Deborah L. Wolter

Here’s a thought. Annotation as a genre. As a genre itself.

Annotation is “a note added to a text,” according to Remi Kalir and Antero Garcia in their book, Annotation. They have “settled on this definition because it gives us flexibility to explore the broad genre of annotation, both handwritten and digital, textual and visual, from different periods of time, and in service of multiple purposes.” While annotation can mark sustained engagement with texts, my favorite chapter is about how annotation expresses power, a counter narrative annotation, if you will. Annotation is a tool that can bring to light another “valuable perspective not represented in a newspaper, blog post, scholarly manuscript, or online review—and annotation can tell us why that alternative view matters.” As educators and literacies supporters, how can we move from discouraging annotation in books from the classroom and school libraries to finding ways we can encourage dialogue within texts?