Stories such as the myths and legends of old share vital insights to those who are willing to dissect them. Let us, for a moment, recall the Greek hero, Theseus.
When faced with the impossibility of navigating the legendary Labyrinth, Theseus came well prepared. By marking his path with a line of yarn, our hero was able to venture confidently into the unknown – fully aware that his strategy would give way to his safe return. By recording his steps, Theseus traced his way back to their source, thus mastering the labyrinth and emerging victorious.
A new and untraveled book is not unlike a labyrinth. In many ways the winding sequences of information and crossroads of ideas can overwhelm the casual reader and remove them from the text. With the right approach, however, those same complexities can give rise to a deeper understanding and a more rewarding personal interaction with the writing on the page.
Like the yarn of Theseus, a reader's annotations serve as physical anchors – they fuse the text with the reader's comprehension of it, and give birth to a living dialogue between student and page. This intersection is the point at which greater understanding is achieved – not just of the text, but of the readers own processes and innate tendencies when engaging with information.
The Reader's Trace is a handbook for teachers who wish to unlock their students' potential through the use of annotation as a powerful reading comprehension and engagement strategy in their classrooms.