Overview:
To sharpen our critical reading skills, we will collaborate on creating a custom edited version of our course texts that reflect our classroom discussions and interest. We will add media resources and annotations in the form of questions, observations, links, and images/ videos that will enrich our understanding of these texts.
For this assignment you will use the tool hypothes.is tool through the CUNY Academic Commons site. The goal of the project 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 on the pages of the actual texts we will be reading and discussing. 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.
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.
Ground rules:
- As stated above, each annotation should perform one of those four jobs.
- Each person in a keyword working group should make at least three substantial annotations per text.
- Multimedia: Try to incorporate images, links, and videos into your annotations. Additionally, post primary or archival material from the Web if you come across it.
