Social Annotations Assignment

Overview:

Adding annotations to things you read sharpens your analytical skills, and it is a key step in both understanding difficult texts and beginning to generate ideas for your papers. Traditionally, you would do this on your own copies of reading materials; however, Manifold gives us the ability to annotate collectively.

The goal of this assignment is to work on your habits of mind as they relate to reading and analysis and, along the way, gain a sense of how each other reads and interprets the literature from the syllabus. This will additionally give you a platform to ask questions and make observations immediately, as you read the text.

Strategy:

I would like you to annotate course readings-before the due dates marked on the syllabus-with questions, comments, and observations. These could be based on media resources that enrich your understanding of the text from the Web and/or your own typed comments.Some questions you might ask yourself as you think about annotations: what issues and themes related to your keyword stand out? what connections can you make between texts on the syllabus?

Mechanics

For the dates marked on the syllabus, each of you should post at least three thoughtful, substantive annotations. These should be posted at least three hours before we meet to discuss a given text.

Annotation quality:

The annotations you post should perform at least one of four tasks:

• A close reading of a line or passage of text that conveys the section’s significance.
• Ask important questions that the passage raises.
• Provide historical/cultural context of the text under study. (This would be a good place to use multimedia elements.)
• Give a sense of relevant, interesting contemporary connections that the text under study raises in your mind.

Grade:

The aggregate value of annotations will make up 10% of your overall grade. There will be four annotation checks during the semester; the grade for each will reflect a combination of several of your annotations