CATCH ANNOTATIONS

Review the following slides and fill in your notes.

ANNOTATIONS

• You must ANNOTATE to fully understand what you read for school.– Annotating is like “talking” to the book.– You have to have a meaningful conversation.– How can you have this conversation?– CATCH will help you.

CATCH

• Circle words you do not know and then DEFINE them!

• Circling the words: – is part of “turning on your brain” when you read.– makes you stop and think about what you are reading.– forces your brain to acknowledge confusion!

• If you have a dictionary, look up the word.• If you do not, or you are taking a test, try the

“Four Strategies.

Vocab Strategies

Positive or Negative– Does the word have a

POSITIVE or NEGATIVE connotation?

– Abhorrent• _____________

– Sinister• _____________

– Exquisite• _______________

Word Part• Is there a word part --

prefix, root, or suffix that you know?

• Revision: re equals “again”

• Subordinate: sub means “under” or “below”

• Contemptuous: con means “against”

• Malicious: mal means bad

Vocab Strategies

Spanish (or other language) Cognate• Does the word have a

Spanish cognate?• Infuriating– Infurioso

Read Around the Word (Context Clues)• Context means…

– The background, situation, environment, or circumstance surrounding an event.

– When you encounter a new word, you might be able to figure it out if you know some CONTEXT.

When you find a word you don’t know:

• Read the sentence before.• Read the sentence after.• See if there are any words in those sentences

that will help you understand what is going on.

• Use those clues to PREDICT the meaning of the new word

CATCH• Acknowledge confusion and wrestle with it.– Students are used to “shutting down” when they

don’t understand.– We must ask questions when we read.– The strategies of CATCH help clear up that

confusion.

CATCH: Talk to the Text• PREDICT

– Make a PREDICTION based on any titles, pictures, charts, and graphs.• I think this book is going to be about…

ALIENS!

• QUESTION– Ask a QUESTION based on any

titles, pictures, charts, and graphs.• One question I already have is…”How

do aliens go to the bathroom?”

• COMMENT – COMMENT on what you are reading.

• This author really doesn’t believe in the scientific method.

• REACT– REACT to what you are reading.

• The destruction of the ecosystem is truly tragic!

• This algebraic function seems different from the others.

• The Spanish word is the same as the English word!

• CONNECT– CONNECT to what you are reading.

• My cake fell because the temperature was not constant—the same as in this experiment!

• My grandfather said he was in Vietnam. I wonder if he actually killed anyone?

• This triangle S-A-S formula is kind of like the height/width ratio.

CATCH• Capture the main idea makes sure that you have

understood what you have just read.• Capture the main idea =

• This text/part of the text is MOSTLY about…• The author is really trying to tell me that…• If she had to choose, the ONE thing the author would want

me to know is that…• If I had to sum up this part of the text in 25 words or less, I

would write….• The author wants to prove that…• The MOST IMPORTANT IDEA within this text is…

CATCH• Highlight AFTER you have done everything else!• We are avoiding the “indiscriminate highlighting” for no

reason….– CATCH is a great way to annotate text. It helps you figure out what

is going on when the words are hard! At the bare minimum, annotating keeps your hand and pencil moving and your brain awake. You cannot fall asleep while reading, if you annotate! • NO

– CATCH is a great way to annotate text. It helps you figure out what is going on when the words are hard! At the bare minimum, annotating keeps your hand and pencil moving and your brain awake. You cannot fall asleep while reading, if you annotate! • YES

C A T C HC – Circle and DEFINE words you do not know.

A – Acknowledge confusion. You may not understand what you are reading AT FIRST, but you will if you keep going and do all the letters in CATCH.

T – Talk to the text.

C – Capture the main idea/assertion.

H – Highlight important information.