Readers using a modern reading tool have two powerful surfaces at their fingertips: the ability to annotate (highlight, react, leave a note on a passage) and the ability to ask an AI a question. Both are useful. They are useful for very different things, and the difference is often misunderstood.
This post is a short guide for readers, parents, and teachers on when each one actually helps comprehension — and when each one gets in the way. It fits inside the broader AI Literacy for Readers framework.
Highlighting, underlining, and leaving a note are acts of interpretation that leave a physical trace. The value is twofold: