Notice & NoteStrategies for Close Reading by Beers & Probst

Facilitators:Christine Cho, David Lai, Glenda Govea

Objective:

• Teachers will be familiarized with 6 signpost to assist with close reading strategies

• Using signposts to lead to deeper understanding.• A scaffold that will help students to infer,

predict, better understand the conflict, the plot, and characters.

Signposts Everywhere

The Six Different SignpostsoContrast ContradictionsoAha MomentoTough QuestionsoWords of the WiseroAgain and Again oMemory Moment

oSignposts are in order based on instances you will see most often to instances you will see least often.

When you are reading and a character says or does something that is opposite (contradicts) what he has been saying or doing all along, You should stop and ask yourself:

When you are reading and suddenly a

character realizes, understands, or

finally figure something out,

You should stop and ask yourself:

“How might this change things?”• If the character figured out a problem you probably just

learned about the conflict.

• If the character understood a life lesson you probably

just learned the theme.

AhaMoment!

AHA Moment Clues:

The author uses to tell the reader that

the character has come to an important

understanding.

They would say:

“Suddenly, I realized...”“In an instant I saw…”“I now knew…”“I finally understood…”

AhaMoment!

When you are reading and a character

asks himself a very difficult question,

You should stop and ask yourself:

“What does this question make me wonder about?”

• Answers will tell you about the conflict

and might give you ideas about what will

happen later in the story.

ToughQuestions?

Tough Questions Clues

Often tough questions show up in pairs.

For example:

“Why won’t they talk to me anymore...”“Why is everyone treating me this way…”“Why’d I get left out?”“I wonder if…”“Should I tell on my friend…”

ToughQuestions?

When you are reading and a character

(who is probably a lot older and wiser)

takes the main character aside and

gives serious advice,

You should stop and ask yourself:

“What is the life lesson and how might it affect the

character?”• Whatever the lesson is you probably

found the theme for the story.

Word of the Wiser

When you are reading and notice a

word, phrase, object, or situation over

and over,

You should stop and ask yourself:

“Why does this keep showing up again and

again?”• The answers will tell you about the theme and

conflict, or they might foreshadow what will

happen later.

Again and

Again

When you are reading and the author

interrupts the action to tell you a

memory,

You should stop and ask yourself:

“Why might this memory be important?”

• The answer will tell you about the theme,

conflict, or might foreshadow what will happen

in the story?

MemoryMoments

Activity “Going Somewhere Special”• Read the Signpost Definition, Clues, Literary

Element, Questions• Underline Key Words and Phrases (5 minutes)

• Identify scenes in the story with the signposts by using post it note.

• Teacher share afterwards.• Each table shares one that they found.• Whole Group Discussion

Generalizable Language• The book uses a terminology called Generalizable

Language.• Generalizable language is the language that you use

to model think aloud.• The language that you use has to make a connection

to the strategy, so that the students can apply it to any story that they read.

• When you model think aloud:1. Use generalizable language first. 2. Then use text specific language.

Generalizable Language“I’ll stop here because I can imagine how hard it is for Luke to decide if he wants to risk going over to the other house. He knows he might get himself and his family in a lot of trouble if he does this, yet he has realized that he can’t stay in his house forever. I can almost feel his nervousness. When we can make connections like this, we better understand the characters.”

VS.“I’ll stop here because I’ve noticed an important contradiction. When authors show us a character acting in a way that contrasts with or contradicts what he has been doing, I know I need to pause and ask myself, “Why is the character acting this way?” Luke has been too afraid to leave his house and now he’s contemplating breaking all the rules and going to another house. In this scene, Luke knows he might get himself and his family in a lot of trouble if he does this, yet he has realized that he can’t stay in his house forever. I think he’s acting this way because.”

Generalizable LanguageSignposts Examples of Generalizable Language

To help students think aboutContrast and Contradiction

When the authors show you a character acting in a way that contrast how you would expect them to act you know the author is showing you something important about that character. Then pause and ask yourself, “Why would the character act this way?” As I think about this questions, I wonder if it might be….

To help students think about

Aha Moment

When the character realizes and finally understands something, then you want to pause because you know this realization means something. It might be showing you something about character development or a new direction of the plot. You want to ask yourself, “How might this change things?” Now that this character realizes this, I think that…

Activity Generalizable Language• Let’s practice with your table partner using Generalizable

Language with the story “Going Somewhere Special”.

• With the signpost that you identified in “Going Somewhere Special” practice how you would model the think aloud with your students.

• Use Figure 8 Generalizable Language for Each Notice and Note Signpost.

• Share out loud. (15 minutes)

Generalizable Language

• The names of the signpost are not as important as for the reader to notice something and then stop to consider what it means.

• By using generalizable language it shows that the strategy can be applied to any text.

• We are teaching a strategy or tool for students to use with any text that leads to deeper understanding.

• We are teaching students how to fish.

Teaching Signposts

• There is no one way to teach the signposts, we suggest:• Teach one signpost at a time.• Use a text with content that you think the

students can deal with. • The text does not have to be student’s reading

level, because the teacher is reading the text.• The lesson for introducing the signpost should

takes about 40-50 minutes.

Gradual Release ModelMost Support from Teacher

1. Introduce the signpost and the anchor questions.

• To begin your lesson use real world personal example to hook the students interests to the signpost.

2. Tell students you will show them how the signpost you are teaching works by sharing a short text.

3. Read aloud up to the 1st occurrence of the signpost you are teaching

•Point out what you saw in the text.•Then ask yourself the anchor questions. •Then share your thoughts.

Gradual Release ModelGradual Release of Support

4. Read the 2nd occurrence of the signpost.

•Have the students think pair share the anchor questions.•Share their response.

5. Read the 3rd and 4th occurrence this time release responsibility to the students.

• Ask students to both identify the signpost and discuss the anchor questions.

Gradual Release Model6. Read to the end of the selection.

•Ask students to identify the most significant example of the signpost.•Discuss the anchor question before reporting to the class.

Lease Support from Teacher

7. Tell students to watch for signpost in their independent reading and jot down their thoughts as they think about the anchor questions.

Modeling of the Signpost• Contrast and Contradiction – Langston Hughes

Assessment

• We want to listen for student conversation.• We want to see what the students write in their

graphic organizer.

Assessment• Video of student conversation.• Samples of student work.

ConclusionBy using signposts students:

• Assume ownership of the question, rather than teacher generated question for every reading.

• Are able to learn and remember a few useful question that will help them identify with the character and author of the story

• Become independent readers, since they have the questions in their repertoire.

• Many other questions will naturally emerge which will become useful tool in other texts.

Teacher Task

• Create your posters• K-2 Think about how you can modify these

posters for your own class.• Look through the T.E. and decide which posters

would apply to the story.