Lunch & Listen: Preceptor Training Open Class
Effective Annotation:
How to take Reading & Discussion Notes that Facilitate Writing
WELCOME
On behalf of myself and the Writing Preceptors of WRT 490, I’d like to welcome you to this
Lunch and Listen Open Class! Today’s class will introduce the concept of “modeling” as a
strategy for facilitating all stages of the composition process
Modeling annotation and note-taking strategies can assist students even before a formal
writing assignment has begun by demonstrating how they can capture details from reading
assignments and class discussion as raw materials. Such a modeling activity also facilitates
formal writing by offering a concrete demonstration of both the invention (in classical
rhetoric, inventio) and arrangement (dispositio) of ideas. An instructor may also wish to have
the class do a complete “modeling unit.” A modeling unit uses course readings that will not
be the topic of a formal writing assignment to introduce students to critical pre-writing
strategies and give them a chance to practice those approaches in a low risk setting by
producing a plan for a collaborative “practice paper” in class.
A preceptor can play a crucial role in such an in-class activity not only by making
contributions to the discussion but, more importantly, by modeling at the board the kinds of
strategies that are being introduced.
In doing so, the preceptor engages in what scholars of rhetoric and composition describe as
“directive” tutoring: showing students HOW in a step by step fashion to take the raw
materials of their ideas and shape them into the kind of pre-writing components that lead to
a stronger paper.
Today’ demonstration of practical strategies for an in-class writing instruction activity that
could be used in a range of writing instruction classes at Mercer, from INT/GBK 101 to a
WRT 120/GBK 203 and INT 201. The specific reading assignment and writing prompt is
from my ENG 234.WRT 120 course.
Thank you again for being a part of our Open Class; the preceptors and I are very excited to
have you here. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to be in touch.
Dr. Deneen Senasi
Senasi_DM@Mercer.edu
Mercer Writing Program Spring 2015 Writing Preceptors:
Micheline Dieujuste-Antoine, Advanced Preceptor for the WRT 490 course
Basil Al-Rafati
Alisha Arora
Jordan Austin
Brooke Childers
Mariah Hankins
Britt Henry
Katie Holloway
Abby Jacobs
Katie Montgomery
William Scruggs
Teal St. Nicklaus
Da’Shonna Thomas
Ann Truong
Preceptors and Modeling: Collaborative Practice
 Preceptors stand at the board and model effective note-taking strategies, showing
students how to identify those ideas in discussion that should be written down as
potential raw material for formal papers.
 Preceptors may then work with the professor to lead students as a group through
each stage of the pre-writing process in order to develop a collaborative “practice
paper.” that responds to a specific prompt. This modeling activity may be done in a
single class or spread out across two or three meetings as a means of preparing
students to write their own individual essays.
 It may be more manageable to divide the class into “focus groups” that explore
particular aspects of a text, such as content or structure, with the preceptor leading
one group and the faculty member another. Then have the groups reconvene and
integrate their results in the plans for the collaborative paper.
 Once students have been taken through the pre-writing stages relevant to the prompt
and the discipline, they may be broken up into new focus groups that work on
particular parts of the collaborative paper, from the working thesis to plans for body
paragraphs and appropriate evidence.
 Students who have engaged in this kind of collaborative activity could then apply the
same strategies in their individual papers and would be prepared to work one on one
with the preceptor either in an in-class workshop, during a Drop In Day session, or
in an individual tutorial outside of class.
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Reading Assignment for today’s Modeling Demonstration
“What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades,” by Maria Konnikova, The New York Times, June 2,
2014
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Reading Assignment on Annotation and Note-Taking Strategies
“Active Critical Reading: Prereading and Close Reading,” from Writing in the Disciplines:
A Reader and Rhetoric for Academic Writers.” 7th Edition. Mary Lynch Kennedy and
William J. Kennedy, Pearson, Boston: 2012.
