Annotation has always been a key tool in making meaning from texts. As our definition of texts has broadened to reflect the changing media landscape, so too has our understanding of annotation practices evolved . Beyond marginalia in books, scholars and educators alike have utilized annotation to light up texts such as web-pages, online resources, and digitized primary sources . Further, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the already rising popularity of social annotation movements in educational practices. Thus, understanding and using annotation as an effective, dynamic tool for learning remains an essential skill . This potential is especially powerful for audio materials, where materials such as oral histories and interviews can be difficult to access and navigate, particularly when they contain sensitive content for classroom use. 

This project (originally created by Bethany Radcliff and Kylie Warkentin in 2021; updated and revised by Kylie Warkentin in 2025) is an educational example of working with and annotating sensitive audio using the “‘Criminal Syndicalism’ Case, McComb, Mississippi (Side 1)” recording from the John Beecher Sound Recordings Collection at the University of Texas’s Harry Ransom Center. In this recording, John Beecher and members of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) meet with high school students arrested on charge of criminal syndicalism, and their parents, after their release from jail in McComb, Mississippi in October 19, 1964. Included inside this project is:

• The full audio, presented with background research of the social/historical context of the recording and a full transcription ("The Audio")
• Two (2) lesson plans for instructors to use AVAnnotate and this recording in a high school classroom, one synchronous ("Synchronous Lesson Plan (In person)") and one asynchronous ("Asynchronous Lesson Plan")
• The asynchronous, student-facing lesson that is ready to use in the classroom ("Asynchronous Lesson (for Students)")
• An example student collaborative project that you could build by the end of either lesson ("Sample Collaborative Student Project")

To use this project as a lesson, instructor should first review both the synchronous and asynchronous lesson plans to see what best suits theirs students' needs. If you'd like to use the asynchronous version of the lesson, it's already built and ready for use under "Asynchronous Lesson (for Students)." Students will simply click on the title and navigate through each module.