I use this activity at the beginning of Unit II to help students get into the habit of reading actively and paying attention to the text and their responses to it. Adapted from an exercise by Peggy Woods in the old Text Wrestling Book, this is one of the activities my students give the most positive feedback on. I make an overhead of the ways I mark up texts I read for my own classes as an example and to demonstrate the usefulness of reading in this way.

I. Take Out Your Pencils: How to interact with a text.

When you read, you should, in a sense, be in dialogue with the words on the page. While you read the essay assigned today, take out your pencils (or pens) and put that “dialogue” on the page. Don’t feel bad about writing in the book. You bought it, so make it your own.

Read with your pencil in hand. As you work slowly through the essay, mark things that stand out to you. Make strong, straight lines along paragraphs that seem especially important or interesting. Make wavy lines alongside paragraphs that seem confusing. Circle any specialized terms or words the writer uses--especially if she defines them or uses them again and again. And all along the margin, make notes. Note what the writer says, what strikes you as interesting, what the writer doesn’t say, what questions you have or what you just don’t get.

You don’t have to mark the text in exactly the ways above—but these are guidelines you should use as you develop your own methods of interacting with a text. Below are some specific techniques for you to try out as you read.

SAYBACK—Alongside different paragraphs, summarize in your own words just what the writer is saying--not what the writer means, but what she is SAYING.

POINTING—When you come across something that stands out to you, note in the margin WHY it stands out. Is it something you observed, does it remind you of something you’ve experienced, something else you’ve read?

ALMOST SAY-BACK—You can also make notes about what the writer almost says or tries to say—here you’ll be making an inference. Sometime you’ll be making inferences the author wants you to make, and sometimes they will be inferences the author hopes you won’t make.

QUESTIONS—Record any questions you have right there in the margin. You may find an answer later in the text. And remember, sometimes the author is being ambiguous on purpose.

II. Your Assignment: When you’ve finished reading the essay, go back through and reread the notes you made and skim over the text. Write a summary of some of the questions you asked, comments you made and points that stood out to you. Also include how this way of reading might be useful to you if you were to write a paper about this text. (1 page, single spaced)