ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the power of integrated learning—of combining rhetoric and literature—can help students become better readers who ultimately get more out of their English classes. Rhetorical knowledge not only helps students adapt and apply their learning but also amps up students’ power as critical readers. Students need to see the behind-the-scenes processes—and benefits—of multiple ways of reading. The chapter provides several strategies for teaching annotation that can help strengthen students’ close-reading skills while developing their rhetorical sensitivity. Pre- and Post-Annotation Cards allow students to compare their understandings at different stages of the reading process. Students who have learned to create descriptive outlines of expository texts can transfer this rhetorical reading skill to an act of literary analysis. The competing narratives offer a rich opportunity for comparing and analyzing rhetorical purposes, choices, and effects.
