These are “the points in a novel where a character remembers something about the past”. The students should ask themselves “Why does this happen again and again?” 6. When something is repeated, we should pay attention. When a wiser character offers the main character advise, students should come to ask themselves “What is the life lesson and how might it affect the character?”. This lesson “helps students recognise the author’s theme”. This should make the student stop and ask himself “What does this question make me wonder about?”. This signpost helps students recognise the importance of the moment when “the main character puts into words the major problem he or she is facing”. The question students need to ask themselves when they stumble upon this signpost is “How might this change things?”. “Notice and Note”, by Kylene Beers and Robert E. This is that moment when a character realizes or understands something that until that point he had not known. Students need to start asking themselves “Why would they act/feel this way?”. After a few lessons with this signpost, they can identify places in texts where you can find contrasts – differences in behaviours of two characters, for example – and contradictions – between how a character was supposed to act and how it acted, for example. This is meant to help students recognise character development, internal conflict and plot. They are pretty self explanatory patterns and along with the questions for each one, these are bound to stir up conversations. The authors identified six important signposts that can be found in most middle-grade books. These questions would make them really engage with the text. Whenever students would come across a signpost they would know to ask themselves a series of questions. That’s how the idea of signposts came alive. A pattern emerged: all the books had similar, easily recognisable elements. They also repeatedly read the exact books these teachers were using for their lessons. With this premise in mind – the lack of real interaction from children around books, the authors of this book started to check with other teachers to see if they have the same problems in their classrooms. I view this as a great thing: no time to be bored! This book is another step in my journey. I still think I have a lifetime of learning to do. The way I read has definitely changed in the last 20 years, but I still don’t think it’s enough. I tried a lot more to improve since school. I am great at consuming, not so great at thinking for myself. This struck me…I did that for so, so long in school. The premise for “Notice and Note” is that what’s been done around literacy until now is not enough: “too many readers plow through a book giving it little thought too many readers who finish the page or the chapter and then, rather than express a thought, ask a question, or leap into conversation, look up at the teacher and wait“. If you’re not a teacher, but, like me, you want to understand close reading better, you will find value in this book! If you want to make your child think more, you will find value in this book! If you want to understand and appreciate teachers and their important work, you will find value in this book! The way it presents examples makes me remember boring classes and how they could have been so much better, with lots an lots of interactions, how they could have opened our minds to so many possibilities and different ways of thinking and of approaching a topic! I so, so hope things will be improved by the time my son is in school! I am not a teacher, but I didn’t mind that at all: I still got a lot of value from it and I actually found it fascinating! My first thought after reading only about 10% of it was that I truly wish the teachers I had in school could have read it back then. This book is written first and foremost for teachers.
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