C - Circle and DEFINE words you do not know.
A - Acknowledge confusion.
T - Talk to the text.
C - Capture the main idea, theme, or claim.
H - Highlight important information.
Below is what a CATCH Annotated page looks like.
- Use a dictionary or the internet to look up the meaning of the word.
- Does the word seem positive or negative?
- Is there any part of the word that you already know?
- Does it look like any words that you may know in another language?
- Use Context Clues. How is the word used in the sentence?
A - Acknowledge confusion.
- It's okay to not understand what the text is saying. You will have to struggle with the text and ask questions about the text before you can understand the text.
- Everyone struggles to understand difficult texts!
T - Talk to the text.
- Make a prediction. What do you think will happen based on what you already know?
- Ask questions. What don't you understand? What do you need to know?
- Make comments. What's your opinion? Do you agree or disagree with the author?
- React. How does the text make you feel? What does the text make you think?
- Make connections between the text and things that you know about yourself, the world, and other texts that you've read.
C - Capture the main idea, theme, or claim.
- Write the main idea of each paragraph, half-page, or page in the margins.
- Main idea sentence starters:
- This text/part of the text is mostly about . . .
- The author is really trying to tell me that . . .
- If she or he had to choose, the one thing the author would want me to know is that . . .
- If I had to sum up this part of the text in 25 words or less, I would write . . .
- The author wants to prove that . . .
H - Highlight important information.
- Highlighting should be the last thing you do.
- Highlight only the important words or phrases that reveal the main idea or key details.
Below is what a CATCH Annotated page looks like.