NeuAnnotate


 * neu.Annotate Basics **

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Teachers need to focus on reading for and writing with evidence in order to support text complexity in the classroom. The iPad allows teachers to focus on this pedagogical goal while increasing the efficacy of their instruction and assessments. In this session we will focus on using neu.Annotate to support text dependent questions and argumentative writing.
 * Defining Text Dependent Questions **

One of the major shifts ( or really one of the better pedagogical practices) highlighted by the Common Core revolves around asking text dependent questions. Text dependent questions do not rely on background knowledge or making connections to the world or other texts.

As P. David Pearson noted, in a [|recent discussion about the Common Core]. Comprehension includes the text but also what a reader brings to the text. In recent years, Pearson argues, many teachers have tipped the scales to favor the reader and have all but ignored the text. Pearson is quoted saying:

> In too many classrooms, the actual text never enters the discussion," he said. "It's all about kids' feelings about it, or their experiences related to it. The teacher spends 45 minutes wallowing in that space, but never gets into the information in the text. The goal is to focus students on the meaning of the texts. In simplest terms a text dependent question can not be answered without referring back to the text. **An Example** Open the article [|Hobbits: our tine cousins] from from // Science News for Kids. // Read the article > Now pick the text dependent question:
 * How are the hobbits, or smaller humans, just like us? Cite examples from the text in your answer.
 * Examine the possible evolutionary paths outlined by the author. Given the evidence in the text which seems most plausible?

Notice that the second question relies more heavily and requires students to dig deeper in the text. **Simple adding the phrase "Cite examples from the text in your answer**"does not make a question text dependent.

**Neu. Annotate, the iPad, and Text Dependent Questions** neu.Annotate allows you to mark up and annotate pdf documents. Teachers can use this app to track students close reads as they attend to text dependent questions.


 * Steps to using neu.Annotate to read for evidence**

This post isn't a tutorial on the app but focuses more on the pedagogical affordances of using neu.Annotate to assess and teach analytic reading and the asking of text dependent questions.


 * 1. Cold Read**

I like to begin any close reading activity by first collecting students thoughts after a cold read. That is I begin the lesson before discussing any of the texts, providing background, or explaining the central thesis (this of course does not apply to ELL students or others who require pre-teaching based on an IEP). Open the article [|Hobbits: our tine cousins] from from // Science News for Kids. // Read the article To do this I make one version of the article and add a question and a text box at the end of the article for the students.

The next activity I like to do is to look at the text at a local, before a global level. Use neu.Annotate to examine paragraphs at a sentence or word level. **3. Investigate word choice.**
 * 2. Analyze individual paragraphs.**

Another activity I like to do with students is to then have them look at individual word choice by the author.

**5. Examine each idea in the informational text.**

My next step is to probe the the organizational strategy the author used. I do this in neu.Annotate by having students highlight the main idea in one color (yellow) and then have them highlight details in another color (blue). Finally students have to rewrite the gist of each paragraph at the end of the document.



**6. Final activity**

To finish a close read, using text dependent question. I return to the orginal question or task I posed to students followed by some expansion:


 * Outline the author's main thesis.
 * Examine the possible evolutionary paths outlined by the author. Given the evidence in the text which seems most plausible?

**Using neu.Annotate in the classroom** Argumentative writing requires a focus on evidence and not simply the emotional pull of persuasive writing. This does not mean, however, that persuasive techniques will not be used in argumentative writing.

In this tutorial I discuss how to use current events and NEU.Annotate to model, teach, and assess students ability to evaluate persuasive techniques.

**Steps to Teaching Persuasive Techniques in Argumentative Writing.**

1. Choose a current event article with an active discussion (the more vitriol the better). Take a screenshot. To take a screenshot you hit the sleep button and the home button at the same time.

2. Open up NEU.Annotate and insert the image. Click on the Mountain Icon. Choose the camera roll and pick the pic you just took.



2. Add a second page. Cluck on the arrow icon. Then click on the gear icon. Choose add a page after. I would pick three pages so you can use the I do (model), We do (guided practice), You do (indpendent practice) model.



3. Find a persuasive technique. Using the drawing feature or the arrow point students to the technique.



4. Add a text box identifying the technique.



5. Move the text box above your arrow.



6. Finally have the students send the completed document to you. This can be done via email, as a pic, or //Dropbox.//

Overtime you will build a collection of annotated exemplars and mentor texts that students can use to model their own writing skills.