As senior Genres of Literature students welcome the modern language and nonfiction, albeit grim, reality of Truman Capote's 1959 true crime novel, tenth grade honors students revel in the crafty spirit and dialect of Mark Twain's most famous survivor, Huck Finn. While reading The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, annotations are being made to document unfamiliar vocabulary, experiences shared with protagonist Huck, predictions about future events, and to question peripheral issues, such as parents' rights to their children and the influence of 'narrator' on the story the audience hears.
As making time to annotate helps provide for current comprehension and inform future encounters with vocab, culture, and life, making time to save, rinse, and mail-in Yoplait's pink lids is a analogous practice; annotating texts encourages readers to make an investment that aids them currently and, very likely, in the future.
Mark Tatulli's "Lio" comic strip from October 18, 2009 is a quick example of the need for and usefulness of annotating and researching things that you...me...we... do not know. When one appreciates the name and history of "Fay Wray," the hair-covered mourner is now distinguishable as the ever-adoring King Kong.