Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading

Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading, by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst

Cat always kept her brother in the back of her mind, except for the times he was at the front of it. (McDunn 1) 

I knew Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn was going to be a good book from the very first line. In fact, I read the first several paragraphs to my husband and to my grown daughter because they just seemed to be bursting with so much goodness. 

There was another line a little further on that also particularly grabbed me—so much so that after I’d finished the book, I went back to find it. Cat is accompanying Macon, the gruff grandfather she recently met for the first time (think Heidi’s grandfather), on his regular early morning beach walk to pick up trash to help the turtles. When Cat says that’s a nice thing to do, he responds:

‘Not a big deal, really. Just being there when I can.’

A few steps from the water lay shards of a purple sand shovel. She bent to gather them.

‘Half of life is showing up,’ Macon said quietly, almost to himself. ‘And some things are worth showing up for.’ (Chapter 10)

That last line gave me shivers—the good kind—coming from this man who had been utterly cut out of his daughter’s and grandchildren’s lives for 12 years. He’s clearly not just talking about showing up for turtles. Is he regretting the time he’s lost with family? Will there be a reconciliation? How will Cat apply this lesson to other places in her life? Where do I need to apply it to mine? (I’m also hearing echoes of Anne Lamott’s advice when terrible things happen and you don’t know what to do: Show up; bring water. Also Mother Teresa’s insight that you don’t have to do great things—do small things with great love.)

That’s me, with 51 years of reading experience under my belt (assuming I learned to read at age 6). Where do I start with helping 6th and 7th graders identify those spots for themselves as luminous, significant passages worthy of some attention—some questioning, inferring, predicting, connecting?

That’s where Kylene Beers and Robert Probst’s Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading comes in. I'd put off reading it for a long time, because I had reading strategies, and I thought I didn’t need anything else. But Beers and Probst’s signposts aren’t in competition with reading strategies; they give students traction on when to use the strategies. It’s elegantly simple: 6 signposts and an accompanying question for each one. When you notice a sign post, stop and think about the question, noting what answers you come up with.

Here are the 6 signposts with their accompanying questions (see photo below for more information):

1. Contrasts and Contradictions: Why would the character act/feel this way?
2. Aha Moment: How might this change things?
3. Tough Questions: What does this question make me wonder about?
4. Words of the Wiser: What’s the life lesson and how might it affect the character?
5. Again and Again: Why might the author bring this up again and again?
6. Memory Moment: Why might this memory be important? 

Want to see how it could work? Let’s try Contrasts and Contradictions with those first few paragraph of Caterpillar Summer that I loved. Here’s the passage:

Cat always kept her brother in the back of her mind, except for the times he was at the front of it.

She might be multiplying fractions in her head while her brain quietly asked, ‘Did you cut the tag out of Chicken’s shirt?’

She might be studying plants of the tundra biome when her mind questioned whether his teacher was calling him Henry, which he hated.

She might be scooping masked potatoes on her tray when she wondered, ‘Will he be the only first grader left behind at the aquarium?’

On a good day, Chicken liked to wander. On a bad day, Chicken would bolt. But no matter what, Cat loved him as wide as the Golden Gate Bridge, as deep as the sea floor, and as fierce as a shark bite.

The Contrasts and Contradictions signpost occurs when a character acts/thinks/feels differently from what I’d expect—in contrast to how people usually act, how the character acted earlier, or how other characters act. When I notice this happening, I stop and ask, “Why would the character act/feel this way?” When I read these first few paragraphs with this signpost in mind, I notice that I wouldn’t expect a kid like Cat to be thinking about a little first grade brother this much, or to be so articulate about how much she loved him (clearly she's thought about it a lot). Or to describe this love as a shark bite! 

Why might she feel this way? I’d infer that something is happening with her family where she has more than usual responsibility for her brother—possibly something has happened to one or both parents. Also it seems like her little brother might require extra attention. I admire Cat for her care for her brother, and also feel bad that she has to take on so much responsibility. I wonder if she resents it at the same time? I wonder if love “as fierce as a shark bite” might be showing this kind of ambivalence. I predict that the book will have a lot to do with their relationship.

Wow! If middle schoolers could have that conversation on their own, that would be amazing! And that’s not even everything that’s foreshadowed in these paragraphs (sharks and oceans come up quite a bit more--again and again, if we used that signpost going forward, as well as Chicken's bolting). 

And the line about “Half of life is showing up”—that would clearly flag the attention of anyone on the lookout for the Words of the Wiser signpost. This happens when the main character is having a reflective moment with a (usually) older and wiser character, and the wiser character shares some insight about life. When you notice this signpost, you ask, “What’s the life lesson, and how might it affect the character?” Which is exactly what I did.

