No matter what I teach–poems, essays, fiction–I want students to learn the profits and pleasures of careful, engaged reading. To cultivate this kind of reading and learning, I’ve tried a lot of previous annotation tools but Hypothes.is finally delivers on the promise of digital annotation. Its clean, flexible interface makes it both easy and powerful for students…Hypothes.is opens the doors to the networked scriptorium.

– Larry Hanley, English professor, San Francisco State

Marginal note-taking is an age-old learning practice that needs little pedagogical justification. Collaborative annotation using web applications like Hypothesis similarly develops the traditional skills of reading comprehension and critical thinking but also introduces students to newer digital literacies (media literacy, visual literacy, informational literacy, to name a few).

The Hypothesis education team works closely with teachers across the disciplines and at different grade levels to make collaborative online annotation a regular practice in their classrooms. We can help you get set up with the free Hypothesis web application as well as brainstorm ways to use annotation to achieve your particular learning goals. Reach out to education@hypothes.is to get started or visit our Teacher Resource Guide for tutorials, assignments, and other helpful materials. We also have lots of resources to instruct and inspire your students here at our student portal. While many of our classes choose to take advantage of our private groups feature, here are some examples of student work with Hypothesis in public.

Follow our blog for ongoing pedagogical discussion of collaborative annotation in the classroom. We invite you to share your experiences and ideas about social reading there as well.