Annotation Notes from Slowreads

How to Mark a Book

This outline addresses why you would ever want to mark in a book.  For each reason, the outline gives specific strategies to achieve your goals in reading the book. (Click here to read the essay that this outline was created for.)

  1. Interact with the book – talk back to it.  You learn more from a conversation than you do from a lecture.  (This is the text-to-self connection.)
    1. Typical marks
                                                               i.      Question marks and questions – be a critical reader
                                                             ii.      Exclamation marks – a great point, or I really agree!
                                                            iii.      Smiley faces and other emoticons
                                                           iv.      Color your favorite sections.  Perhaps draw pictures in the margin that remind you about the passage’s subject matter or events.
                                                             v.      Pictures and graphic organizers.  The pictures may express your overall impression of a paragraph, page, or chapter.  The graphic organizer (Venn diagram, etc.) may give you a handy way to sort the material in a way that makes sense to you.
    1. Typical writing
                                                               i.      Comments – agreements or disagreements
                                                             ii.      Your personal experience
1.      Write a short reference to something that happened to you that the text reminds you of, or that the text helps you understand better
2.      Perhaps cross-reference to your diary or to your personal journal  (e.g., “Diary, Nov. 29, 2004”)
                                                            iii.      Random associations
1.      Begin to trust your gut when reading!  Does the passage remind you of a song?  Another book?  A story you read?  Like some of your dreams, your associations may carry more psychic weight than you may realize at first.  Write the association down in the margin!
2.      Cross-reference the book to other books making the same point.  Use a shortened name for the other book – one you’ll remember, though.  (e.g., “Harry Potter 3”) (This is a text-to-text connection.)

  1. Learn what the book teaches.  (This is the text-to-world connection.)
    1. Underline, circle or highlight key words and phrases.
    2. Cross-reference a term with the book’s explanation of the term, or where the book gives the term fuller treatment.
                                                               i.      In other words, put a reference to another page in the book in the margin where you’re reading.  Use a page number.
                                                             ii.      Then, return the favor at the place in the book you just referred to.  You now have a link so you can find both pages if you find one of them.
    1. Put your own summaries in the margin
                                                               i.      If you summarize a passage in your own words, you’ll learn the material much better.
                                                             ii.      Depending on how closely you wish to study the material, you may wish to summarize entire sections, paragraphs, or even parts of paragraphs.
                                                            iii.      If you put your summaries in your books instead of separate notebooks, the book you read and the summary you wrote will reinforce each other.  A positive synergy happens!  You’ll also keep your book and your notes in one place.
    1. Leave a “trail” in the book that makes it easier to follow when you study the material again.
                                                               i.      Make a trail by writing subject matter headings in the margins.  You’ll find the material more easily the second time through.
                                                             ii.      Bracket or highlight sections you think are important
    1. In the margin, start a working outline of the section you’re reading.  Use only two or three levels to start with.
    2. Create your own index in the back of the book! Click here to see an example of a homemade index.
                                                               i.      Don’t set out to make a comprehensive index.  Just add items that you want to find later.
                                                             ii.      Decide on your own keywords – one or two per passage.  What would you look for if you returned to the book in a few days?  In a year?
                                                            iii.      Use a blank page or pages in the back.  Decide on how much space to put before and after the keyword.  If your keyword starts with “g,” for instance, go about a quarter of the way through the page or pages you’ve reserved for your index and write the word there.
                                                           iv.      Write down the keyword and the page number on which the keyword is found.  If that isn’t specific enough, write “T,” “M,” or “B” after the page number.  Each of those letters tells you where to look on the page in question; the letters stand for “top,” “middle,” and “bottom,” respectively.
                                                             v.      Does the book already have an index?  Add to it with your own keywords to make the index more useful to you.
    1. Create a glossary at the beginning or end of a chapter or a book.
                                                               i.      Every time you read a word you don’t know that seems important for your purposes in reading the book, write it down in your glossary.
                                                             ii.      In your glossary next to the word in question, put the page number where the word may be found.
                                                            iii.      Put a very short definition by each word in the glossary.

