Interacting with the Text

Throughout the year, you will be asked to interact with readings in a variety of ways. Sometimes
we will do Dialectical Journals where you will take and respond to notes from various articles
and primary sources. Other times we will digitally annotate readings from a variety of websites.
No matter what interacting activity we will complete, there are a few categories of interactions I
will always be asking you to do. Sometimes you will be asked to complete specific types of
interactions. Other times you will get to choose which you want to do. The different types we
will use are listed and described below:

Connection
Connect the idea in the selected text to something you’ve learned or experienced yourself. The
goal here is to compare whatever we are learning about with things that are already familiar. So
if we are learning about how democracy works, you can connect that to moment when you’ve
had input and say in choices being made

Prediction
Make a guess of what might happen next based on the information in the text. The goal of this is
to see if you can figure out what will happen. So if we are reading about problems in a form of
government, you can predict what changes the people made to fix it.

Evaluation
Explain what the selected part of the text adds to the overall meaning of the reading. The goal
here is to really describe what is going on in your own words and connect it to the main idea or
claim in the reading. So if we are reading an article that argues that we should change how we
elect the president, you could choose a piece of evidence that supports that claim and describe
how it does that.

Question
Write a question that you have about the selected text. The goal here is to identify areas you want
to learn more about. These do NOT have to be questions you can find the answer to in the text.
You aren’t trying to predict what you will find out while reading, but more pose interesting
questions you could research more OR you want Ms. Prettyman to answer. So if you are reading
and have any question about any part of the reading, that is what you would include.

Reaction
What are your personal thoughts about the information given in the selected text. The goal here
is to write any direct response you have that does not fall into another category. This is NOT,
“Oh this is so interesting. Wow, never knew that.” This is more so if you have a specific thought
about the reading as you are going through that doesn’t fit into another category.