Notice and NoteStrategies for Close

ReadingPresented by: Stacey Darchicourt

What is a Signpost? A signpost is something that helps you know where

you’re going or reminds you to pay attention to something.

When you take a journey through a book,

don’t forget to STOP! At any Notice and

Note Sign Posts

When you take a journey through a book, don’t forget to STOP! At any Notice and Note Sign Posts

Contrast & ContradictionsAha Moment

Tough Questions

Words of WiserAgain and Again Memory Moment

Contrast & Contradictions

When a character does something that contrasts with what you’d expect or contradicts his earlier acts or statements. Text Clue: Author shows feelings or actions the reader hasn’t seen before & doesn’t expect.

Example: “Thank You, Ma’m” This is a story about a boy who tries to steal a purse from a woman. As you read, be on the lookout for a place where the author shows you a character acting in a way that is a contrast or contradiction with how he or she has been acting or how we would expect the character would act. When you notice that contrast or contradiction, stop and ask yourself one question: Why would the character act that way?

Thank You, Ma’mby Langston Hughes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHyhYa9CQcQ

When you notice that contrast or contradiction, stop and ask yourself one question: Why would the character act that way?

Aha! Moment When a character realizes, understands, or finally figures

out something. Text Clue: Author shows feelings or actions the reader hasn’t seen before & doesn’t expect.

Aha Moments are those moments when we realize something, and that realization, in some way, changes our actions.

When you’re reading, the author often gives you clues that the character has come to an important understanding by having the character say something like “Suddenly I realized” or “In an instant I saw” or “It came to me in a flash” or “I now knew” or “I finally understood that.”

STOP, Ask yourself: How might this change things?

Crash, by Jerry Spinelli It was a sunny summer day. I was in the front yard digging a hole with my little red shovel. I heard something like whistling. I looked up. It was whistling. It was coming from a funny-looking dorky little runt walking up the sidewalk. Only he wasn’t just walking regular. He was walking like he owned the place, both hands in his pockets, sort of swaying lah-dee-dah with each step. Strollll-ing. Strolling and gawking at the houses and whistling a happy little dorky tune like some Sneezy or Snoozy or whatever their names are.

And he wore a button, a big one. It covered about half his chest. Which wasn’t that hard since his chest was so scrawny.

So here he comes strolling, whistling, gawking, buttoning, dorking up the sidewalk, onto my sidewalk, my property, and all of a sudden I knew what I had to do, like there was a big announcement coming down from the sky: Don’t let him pass.

Tough Questions Tough questions are those questions we sometimes ask ourselves, or someone

else, that seem, at least for a while, not to have an answer. We might ask, “How will I ever get over this?” when we hear that a loved one has died, we might ask, “What should I do?’ when we have a difficult, almost impossible, choice to make, we might ask, “Am I brave enough to say no?” when we’re asked to do something we know we shouldn’t do. Tough questions are a part of life because life is, well, sometimes tough.

Authors often show us these Tough Questions in fairly straightforward ways: The main character either asks a trusted person or him- or herself a question that obviously doesn’t have an easy answer. Often Tough Questions show up in pairs: “Why won’t they talk to me anymore? Why is everyone treating me this way?”

Occasionally, the character might not ask a question, but might say something like “I wonder if ….” Once you notice the Tough Question (or the statement that begins with “I wonder”), it’s important to stop and ask yourself, What does this question make me wonder about?

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Salva lowered his head and ran.

He ran until he could not run anymore. Then he walked. For hours, until the sun was nearly gone from the sky.

Other people were walking, too. There were so many of them that they couldn’t all be from the school village; they must have come from the whole area.

As Salva walked, the same thoughts kept going through his head in rhythm with his steps. Where are we going? Where is my family? When will I see them again?

Words of the Wiser When a character (probably older and wiser) takes

the protagonist aside and offers serious advice. Text clue: A wiser, often older, character offers a life lesson, usually in a quiet moment.

Ask yourself: What is the life lesson and how might it affect the character?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T10ycFr770g&list=PLKhVWaKguDKSwgwlPgr1t6G-nwmHj2Ha1

Again & Again When you notice a word, phrase, or situation mentioned over and

over. Text clue: A repeated image, phrase, or reference.

Ask yourself: Why does this keep happening again and again? The answers will tell you about the theme and conflict, or they might foreshadow what will happen later.

When you first notice an event, you may not think anything of it at the moment, but if it happens again and then again, you’ll probably notice it. It’s the pattern, the repetition, the event that occurs again and again, that let’s you know something is up—if you notice it. And if you think about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn31z6NFSAA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM4CpiT6R5I&list=PL2hpjSClJLA6O5MSYuaNlTHAypx8suiIC&index=11

Memory Moment When the author interrupts the action to tell you

about a memory. Text clue: “I suddenly remembered…” or “I remember …” or “Thinking back …” Ask yourself: Why might this memory be important?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMXJa_-S3Jw&list=PL2hpjSClJLA6O5MSYuaNlTHAypx8suiIC

Reading Nonfiction

Notice & Note Stances,

Signposts, and StrategiesComing Soon!!!!