8/12/2019 Interpreting Annotating

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Interpreting Annotating

When a student at Boca High walks into Mrs. Boyles classroom, there are a variety of

inspirational posters. But the one that drew my attention was a small picture of an old lady that

said annotating- aintnobody got time for that! Sadly for us students, this is the case.

Annotating a novel is not only tedious, but it takes away from the book itself. Additionally, it istime consuming as well as stressful on the already stressed out student. Annotation may seem

like it has many implications, but those uses dont outweigh the lessons and enjoyment of

reading.To begin, annotating a book reduces the positive experience obtained from the book. In

particular, the book 1984by George Orwell is a prime example of this. As a student in the

sophomore class, a student who has chosen to remain anonymous has had a firsthand account of

this. He says 1984 has been boring, and annotating it doesnt help. It is not well written.

Despite disagreeing with this student, this example clearly illustrates my point that annotating

acts as a wall, obstructing the actual purpose of the book from view of the student. Also, insteadof being used as a beautiful works of literature, novels at Boca High such as 1984, A Tale of Two

Cities, and Animal Farm simply become sources of grades for the semester. Even a student who

despises reading would enjoy these masterpieces. Its just too bad that the annotating as well as

the work that comes along with it ruins the fun.

Furthermore, the annotation of the novel greatly stresses out the common student. Most

students who want to go to at least a fairly decent university are taking at least 3 AP/ AICE

courses in their sophomore year. These students are also required by the school district to take

English all 4 years. Here is the bottom line: annotating is one of the most stressful parts of high

school. Besides having the fear of a constant pop quiz, there comes the point of teacherqualification. A good teacher who studied English in college is more likely to grade students on

their annotations than a coach who has one English class. This makes annotating expectations

different all around the campus, and with 5 AICE English teachers, the variety of expectations is

large. Keep in mind that this is just AICE English. With AICE GP, English honors as well as AP

English Lit, there is a large assortment of English teachers, ranging from more than qualified, to

not even suitable for the job. The main idea of this is, annotating changes based on the teacher.

One year a student might have a completely lenient teacher, who does not care about annotating

the book, while another year the same student would have a paranoid teacher, who needs every

detail of annotating covered. The stress over annotating is crazy. This year, a teacher requires her

students to find characters, vocab words, key terms, literary devices, as well as taking constant

notes, and asking questions, all in different colors. So instead of leisurely sitting outside reading

a book, one turns into a cluttered mess of markers and pencils and pens galore. Add this to the

many difficult and overlapping tests experienced by the average student, and you have a recipe

for disaster.

8/12/2019 Interpreting Annotating

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One would say that annotating a book keeps a student awake while reading a book.

However, reading the novels should not be simply a matter of staying awake, but fully

understanding and enjoying the novel. Personally, I fall asleep annotating. Another common

argument that is pro-annotation is that annotating helps ace the book tests. As a student, I can

honestly say, about eighty percent of all English classes who have novel tests utilize Sparknotes,

Cliffnotes, or other student novel guides to achieve good grades on their tests. The other twenty

percent may go back to their annotations, and get the same grades as students who sparknotes

it. (All percentages are estimates based on personal observations.)

In conclusion, I personally believe that annotating novels is a waste of time, and is only

used as a source of grades for English classes. The fact that it is so time consuming and stressful

equals more weight on the back of the common student. Also different teachers grade differently,

creating an extremely uneven playing field. Annotating should not be a requirement in English

classes.