Teacher instructions: Copy and paste these instructions into your own course to use with your students. Be sure to review the instructions before posting in your courses. You may want to make adjustments depending on how you plan to assess annotations or due to your specific discipline and/or specific assignment/essay.

Instructions for students

Purpose: To review the instructions for this essay/assignment together by adding annotations to the instructions themselves. This will help us better understand the assignment at hand, and help me clarify any unclear expectations. You can review a quick-start guide for how to add annotations.

Instructions: As you review the instructions, add at least 1-2 annotations. Here’s some guidance for what you might include in your annotations:

• Ask a question about something that’s unclear or confusing to you
• Use your own words to paraphrase a question I’ve asked (this can help me understand how you’re interpreting the question)
• Add a link, image or video to your annotation that you think supplements the material well and could help a classmate better understand a topic while preparing to complete the assignment (review instructions on how to add images, links or videos to annotations)
  • This could be to material from outside the class, or reference material we’ve covered together in class
• Summarize key ideas or concepts that you think might be essential to completing the assignment
• Reply to a classmate with an additive annotation (add to the conversation by answering their question or extending their response). Here are some ideas on how to start an additive response to a classmate:
  • What did you mean by …
  • Did you consider …/ You might consider …
  • I think you should …
  • It made me think …

Important notes about annotating: 

• Make sure you hit “post” after you complete your annotation, or else your annotation will not be saved.
• Make sure it says “post to [this class]” and not “post to only me,” or else I won’t be able to review your annotations.
• If someone replies to your annotation, you will not receive a notification. Check back periodically to continue the conversation!