About Reading in the Margins
Attention first.
Interpretation follows.
Sophisticated reading is a collection of teachable habits: noticing, questioning, connecting, and revising.
Our starting point
The thinking
between the lines
can be taught.
A reader sees a detail, relates it to another, makes an inference, and tests that inference against the next sentence. These small movements can disappear inside a polished interpretation. Students see the result without seeing the process.
Reading in the Margins makes the process available for practice. We begin with what is actually present in the text. We ask what deserves attention. We build an interpretation that remains answerable to the evidence.
An unexpected detail may matter. A contradiction may deserve to stay unresolved. An ending may require us to read the beginning differently.
The aim is a reader who can think independently—and explain the thinking.
The name
A place to mark.
A way to notice.
The margin is where a reader can pause, question, and try out an idea. It is also a reminder to attend to what is easy to pass over: a precise word, a quiet shift, a detail that does not fit.
Useful annotation leaves a record of thinking. It gives us something to return to, connect, and revise.
The experience behind the work
Classroom practice.
Assessment insight.
Reading in the Margins is an independent educational project developed by an Alberta high-school English teacher with approximately 20 years of classroom experience.
That experience includes English 10-1, 20-1, and 30-1; current International Baccalaureate literature teaching; English department leadership; and Alberta diploma examination marking and assessment development.
The materials bring that experience to a wider audience: teenagers, parents and guardians, tutors, educators, and adults who want to read more closely.
Reading in the Margins is an independent business, with no claimed affiliation or endorsement from Alberta Education, the International Baccalaureate, or any school.
A good place to begin
Five questions.
A different way to read.
Give your teenager a practical way into a difficult text—and a reason to look again.
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