Reading Annotation Assignment
Objectives
As part of the third-year course, Playing, Sports, Cultures (WGS331, Winter 2025) this assignment requires students to engage deeply with one assigned reading. Using the Hypothesis annotation tool on Quercus, students annotate the text with comments and questions that address both the content (“what” the article says) and the form (“how” it says it). The assignment is designed to prevent generative AI misuse by emphasizing a process-driven approach: students must demonstrate individualized, critical engagement by identifying main arguments, defining key concepts, raising questions, and making personal or course-specific connections.
This focus on unique analysis and transparent process limits the usefulness of AI-generated content and supports academic integrity. As a “social” annotation tool, Hypothesis also allows students to comment on each other’s comments, answer each other’s questions, and otherwise interact in ways that support the development of a classroom community. However, the annotation assignment works just as well as a basic PDF submission with in-text comments and underlining. (This is a more streamlined version for contexts in which it might not make sense to incorporate the “social” aspect of Hypothesis.)
Process
- Choosing the Assigned Reading: Students begin by selecting one assigned reading that addresses feminist cultural studies perspectives on sports, play, and movement practices.
- Accessing the Annotation Tool: Students access the chosen reading using the Hypothesis annotation tool embedded within Quercus.
- Close Reading and Annotation: Students carefully read the article and add their own annotations, focusing on identifying and explaining the main argument in their own words.
- Defining Key Concepts and Questions: As students annotate, they define important concepts introduced in the reading and note any questions or points of confusion that arise.
- Making Connections to Course Themes: Students make meaningful connections between the reading and other course materials or their own relevant experiences, especially relating to gender, identity, power, and representation in sports cultures.
- Analyzing Content and Rhetoric: Throughout the annotation process, they attend to both what the article says and how the author constructs and presents their argument, considering style and rhetorical strategies.
- Ensuring Authentic Engagement and Academic Integrity: Students ensure their annotations reflect individualized, critical engagement, as the assignment’s process-oriented design discourages generative AI use for final writing; any AI use must be limited to brainstorming or outlining and must be transparently disclosed.
Future-Focused Skill Development
This annotation assignment directly aligns with the University of Calgary’s STRIVE model, specifically in terms of its focus on student-centredness and integrity. Students exercise agency by selecting a relevant reading and critically interacting with the text through close reading and detailed annotation, supporting the development of their reflective and metacognitive skills. While students may use generative AI tool for brainstorming and outlining, the assignment’s design prevents unauthorized AI use; it requires a transparent, process-driven demonstration of individualized analysis visible through in-text annotations or comments. This structured approach cultivates responsibility and accountability, ensuring students produce authentic, original work that reflects their critical thinking and understanding. By prioritizing honest, ongoing engagement instead of relying on a final product alone, the assignment supports students in becoming self-regulated learners and ethical contributors.