  1. Pick up the author’s style.  (This is the reading-to-writing connection.)
    1. Why?  Because you aren’t born with a writing style.  You pick it up.  Perhaps there’s something that you like about this author’s style but you don’t know what it is.  Learn to analyze an author’s writing style in order to pick up parts of her style that becomes natural to you.
    2. How?
                                                               i.      First, reflect a bit.  What do you like about the writer’s style?  If nothing occurs to you, consider the tone of the piece (humorous, passionate, etc.)  Begin to wonder: how did the writer get the tone across?  (This method works for discovering how a writer gets across tone, plot, conflict, and other things.)
                                                             ii.      Look for patterns.
1.      Read a paragraph or two or three you really like.  Read it over and over.  What begins to stand out to you?
2.      Circle or underline parts of speech with different colored pens, pencils, or crayons.  Perhaps red for verbs, blue for nouns, and green for pronouns.
3.      Circle or underline rhetorical devices with different colored writing instruments, or surround them with different geometric shapes, such as an oval, a rectangle, and a triangle.
a.       What rhetorical devices?
                                                                                                                                       i.      How she mixes up lengths of sentences
                                                                                                                                     ii.      Sound devices – alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, repetition, internal rhymes, etc.
                                                                                                                                    iii.      You name it!
                                                            iii.      Pick a different subject than that covered in the passage, and deliberately try to use the author’s patterns in your own writing.
                                                           iv.      Put your writing aside for a few days, and then edit it.  What remains of what you originally adopted from the writer’s style?  If what remains is natural and well done, you may have made that part of her style part of your own style.


- Peter


Two Friends for Life


* You'll disagree with them sometimes, but remember the proverb: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, / But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful" (27:6).
  • Good Bible Teaching from the Famous Bible Chair of Biola, Dr. J. Vernon McGee
  • Listen to 25 minutes a day, while you drive or job or what not.  You'll make it through the Bible in five years.  He's not perfect, and you won't agree with everything he says, but he's very good.  He's clear; he knows Greek and Latin well.  He is generally balanced.  He deals with the entire Bible.  He's rather funny and has a southern drawl.  He applies the Bible with anecdotes.  You'll probably notice bits of Schwager in him because there are chunks of McGee in me.  My grandmother, my mother, I, and now my children have all been blessed.  Hop on the Bible bus with us. 


     




    Why do I love Chesterton?  He helps me to see the wonder in the world anew.  He answered so many questions so beautifully.  He's a journalist with a watercolor poet's eye and mirthful angel's heart.  I enjoy his company. I love his poetry and fiction.  I even love his apologetics. 

    For instance, take this typically materialistic thought from Richard Dawkins, recently:

    "We are machines built by DNA whose purpose is to make more copies of the same DNA. ... This is exactly what we are for. We are machines for propagating DNA, and the propagation of DNA is a self-sustaining process. It is every living object's sole reason for living."

    Now consider Chesterton's thought from 1905 (H.G. Wells, as an atheist, said much the same as Dawkins): 

    “It is as if a man were asked, 'What is the use of a hammer?' and answered, 'To make hammers'; and when asked, 'And of those hammers, what is the use?' answered, 'To make hammers again.' Just as such a man would be perpetually putting off the question of the ultimate use of carpentry, so Mr. Wells and all the rest of us are by these phrases successfully putting off the question of the ultimate value of the human life.”



    __________________________
    Attribution for Dawkins: Royal Institution Christmas Lecture, 'The Ultraviolet Garden', (No. 4, 1991). Quoted in Vinoth Ramachandra, Subverting Global Myths: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping our World (2008), 187. 

    Attribution for Chesterton: Heretics, publish 1905.  

    Not Axactly

    I can't tell you where to go to college.  I do advise you to honor the Lord in all your decisions and to honor the Lord by walking cleanly and working honestly wherever you decide to go.  If that doesn't interest you, there's a university that could save you four to twelve years of academic labor and expense.

    Pledge Reminders

    The Pledge to the Christian Flag

    "I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag, and to the Savior, for whose kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe."

