Throughout our class discussions of the text I will point out examples of the sign posts to help guide students’ close reading so they might have a new understanding about. I could teach these signposts one at a time, but I felt it necessary to give my students all the signposts together to help them label and identify them as we begin to read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. A memory can give insight into what bothers or motivates the character, it can help to understand something happening in the plot, or give information about the theme. Memories of the past help to explain the present moment. Memory Moment – Why might this memory be important? It gives insight into the setting or character or could even be a symbol of some sort.Ħ. Again and Again – Why might the author bring this up again and again? These insights could reveal something important about the theme.ĥ. When a wise character shares his or her understanding, insight, or advise on an issue or topic, stop and think about that. Words of the Wiser – What’s the life lesson and how might it affect the character? This might be something the character is struggling with throughout the story.Ĥ. When a character pauses to ask him or herself or a friend some really tough questions, then the reader is getting a glimpse of what’s bothering him or her.

Tough Questions – What does this question make me wonder about?

It could be related to character development or a new direction in the plot.ģ. When a character realizes or finally understands something, then the reader wants to pause because the realization means something. Aha Moments – How might this change things? When authors show the reader a character acting in a way that contrasts with how one might expect someone to act or contradicts how that character has been acting, the author is showing the reader something important.Ģ. Contrasts and Contradictions – Why would the character act (feel) this way? I have created an interactive foldable for my students with the six “notice and note signposts” described in Beers & Probst’s book.ġ. These are two wonderful books that offer lots of insight into close reading habits for any classroom. I recently read Kylene Beers and Robert Probst’s Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading (2013) along with Christopher Lehman & Kate Rober’s Falling in Love with Close Reading: Lessons for Analyzing Texts and Life (2014). One of my goals with my eighth graders is to get them to read closely and thoughtfully on their own. Rather, close reading happens with particular passages to help students look more closely at specific elements of the text like theme, characterization, and word choice in order to gain an understanding of the complexities of a text. Close reading doesn’t happen on every page of a text nor is it something that students should be doing with every text they read for school. By close reading I am interpreting as the reading, rereading, and analysis of text for the purpose to understand it more deeply. Close reading is one of the buzz words that is being emphasized with the Common Core Learning Standards.

Notice and note aha moment texts