Notice and Note
Strategies for Close Reading
The Backstory
"Close Reading" has become the new buzz word for reading instruction. Kylene Beers and Bob Probst created a strategy to help readers, and teachers, master that skill. It's called Notice and Note, to remind readers to notice certain things in a text and then to make a note of them.
Fiction Signpoints
A journey through the book
Nonfiction and Fiction Signposts
Text Talking with the Signposts
Walk into any language arts classroom this year, and you'll see a teacher assign text talking to the students. Listen to any student and you'll hear "but what am I supposed to write about?!"
By providing the students with these signposts, you're giving them a scaffold from which to jump into the text.
What we find really beneficial is that these signposts are applicable at any grade level and across a variety of texts.
The Importance of Close Reading (Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading Video 1)
Examples
Fiction Signposts
- teach Contrasts and Contradictions in the short story "Thank-you Ma'am"
- teach Words to the Wise in the novel Roll of Thunder
Nonfiction Signposts
- teach Extreme and Absolute Language in the Emancipation Proclamation
- teach Numbers and Stats in Geography