    The Pledge of Allegiance

    "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

    Monday and Tuesday: STAR Test, Survey, and Projects

    * Pledge to the Flags

    * Please turn in any novels, green sheets, or practice AP exams.

    * Star Test: Those who beat their previous score will earn extra credit.  Leeza Wayne only needs to get close to her score as she has the highest score one can achieve on this test (1400).  Bravo, Leeza!

    *Star Testing
    • Open app.
    • Enter your MV user name, usually 1st letter of 1st name + 4 letters of last.
      • ex/ "abrid" for Allison Bridgette
      • Resident students use birth name.
      • If there are fewer than four letters in last name, then you will use the first letter(s) of your first.
      • Some student names match, so have your teacher check the list if you cannot remember your user name. 
    • Enter the password as "password"
    • Select "Star Reading"
    • Tap next and start.
      • Just in case: Monitor password is "Te@ch13".
      • Need a URL? https://hosted90.renlearn.com/283483/
    * Today or tomorrow, please take my Course Survey

    * Tell us about your wonderful project!

    Final Exam Update

    Your final exam essays will require your recent knowledge of Victorian literature, Modern literature, and your outside reading text.  Also, one prompt will allow you to employ Pride and Prejudice or Rime of the Ancient Mariner instead of your outside reading (your choice).  You may find one of those other texts works better for you on the prompt (as there are many possible outside reading selections); therefore, once you have reviewed the three main texts, review other semester two material.

    Friday's PA Schedule

    Final Exam Reminder

    If you didn't take the AP exam, you will have an essay-based final exam.  Your writing will treat the last historical periods you studied ("The Victorian Era" and "The Twentieth Century to the Present") and your outside reading.  You'll want to review those three documents for the final exam.  It will help if you make a study card for your novel as I'll be asking you to treat important elements and themes.

    Block Day: Party (some classes)

    * Open
    • Dresses
    • Pledges
    • Turn in your research assignment to the silver tray
    • Be sure to submit to turnitin.com by midnight tonight
    * Party (some classes)
    • Swing into your Saturday?
    * Discussion
     HW: None (party prep. for some classes) 

    Wednesday, 5/13: Are You Ready for Some Brutal Grace?

    * Let's Review Together
    • Pledges and Creeds
    • The Pledge to the Christian Flag

      "I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag, and to the Saviour, for whose kingdom it stands. One Saviour, crucified, risen and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe."

      History of the Pledge
    * Party
    • Sign up on board. 
    • We always need the following items:
      • Cups
      • Drinks
      • Snacks
      • Plates
      • Napkins
    * Discussion (per. 6 only)

    * Modern Story (Can you feel the brutal grace? Please ready for block day.)

    HW: Research Project 

    Beware picking an intellectual fight with this southern lady: she's fierce.

     

    Best Discussion Prompts So Far

    • How is marriage to be viewed, biblically? 
      • Why aren't we joined forever?
    • How does an apartment rental work?
    • What should I know about dorm living?
    • What is homework like in college?

    Final Exam Schedule

    Tuesday's Schedule

    Literary Research

    Reminder: The Research Paper is due on block day this week.


    Resources:
    • Touchstone Magazine: Here's the keyword search page (anything we read for class you'll find in there). This works for all literature, theology, and philosophy.

    Extra Credit Opportunity (I will add points to your ICE Essay or AP MC Score)

    Essay Contest at First Things magazine. 

    Just for you, Katie = ). 

    Christian Marriage

    Basic Definition
    • marriage (n.)

      Meaning "a union of a man and woman for life by marriage" (early 1300s). 
       
    God's Word 
    Although the Bible doesn't give a dictionary definition for us, it has made the marriage context clear: one man and one woman pledged for life together. 
    • Genesis 2:21 ff.  And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said:
      “This is now bone of my bones
      And flesh of my flesh;
      She shall be called Woman,
      Because she was taken out of Man.”

      Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.  
    • Genesis 1:28: Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
    • Ephesians 5:25 ff. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.  “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.