Coming into college I didn’t realize how much engaging with your reading helps you understand the context way better. One of the best ways we engage in reading is by annotating all of the essays we have read throughout the semester. I used to think annotating was not very important but I also never used to be able to retain what I had just read. Having the source of annoyance I have been able to truly retain what the reading was about and engage with the class when we talk about it. When starting English at the start of the year my annotations were definitely bland and did not go into much detail. I looked back through my active reading page and my first annotation picture shows how little I used to write on each page. I then went and looked through some of my recent work and I definitely see improvement.
Alongside annotating we had been assigned usually each time we finish an essay in emerging to answer the critical reading questions. Those types of questions really had you think about what you just read. Having to look back through the reading to better understand so you could answer the questions was definitely more work but helped me in the long run. Question 2 in the empathy diaries reading I was able to actually understand why social media is ruining our ability to have a conversation and I could explain why. I could bring in quotes from the piece to show proof of my answer “ We are being silenced by our technologies in a way “cured of talking.” these quotes really accompanied my answers.
First Annotation
Second Annotation
