Annotation Made Exciting... Beware Using in Classroom!

Overall I think Genius.com is a great learning tool to demonstrate close reading. The website overall is easy to follow and it encourages class discussions on what specific pieces of texts mean to them. It's also a great way to show how students could have different view points and provide strategies on how to use evidence from texts to apply that information to their different views. The website also gives very detailed explanations on everything and is fairly organized.

Genius ends up being a very capable tool for the classroom but takes a bit of effort to become accustomed to using. The plethora of content and ease of distraction for students can be a downside but the ability to annotate and share on the spot while your peers do the same is extremely helpful. If Genius extended their features a bit more and allowed private sessions where a teacher could host a particular work and session that would be an incredibly useful step up. As it stands, Genius is a very helpful tool that could use some tweaking to be better streamlined towards the classroom. The upside of this tool, as well, is it allows students to search a variety of things such as songs that can then be used as a reference to a work in the classroom discussion or for a paper.

There is very little not to love about Genius.com in the English Language Arts classroom! Setup is fairly quick and simple, saving teachers precious time and becoming a verified educator is as simple as sending an email. In the classroom, there is little question that Genius.com promotes close reading and lively discussion. Students are interested to read how their classmates interpret text in comparison to their own views and subsequently, how their classmates respond to their ideas. It is not uncommon to hear voices rise up of the clatter of keys in the classroom as students begin to debate the finer points of literature, using textual evidence for support!