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Excerpts From “Active Critical Reading”
PREREADING QUESTIONS:
*What does the title indicate the text will be about?
*How do the subtitles and headings function? Do they reveal the organizational format (for
example, introduction, body, conclusion)?
*Is there biographical information about the author? What does it tell me about the text?
*Are there other salient features of the text, such as enumeration, italics, boldface print,
indention, diagrams, visual aids, or footnotes? What do these features reveal about the text?
*Does the text end with a summary? What does the summary reveal about the text?
*What type of background knowledge do I need to make sense of this text?
*Why am I reading this text?
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STRATEGIES FOR ELABORATING ON TEXTS
EXPAND TEXT
*Agree or disagree with a statement in the text, giving reasons for your agreements or
disagreement.
*Compare or contrast your reactions to the topic (for example, “At first I thought . . . but
now I think . . .).
*Extend one of the points. Think of an example and see how far you can take it.
*Discover an idea implied by the text but not stated.
*Provide additional details by fleshing out a point in the text.
*Illustrate the text with an example, an incident, a scenario, or an anecdote
*Embellish the text with a vivid image, a metaphor, or an example.
*Draw comparisons between the text and books, articles, films, or other media.
*Validate one of the points with an example.
*Make a judgment about the relevance of one of the statements in the text.
*Impose a condition on a statement in the text. (For example, “If . . . then . . . “)
*Qualify an idea in the text. Take a single paragraph and speculate on extensions of or
exceptions to its claims.
*Extend an idea with a personal recollection or reflection. Personalize one of the statements.
Try to imagine how you would behave in the same situation.
*Speculate about one of the points by:
Asking questions about the direct consequences of an idea
Predicting consequences
Drawing implications from an idea
Applying the idea to a hypothetical situation
Giving a concrete instance of a point made in the text
QUESTION TEXT
*Draw attention to what the text has neglected to say about the topic.
*Test one of the claims. Ask whether the claim really holds up.
*Assess one of the points in light of your own prior knowledge of the topic or with your own
or others’ experience.
*Question one of the points.
*Criticize a point in the text. Take a single paragraph and question every claim in it.
*Assess the usefulness and applicability of an idea.
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Rhetorical Strategies as a tool for Note-taking: “Inventio” and Dispositio
“Inventio”/Freewriting and Brainstorming – write freely in response to the prompt, then
brainstorm results by identifying associated terms/key words based on free writing results.
~“Dispositio”/Ordering Ideas – among the selected ideas, is there a logical sequence that
could suggest ideas for the ordering of the argument?
Brainstorming – what key words or ideas emerge when you step back and look at the board?
Make a list of those terms on a separate board; have students make their own list in their
notes.
Clustering – what patterns or points of connection emerge from the brainstorming notes?
Ask and show on the board what kinds of relationships between terms may be present.
Revisiting the key questions posed by the instructor at the beginning of the activity – which
Brainstorming details seem most relevant to that framing question or idea?
Selection/Prioritizing – among those ideas, which ones does the class find most engaging?
Which ones are supported by the most concrete evidence from the text(s)?
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Draft a Collaborative “Writer’s Notebook Entry”
From “Active Critical Reading”: “critical reading is accompanied by various types of
writing: freewriting and brainstorming, taking notes, posing and answering questions,
responding from personal experience, paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting. Readers
need a place to record all this writing. We suggest that you use a writer’s notebook . . .
You will fill your writer’s notebook with informal writing, some of which will emerge in the
formal writing you do at a later date. Writer’s notebooks are places to collect material for
future writing. They are different from journals in this respect. Journal writing can be an
end in itself . . .
A writer’s notebook is not an end in itself. The entries are recorded with an eye toward later
writing. They may become the basis for an essay, provide evidence for an argument, or serve
as repositories of apt quotations. Consider your writer’s notebook as a record of your
conversations with texts, as well as a storehouse for collecting material you can draw on
when writing” (5-6).