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?