Date: March 11, 2026

Literacy is the key that unlocks academic success, yet an alarming number of American students (and adults!) demonstrate shockingly low reading comprehension. One way to combat this in our classrooms is teaching students how to read deeply and make connections. Many students will readily admit that they “read” material but don’t understand or retain what they’ve read, which means they really haven’t read it at all. Reading is more than just decoding groups of 26 symbols–it is interpreting and extracting meaning from the text.
More than just strengthening comprehension, annotation creates an incentive for students to do the reading in the first place. Every teacher knows the frustration of assigning a text that most students never read, a problem so ubiquitous that many teachers have felt compelled to reduce the amount of reading they assign. When students are asked to annotate, however, reading becomes an active task with a clear purpose, giving them a reason to engage with the text instead of dismissing it.
By modeling strategies and examples across a variety of disciplines, we will help teachers improve their students’ reading comprehension and class performance through annotation without adding too much to the teacher’s already heavy workload.

Audience: 6-12th Grade Teachers

Presenter: Susan Raley & Ben Stinson

Location: Bureau, Henry, Stark Regional Office of Education #28. Atkinson, IL

Time: 4:00PM-7:00PM

Professional Development Hours:  3

Cost: $125.00