Notice and Note Close reading strategies

1. Notice & Note
Strategies for
Close Reading by Beers
& Probst
Facilitators:
Christine Cho, David Lai, Glenda Govea

2. 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.

3. Signposts Everywhere

4. The Six Different Signposts
oContrast Contradictions
oAha Moment
oTough Questions
oWords of the Wiser
oAgain and Again
oMemory Moment
oSignposts are in order based on instances you
will see most often to instances you will see
least often.

5. 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:

6. 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.
Aha
Moment!

7. 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…”
Aha
Moment!

8. 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.
Tough
Questions?

9. 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…”
Tough
Questions?

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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?
Memory
Moments

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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.”

16. Generalizable Language
Signposts Examples of Generalizable Language
To help
students
think about
Contrast 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…

17. 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)

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. Gradual Release Model
Most 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.

21. Gradual Release Model
Gradual
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.

22. Gradual Release Model
6. 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.

23. Modeling of the Signpost
• Contrast and Contradiction – Langston Hughes

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

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

26. Conclusion
By 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.

27. 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.