As high school teachers we are always looking for ways to engage our students in authentic and creative ways. And we love engagement that has sneaky outcomes as well. Collaborative annotations is one of those tools we have that can really get kids thinking, while increasing the level of inquiry and understanding.
What are Collaborative Annotations?
Simply put, collaborative annotations, sometimes called social annotations, are a form of collaborative notes in the margins of a text created by a group of people reading the same text. This is a great way to bring groups into close reading exercises in high school English classes.
Collaborative annotations can be done the “old fashioned way” with pen and paper or on digital platforms and there are so many ways that we can utilize this in the high school English classroom.
Pen & Paper or Digital Platform?
Social annotations completed use paper and a pen, pencil and highlighter and those completed on digital platforms all have their benefits. There is something to be said about that physical interaction with the text that happens when you underline something and then put a note in the margins. It is something I have been doing since I was in high school myself (which means we’re talking about 30+ years of annotating text). Once you add those notes, you are part of the text.
However, in the age of 1:1 and hybrid classes, digital annotation for collaborative close readings have an equally important place. Using Google platforms like Docs and Jamboard allow you, as the teacher, more oversight while allowing students to connect even if they are not in the same room at the same time.
Either way, you cannot go wrong having your students complete some collaborative annotations.
Group Size
So the next question I get is how big should your groups be. And, of course, the answer to that question varies. Really, it depends on the way you want to structure your students’ interactions with the texts and each other. You can work these annotations in groups with as few as 2 students or with the whole class. I will give you suggestions for all of those scenarios below.
Ways to Have Students Participate in Collaborative Annotations
Students Pairs—Silent Seminars
If you are looking to stick to working with one other student, try Silent Seminars. (This also works for groups of three.) In a silent seminar, students carry on a conversation without speaking out loud. It’s good for days when you just need quiet or when not all of your students are in the same room.
Silent Seminar Set Up
Assign groups, determine the passage(s) give them a topic (if you wish) and let them start “talking.” This can be done very informally with a blank sheet of paper and a pen or you can use a template that you set up in Google Slides or Google Docs. Or you can do something more fun. For example you can use characters like this Silent Seminar Tool pictured above. Students then engage in discussing the text through writing in a back and forth manner.
I used silent seminars during my Hamlet unit last spring. Students focused their attention on revenge in Hamlet after we had done some close reading on the Act 3 soliloquies where both men focus on guilt and the purpose for their actions. Student who were physically in the room were paired with students who were at home.
Here is a fun template you can use for Silent Seminars.
Small Groups (3-6)—Pass-a-Passage Same Text
I love Pass-a-Passage Collaborative Annotations and I have used it with all level of students. This one works better in person (as my experience attempting it in a hybrid setting was all but a failure!). Students each have the same text: a poem, a short story story (for my favorite short short stories, check out this post) or an excerpt.
You can give specific focus tasks or author’s craft you want the the students to look for in this collaborative close reading exercise and then they each take a turn writing on the other students’ papers. Each person adds additional notes.
Small Groups (3-6)—Pass-a-Passage Different Texts
You can also do Pass-a-Passage Annotations with different texts. You will need to have a variety of passages that are approximately the same length and for which the order of reading doesn’t matter too much. I like to use this for close reading with a longer text to pull out a specific theme or motif. You will need enough passages for the number of students in the groups. So if your groups will be three then you need three passages.
Students will follow the same procedure and set up regardless of whether they are reading the same text or different texts.
Pass-a-Passage Set Up
Grouping
This works best if all of your groups are the same size. Because attendance can be so variable, I will often wait until the students are in class to determine the size of groups. This is one of those times when a good old counting off to determine you group can be ideal.
I love to jump in with a group to even things out when a class needs just one more person to makes groups even. So don’t be afraid to be a participant in this process. The kids love it when you do.
Timer
You will also need a timer for this (you can use your phone or something on-line that you can project on the screen). Determine the amount of time you want to give for each round, then set a time and have student begin adding notes to their own passages. When time is up, they pass their paper to the person sitting to their right (or left, you can pick the direction). Set the timer again and have students begin adding annotations to their group member’s passage. Keep going until you have gone through all members of the group.
Notes about Timing: I like to give the first read more time. They will need more time familiarize themselves with the passage and make notes. I then reduce the time for the subsequent rounds. You can reduce it each time or just after the round. If you are choosing to give each student a different passage, you will want to keep all the times even.