Thinking back over it, I can see that Caterpillar Summer has all 6 signposts. A middle schooler prepared to notice them and note their significance would have all the tools needed to interact deeply with the text. Beers and Probst claim that they haven’t read a middle grades or YA book that doesn’t have all the signposts, and I can believe it! The book has a detailed lesson plan for teaching each of the signposts, and the full text or excerpts used for each lesson. I would highly recommend Notice and Note to any literature teacher in grades 6 through 10. I’m looking forward to seeing how using these lessons will deepen my students’ discussions of the books they read this year.

How about you? Are you aware of how you, as an experienced reader, determine what parts of a book are important to stop and think about? How do you help students know which parts are important to stop and think about? How do you help students develop the competence to ask their own significant questions about a text rather than just responding to the teacher’s questions? 

 

The Quickwrite Handbook: 100 Mentor Texts to Jumpstart Your Students’ Thinking and Writing

The Quickwrite Handbook: 100 Mentor Texts to Jumpstart Your Students’ Thinking and Writing, by Linda Rief

I want students to flourish not only as readers but also as writers. I want them to become people who are confident, competent, fluent at accessing information about the world through reading, processing it through discussion, and communicating in writing. 

I don’t want students to fear writing, find it paralyzing, and feel intimidated. I want them to enjoy the mastery of words—arranging the right ones in the right way to communicate to another person exactly what they want to say exactly how the other person will best hear it.

How can I help students overcome writing reluctance, accumulate a store of idea nuggets, accrue practice experimenting with craft moves, connect reading and writing, develop confidence and fluency, and identify as writers? In The Quickwrite Handbook: 100 Mentor Texts to Jumpstart Your Students’ Thinking and Writing, Linda Rief suggests daily 2-3 minute quickwrites in response to short, compelling mentor texts. By short she means less than a page. The point is less to study the mentor text (see previous post on A Teacher’s Guide to Mentor Texts) and more to see how someone else has captured an idea and use it to spark your own rapid, first draft response.
 
The book opens with an 18-page introduction, and the remainder is, as the title promises, 100 actual 1-page mentor texts the author uses with classes of students and educators, each with 2-4 response prompts (“Try This”), and sometimes examples of how a response has eventually been revised into a larger piece. 

The “Try This” response prompts give the writer several options to explore “as quickly and as specifically as you can for 2-3 minutes.” Generally they include the following 3 types: 

• Write about anything this text makes you think of.
• Pick a line from the text to continue in your own vein.
• Experiment with a craft choice: change the point of view, follow a structure, use all 5 senses…

Sometimes a fuller prompt is given—I think this would be helpful especially when initially using this approach, to introduce students to the ways they can use a text for inspiration. Here’s an example of the prompts in response to an excerpt from the novel in verse The Running Dream by Wendell Van Draanen (Rief 23):

• Write out anything this excerpt brings to mind for you.
• Think about something you are passionate about (something that “airs out your soul,” “makes you feel alive”) and write down everything that makes this activity so important to you.
• Start with the line “I AM A ___” and fill in the blank, describing all that you do, think, feel, experience while doing this activity.
• Change the line to “I am not a ___,” expanding on all the reasons why you are not.
• Her last two lines say she will never run again. What has stopped you from doing something you love doing?

I’m intrigued by this idea. I’d like to experiment with doing it for at least a unit. I think it would loosen up some students who stare at a blank page without writing. (Rief says when a student can absolutely not think of anything to write, tell them to copy the mentor text for the 2-3 minutes.) At the same time, I think it would inspire some students who quickly master whatever I teach and wonder why we have to keep going over it.  I’m actually intrigued by the idea of using it myself. And Reif says that is one of the super powers of this approach—the teacher doing the same writing with students for 2-3 minutes. 

How about you? How do you use mentor texts? How do you entice reluctant writers, inspire bored writers, connect reading and writing, and get students to do the volume of low-stakes writing that will help them become fluent writers?  

A Teacher’s Guide to Mentor Texts, Grades 6-12

Reading my granddaughter her current mentor text, The Princess in Black

My 3-year-old granddaughter was lost in some story of her own spinning with superhero action figures and stuffed unicorns behind one of the living room chairs. I wasn’t really paying attention. Then I heard her narrate, “She brushed some crumbs from her frilly pink dress.” The line was lifted directly from a book I’d read to her earlier, The Princess in Black. That’s how we learn language—taking it in by reading or listening, then producing it in our own writing or speaking. 

