties of annotations that I could use. It was more difficult because I focused less on the text itself, and more on the assignment’s guidelines. For the chosen project (literacy analysis proect), however, I focused more on the text itself. It allowed me to read the text and chose the information that I felt I could appropriately interact with.
Gilroy suggests that when reading, you should try to relate it to the class or your own experiences. Part of this technique involves the idea that choosing ways to relate the new concepts to ideas that are already interesting (have an established neural pathway), increases the likelihood that the topics will be memorable (linked to other neurons on the established neural pathway). In the chosen annotations (assignment 3), I noticed that I have a tendency to relate the ideas to psychology. This is most likely because it is interesting to me, however, I also believe there is a connection because papers involving literacy topics and explainable human tendencies and behaviors.
Just like peer editing, I also have a tendency to question what I read. Especially the evidence surrounding what I am reading. Although it is less prominent with the literacy narrative analysis, I still tend to question the ways the topics can be applied. Like in one of my annotations from the homework (Homework 1), I consistently question if observed traits (like overcoming past ostracism) apply to topics that were previously read (how it applies to Alexander’s developed categories). In past active readings, such as the discourse topics, I know that I was far more critical because I didn’t see enough replicated evidence of their influential ideas. With the literacy analysis, there was clear evidence laid out by the hundreds of narratives from the Rising Cairn database. The author of the main ideas, Kara Poe Alexander, would also clearly list the evidence for each claim.
I believe that most of my active reading processes are helpful. However, I believe that I should attempt to focus less on making comments that are ‘good enough,’ and more comments that reflect the experiences that come with reading the text.
Pdf versions:
Responses to questions (after annotations)