Writing Utensils
I like to have students “identify” their notes by using different colored writing utensil. Having colored pencils, colored pens or skinny markers on hand can insure that you have enough variety. But even if you only have a supply of blue, black and red pens along with pencils, you will have 4 colors. You can also have students right their names at the top of the page as they complete their round. That way both you and the students know where specific annotations came from.
About the Annotations
Make it clear that students must add something each round. This means that if someone “took” their annotation from a previous round they will need to look for something new or they will need to develop the annotations that have already been made. So if one student notes that something is a simile, the next student might make a note about what the author is attempting to do through the use of that simile and then next student can even take it a step farther. You might model this if you have another teacher in your classroom or even with a brave volunteer student. Have the student identify something in the text and you add to the notation.
Be sure that students understand that just pointing out craft in the text doesn’t take the close reading annotations far enough. They should start to pose questions, discuss impact of an author move and develop theories.
Small Groups (2-4)—Poster Collaborative Annotations
This is another social annotation that has kids working on the same text, but instead of working on one text that they pass around, there are literally working on one text that has been enlarged to let students work on it together.
Poster Annotations Set Up
This works best if each group has their own text to work on first. They can be working on different poems or excerpts from the same text. The text should be enlarged and then attached to a piece of chart paper. Students can then work on annotating specific things about a text like the syntax or the structure or the characterization right on that large format text. Once students have completed the annotation, you can have a gallery walk followed by a full class discussion.
I do a version of this in my Sonnet Group Annotation Assignment.
Mid to Large Groups—Walk Around Collaborative Annotations
This style of collaborative annotations is great for getting kids out of their seats. Like the poster annotations, you will need large format text available for the students to add their annotation.
Walk Around Annotations Set Up
This works great for short short stories or poems, but definitely could work with excerpts from a larger work. Again, you need to enlarge what you want students to annotate, but they should also have regular copies to work with as well. Divide up the text into passages and then hang the enlarged copies around the room. If you have a large class, you might want two sets of the same text or divide the passage into smaller chunks.
Have students begin by reading or rereading the passages and annotating on their own texts. Then when they are ready, have them get up and walk around adding annotations to each passage. Have poster markers ready because it makes it easier to read the annotations from a distance.
When students have completed the annotation, you can have them walk around and review the annotations, add notes to their own text and prepare to discuss as a full class. I use this walk-around time to check out what the students have said so that I can pull ideas to bring up in the discussion.
There is a version of this activity in my Flash Fiction Boot Camp Unit.
Mid to Large Groups—Digital Collaborative Annotations
There are several ways that you can have larger groups participate in digital collaborative annotations. The first is through a digital whiteboard program like Jamboard. You can read about all the ways you can use Jamboard in the High School English classroom here.
Digital Annotations Set UP
To use a digital whiteboard for social annotations, simply post the passage as the background on the slides of the digital white board, share the link making everyone an editor. Then have students use the tools in the program to begin making notes. If you use a program like Jamboard remember that the annotations are anonymous so you will want to have the kids add their names if you want to know who the author is.
Another way to do digital annotations would be through Google Docs or Goole Slides. Just share the passage in a link. Make sure that students have the ability to edit. And if you are using Slides, save an image of the text as a background then the kids can’t move it.
Both Docs and Slides work well for different reason. In slides, you can anchor the image of the text so that it cannot be changed, while in Docs you can use both the text tools and the comment tool. Just like when working with paper, you will want to have kids choose a color if you want to be able to identify who the annotations belong to.
If you don’t want to share a Doc or link with the whole class, you can assign a text through Google Classroom Assignments, then assign group leaders and have them share with the rest of their group.
For more on using Jamboard in High School English Class, check out this post.
Digital Collaborations for the Win!
Using social annotations is a great way to have your kids truly engaged in a text and truly collaborating with each other to share their thinking. I have tried all of these in my classroom and they have all been successful in mixing it up and getting kids thinking and sharing their ideas about texts. Give it a try and let me know in the comments if you do and how you adapt it for your own use.
Related Resources
The perfect list of 20 Short Short Stories for AP Literature and more.
For more on using Jamboard in High School English Class.
Use Sonnets for Collaborative Annotations–read more about teaching Sonnets.
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Flash Fiction Boot Camp Unit for AP Literature
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