The Princess in Black is currently my granddaughter’s mentor text. She’s heard it at least 6 times that I know of—once each from Mom, Dad, and Grandpa, and 3 times from me. She’s absorbing words, phrases, and even whole story patterns. 

While a 3-year-old uses mentor texts unconsciously, a conscious use of mentor texts is a powerful tool that adult writers use. The first time I had to write a college recommendation for a student, a eulogy for a family member, or an author bio for myself as a guest blogger, I first found other excellent examples of the genre for a pattern to follow. And I frequently start my own blog posts with a brief story because that is my favorite kind of professional reading—the books that start each chapter with a story of student learning, then spend the rest of the chapter explaining the strategy I can use with my students to get a similar result.

If mentor texts are effective for 3-year-olds and for adults, are they  good for students, too? Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O’Dell’s A Teacher’s Guide to Mentor Texts, Grades 6-12 would answer a resounding yes. Whether you are an old hand at using mentor texts with students, or wondering what exactly a mentor text is, I highly recommend this brief, practical book full of concrete teaching ideas and helpful examples of student work. 

The 7 chapters outline the benefits of using mentor texts, a process for reading like writers, 3 aspects of writing that mentor texts can inform, planning content and teaching strategies when teaching with mentor texts, and assessing students’ progress: 

• Ch. 1: Why Mentor Texts? describes what makes a good mentor text and how they help students.

• Ch. 2: Teaching Students to Read Like Writers articulates a helpful 4-step process of (1) noticing something interesting about a text, (2) making a theory about why the author made that choice, (3) naming the craft (a real name like “alliteration” or a made-up one like “drum-roll colon” so you can notice it other places and apply it yourself), and (4) thinking about using the move in your own writing.
• Ch. 3: Learning About Craft and Punctuation explains the 5 steps for studying a mentor text at the word, line, or sentence level. These steps can be done over the course of a week (especially initially) or all in one lesson (with more experienced groups). The steps (1) introduce the mentor sentence, (2) notice writer moves, (3) share with classmates, (4) try it, and (5) share again. (This protocol looks similar to the one in Patterns of Power which I’ve been using for the past year.)
• Ch. 4: Learning About Structure examines beginnings, endings, paragraphs, and transitions.
• Ch. 5: Learning About Genre provides ideas on 9 genres from personal essay to review to free verse poetry, with a list of additional bonus possibilities.
• Ch. 6: Planning Instruction with Mentor Texts includes how to choose content to teach and the strategies with which to teach it. 
• Ch. 7: Assessing Students’ Work with Mentor Texts provides a continuum for 5 stages students move through as they learn to work with mentor texts, from beginning to crafting independently, and a list of formative assessment tools from “mentor move exit ticket” to “draft highlighting.”  

Each chapter starts with asking the reader to get involved, reading a text and noticing authors’ moves. The authors provide many examples of mentor tests to use, ways to use them, and student responses to them. The publisher’s website makes even more available—17 video clips and 10 digital forms/documents. 

Other resources that have informed my use of mentor texts include the following books:

• Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone by Nancy Dean 
• Patterns of Power (now available for elementary, middle, and high school)
• Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer’s Workshop, or anything else by Jeff Anderson (Everyday Editing or 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know)

The following day, my granddaughter’s mom was reading a Berenstain Bears book to her. Her mom read, “Sister gulped.” My granddaughter burst out excitedly, “Princess Magnolia gulped, too!” (Princess Magnolia is the cover identity of the Princess in Black.)

If using some of the ideas in A Teacher’s Guide to Mentor Texts will help my students absorb into their own repertoire the moves made by the professional authors they read as effectively as my 3-year-old granddaughter accesses words and phrases from The Princess in Black, that will not only help them grow as writers this year, but empower them to continue growing as long as they are reading. 

How about you? How do you use mentor texts? What is your experience with using mentor texts with students? 

The Joy of Reading

When my 5-year-old grandson got home from kindergarten Friday and found out his family was going on a hike the next day, the first thing he did was start running around the house collecting all the animal identification books he could find and loading them in his backpack, so recently emptied of lunchbox, library book, and Friday folder. My daughter smiled at his excitement as he filled his backpack, murmuring to me, “Here’s hoping I can convince him to leave it in the van…”

He doesn’t even read yet, and he already finds joy in the understanding that books can be a part of slaking his inexhaustible curiosity about God’s amazing world. His home community has nurtured this in him with abundant access to shelves of books at home and frequent library trips. His parents and grandparents have invested hours and hours in reading with him—selecting books that will match his interests and expand his horizons—and talking with him about what they read together. 

