diff --git a/xmodule/annotatable_block.py b/xmodule/annotatable_block.py
index dbcf0123c59a..9dcc27198d5d 100644
--- a/xmodule/annotatable_block.py
+++ b/xmodule/annotatable_block.py
@@ -140,9 +140,8 @@ def _render_content(self):
         """ Renders annotatable content with annotation spans and returns HTML. """
 
         xmltree = etree.fromstring(self.data)
-        content = etree.tostring(xmltree, encoding='unicode')
+        self._extract_instructions(xmltree)
 
-        xmltree = etree.fromstring(content)
         xmltree.tag = 'div'
         if 'display_name' in xmltree.attrib:
             del xmltree.attrib['display_name']
diff --git a/xmodule/tests/test_annotatable_block.py b/xmodule/tests/test_annotatable_block.py
index b9f419ee3a0f..3de253047a8d 100644
--- a/xmodule/tests/test_annotatable_block.py
+++ b/xmodule/tests/test_annotatable_block.py
@@ -134,3 +134,11 @@ def test_extract_instructions(self):
         xmltree = etree.fromstring('<annotatable>foo</annotatable>')
         actual = self.annotatable._extract_instructions(xmltree)  # lint-amnesty, pylint: disable=protected-access
         assert actual is None
+
+    def test_instruction_removal(self):
+        xmltree = etree.fromstring(self.sample_xml)
+        instructions = self.annotatable._extract_instructions(xmltree)  # pylint: disable=protected-access
+
+        assert instructions is not None
+        assert "Read the text." in instructions
+        assert xmltree.find("instructions") is None