Enhancing students' critical literacy through social annotations

1. Enhancing Students’ Critical
Literacy Through Social
Annotations
Sheng-Shiang Tseng (Patrick)
University of Georgia
Hui-Chin Yeh
National Yunlin University of Science & Technology
Michael Orey
University of Georgia

2. Characteristics of students with
critical literacy
1. Identify the most useful information needed to
understand text (Leu et al., 2011)
2. Critically evaluate the accuracy, reliability, and
bias of text information (Sanchez, Wiley, &
Goldman, 2006),
3. Synthesize text information (Jenkins, 2006)

3. Critical literacy &
social annotations
Def. of social annotation
◦ Students annotate the same reading together,
share annotations, and provide feedback to the
annotation marked by previous readers (Cadiz, J.
J., Gupta, A., & Grudin, 2000).

4. A.nnotate
Annotations
Provide
feedback on
annotations
Share
annotations

5. Research questions
1. What is the effect of social annotations
upon critical literacy?
2. How do students benefit from social
annotations in critical literacy?

6. Method
Participants
45 English as Foreign Language students of low-
intermediate reading proficiency level in Taiwan
Text reading
◦ In reading the Text 1, the students read the text
individually without marking annotations on texts.
◦ In reading the Text 2, the students were divided
into 15 groups to read the text with social
annotation through a social annotation tool,
A.nnotate

7. Data collection & analysis
Research Questions Data Sources Data Analysis
Methods
What is the effect of
social annotations
upon critical
literacy?
1. Student critical
reading tests from
the Text 1 (N = 45)
2. Student critical
reading tests from
the Text 2 (N = 45)
Statistical
analysis
(ANOVA) of the
two reading
comprehension
tests
How do students
benefit from social
annotations in
critical literacy?
1. Records of
student social
annotations (N =
45)
Content analysis
(Patton, 1990)

8. Results &
Discussions

9. RQ1: What is the effect of social
annotations upon critical
literacy?
There were significant differences between Text 1 and
Text 2 in the mean scores of vocabulary and factual
information, but not main ideas and summary.
One-Way ANOVA
Reading
comprehension
tests
F Mean scores
Texts :
• Text 1 without social
annotations
•Text 2 with social
annotations
Vocabulary 23.30*** Text 1< Text
2
Main idea 10.30 Text 1< Text 2
Factual
information
22.57*** Text 1< Text 2
Summary 9.68 Text 1< Text 2
***P<.001

10. RQ1: What is the effect of social
annotations upon critical literacy?
 The results showed that the social annotation is
helpful for students' critical literacy in
◦ Increasing students’ retention of vocabulary
meaning and usage
◦ Evaluating the accuracy, reliability of text
information,
 The results showed that the social annotation is
unhelpful for students' critical literacy in
◦ Identifying the most useful information needed to
understand text,
◦ Synthesizing text information.

11. RQ2: How do students benefit
from social annotations in critical
literacy?
 The effectiveness of social annotation on
critical literacy may be associated with the type
of social annotations students used while
reading.
Social annotation types Means of frequency
The meaning of vocabulary or
phrases
38
The usage of vocabulary or
phrases
34
The content of the article 27
The grammatical structures of the
article
18
The main idea of paragraphs 4

12. Implications
 Pedagogically, when using social annotation to
enhance students’ critical literacy, teachers should
lead students to share their annotations regarding
the main ideas, and text organization.
 The design of future social annotation tools can
provide students with annotation types, such as of
underlining vocabulary, marking essential text
information, or adding notes in margins for
summaries, to mark annotations on texts.

13. Thank you!
pattseng@uga.edu