His home community also models their own reading life. His dad is currently reading The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You by Dina Nayeri for insights it might offer into the work he does at a business that offers job and language training for immigrants. His mom is reading When Strivings Cease: Replacing the Gospel of Self-Improvement with the Gospel of Life-Transforming Grace by Ruth Chou Simons to prepare for facilitating a moms’ book discussion related to her work as the director of children and family ministries at her church. His 3-year-old sister’s current favorite book is Invasion of the Unicorns by David Biedrzycki. (I got it for her for Christmas—it had me at “Secret Agent Bubble07 reporting….”) His 1-year-old brother enjoys bouncing to the rhythms of Sandra Boynton’s Barnyard Dance.

All of that has given him an expansive vocabulary and knowledge of the world as well as a grounding in seeing other perspectives and practicing wise choices. (At 3 he used to cover his ears and run out of the room at the line where the protagonist in a fairy tale is told the one restriction that they must never do…knowing already that they were sure to do it.) I hope school continues to nurture this joy in books as he learns to read, rather than sidelining it in the barrage of all the “stuff” that must be taught. 

Why? Because he needs to read a lot to continue to build vocabulary and knowledge of the world, reading comprehension and writing skill, and perspective taking and moral choice making. And really, joy in reading is the motivation that will propel him most surely through the volume of reading that will get him there. Because those  competencies will help him learn all the other “stuff” of school and position him to keep learning and using his voice as he takes his place in the world outside of school. Because joy in reading is a much more effective and long-lasting motivator than requirements, grades, and compliance.

The Joy of Reading, Donalyn Miller and Terri Lesesne’s new book, outlines this case in five descriptive chapters, backed by research, years of experience, and personal stories. 

1. Joy: What Is It Good For?: This chapter addresses the questions What is reading joy? Why is it important? How can we support it? And because the adults in the room must first remember and reclaim their own reading joy, it challenges the readers to write their own reading autobiography, supplying questions and sample answers from the authors.
2. Joyful Reading Relies on Abundant Access and Time: This chapter offers many specific suggestions on how to provide the time and books that support reading joy—via school and public libraries, classroom libraries, and teaching kids to find books that give them joy.
3. Joyful Reading Encourages Readers’ Choices: This chapter addresses what effective scaffolding for reading is and isn’t and provides guidance for knowing books, knowing readers, and making the match between them.
4. Joyful Reading Honors Readers’ Responses: This chapter discusses what authentic reading responses look like. What do adult readers, who read joyfully for their own purposes, do when they finish a book? It depends on the reader and on the book. Maybe a conversation, a book review, a recommendation, further research, a life application. Certainly not a packet of teacher questions at the end of every chapter, or a standard book report, or even a pick-your-own creative project.  
5. Joyful Reading Thrives in a Supportive Community: This chapter is replete with ideas for what this kind of community can look like in a classroom, a school, and beyond; and how it can be fostered with celebration and planning, not competition.

These 5 chapter titles offer a clear breakdown of the essential components for building a joyful reading experience for students—a solid paradigm for any teachers or administration who are interested in a refresher or a primer in the topic.  Elements I found particularly helpful were the reading autobiography in the first chapter, graphic “book stacks” scattered throughout (recommendations represented as a sketch of a stack of 5 current middle grades and YA titles in a given category--see photos in this paragraph and the next), and resources for finding the books that will fuel your own and your students’ reading joy. 

One component I want to focus on in the coming term is honoring readers’ responses. How do I respond to my reading? I know that when I’ve tried to write a Goodreads review for every book I finish, I mostly stare grumpily at the screen, wishing I could just start a new book. On the other hand, I love recommending a book to a friend. (I just did it this morning on Facebook Messenger with the book I finished last night.) I write blog posts about professional books (like this one!) to help me process the content and to share it with colleagues. I talk with friends and family about how books like Timothy Keller's Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter and Jemar Tisby’s How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice give us the courage to wrestle faithfully with all the brokenness within and around us. I want to offer students more opportunities to talk informally with classmates about their reading, and help them think about all the different ways they can and do respond to their reading.

I hope my grandson’s classroom and school community continue to nurture in him the joy of reading that his family has implanted. I hope that my classroom and school community will be that blessing to other people's grandchildren who come through our doors—both continuing what families have begun and helping students discover or rediscover the treasure of reading joy.

For further and inspiration and specific ideas for classroom implementation, I recommend the following books:

• The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller (elementary)
• Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina, and Passion in Adolescent Readers by Penny Kittle (secondary)

What about you? How important do you think the joy of reading is? When in your life have you experienced it? How do you help your students experience it? How could you build an even more flourishing reading community in your school?