Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading

by G. Kylene Beers, Robert E. Probst

Beers and Probst offer insights into how to create text dependent questioning in assisting students to develop greater reading comprehension skills.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, School, Adult, Teachers, Read For School

274 pages

First published November 15, 2012

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Notice and Note" picks up where Keene and Zimmermann left off (or left us hanging) with strategy-based comprehension instruction. Like many teachers in the 1990's, after I read Keene & Zimmermann's "Mosaic of Thought" I attempted to explicitly teach visualizing, connecting, inferencing, and so on. It didn't work. It became an exercise in sticky notes and forced "comprehension" as in "now everyone stop and visualize what you see because that's what good readers do." While I don't believe this was ever Keene & Zimmermann's intention, it did result in my abandoning comprehension strategy instruction, wondering what I did wrong and why it was so hard to teach. Enter Beers & Probst! "Notice and Note" is the missing piece in the comprehension instruction puzzle. The six model lessons (or "signposts" with corresponding anchor questions) provided in this book LEAD teachers and students to the visualizing, connecting, synthesizing through text-dependent inquiry that is naturally differentiated and authentic; nothing is forced! Beers & Probst include transcripts of instruction for each signpost, including genuine student dialogue, as well as support materials and additional text references. It's helpful to know that these lessons have been extensively road tested (and fine-tuned) in hundreds of classrooms over a number of years. I especially appreciate the authors' connections to the Common Core including rigor, complexity, and close reading. I will be using this text in my upcoming methods course. As a bonus, each lesson is a perfectly constructed example of how the gradual release of responsibility works with students. Highly recommend, especially for middle school and/or struggling high school readers.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes books find you when you need them the most. I feel that way about NOTICE AND NOTE. I saw Beers and Probst talk about this book a couple of years ago, and was excited to see I could buy it.

They share my suspicions about the motives of the authors of CCSS, and they feel confident about their own practice and professionalism to make the case, again, for transactional reading...reading that insists the reader create meaning, not just regurgitate the meaning the teacher has found. I remember when I finally caught on in college, that, to quote David Coleman, my professors didn't "give a sh*t about what I thought," and they only wanted me to tell them what THEY thought. New Criticism in a nutshell...teacher holds the knowledge and the right answers. Students scramble to figure out what the teacher thinks. Hated it then, hate it now.

NOTICE AND NOTE gives the power of reading back to the students, with some great 'signposts' to look for. For each of the six signposts, there is one anchor question that teachers can model for students...The signposts are so beautifully simple: 1.Contrasts and Contradictions ("Why would the character act that way?"); 2.Aha Moments ("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?"); and 6.Memory Moment ("Why might this memory be important?").

The authors show model lessons for each signpost, showing how to gradually give responsibility to the students. They include great dialogues of kids, and they include the tough questions teachers like me, suspicious of every 'new answer' will ask.

Man, this is a breath of fresh air...their attitude about teaching and learning is that they, too, are transactions...that sometimes a learner's answer might not be the teacher's, but every answer is to be honored and respected. The journey TO the answer is as important and meaningful as the answer.

The respect Beers and Probst have for teachers and students made my heart swell...not a lot of that around right now.

My one concern, and they address it too, is how these questions could be used in other content areas besides the ELA class...some of the questions could easily translate into the history and social studies classes...also narratives in science and math...but I wonder about expository texts. They make no claim that the signposts could be used as is...but smart teachers (and they KNOW teachers are smart) could easily adapt.

LOVED the handouts in the appendix, and online. Great resources. I've already shared the bookmarks, and am thinking of ways to incorporate these signposts into our Reading Logs next semester...

[Julee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Notice and Note as part of a Twitter book study which included participation by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst. While the reading strategies were not new to me, the engaging way they were presented were. Beers and Probst throw a little humor in, at their own expense, throughout the chapters clearly keeping it real. The authors did not paint a rosy picture of how they saved the reading world, instead they provided examples of genuine student feedback and reactions. The book included a list of commonly used novels in the classroom and printable reading strategy templates for classroom use. A series of Notice and Note reading strategies videos are available on Youtube.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beers and Probst offer a unique and useful approach to close reading. After hearing their presentation in San Antonio at the International Reading Association, I went straight to the Heinemann booth to buy the book--and lucky me because I bought the second to last copy available before the rest of the crowd got there.

I recommend this book to teachers and teacher educators, but with two caveats. One, this is a book that advocates approaches that might best be considered "introduction to close reading." It is for teachers who work with students who really are just learning to work with text-dependent questions in a robust way. Second, there are few indicators to show how teachers can move their students at varying grade and proficiency levels (there are a few, but only a few)to progress beyond these signposts. The danger with any generalizable set of strategies is that teachers and students won't move beyond exactly what is prescribed.

I do look forward to reading Beers and Probst's next volume, hinted at early on in the present book, about working with expository text. If I could offer a suggestion, it would be not to treat all expository text as benefiting from the same features or qualities--what works for young adult novels may not work among the variety, depth, and breadth of expository texts as elegantly.

[Chris Kervina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Notice & Note offers a framework for moving students away from teacher-generated-question-dependent reading toward independently noticing aspects of texts. Their simple six-signpost system gives students concrete features to discuss and notice as they read. Beers and Probst offer this as during reading work and it's a way of seeing texts that can be used immediately.

This book is a fantastic companion text to Penny Kittle's Book Love. While Kittle emphasizes independent choice in reading, Beers and Probst's work can be used with short whole-class mentor texts (as well as longer works) to help students discuss literary elements in meaningful ways. Though I cannot say I have implemented either Kittle or Beers & Probst fully in my own classrooms, I see a synergy here that promises richer text discussion of both choice and class literature.

Though I have skimmed through the sample lessons and don't usually count a book as "finished" until I've read each and ever word, I know I will reread this book so many times, I will never be done with it.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sat down with this this afternoon and ended up reading all of it except for the actual lesson plans. Straightforward, accessible, adaptable, and immediately applicable. This offers easy to implement strategies for helping struggling readers become more engaged with texts they're reading. Things that can make up an entire reading course of study or be woven in to any shared reading activity. This is so simple parents who aren't teachers could use these ideas to guide how they talk to their kids about the books they're reading together.
Looking forward to reading the non-fiction companion.

[Lauren Waters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utilizing the signposts described in Notice and Note is having a huge impact on my students' ability to analyze literature and fully understand author's craft in terms of character development.

[Brittany Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any ELA teacher. To quote the text, Notice and Note offers teachers ideas for teaching reading with "signposts" which "inculcate a habit of paying close attention, a readiness to slow down and reflect, and a willingness to hear and explore other responses to a text." A book full of brilliant ideas, gorgeous materials, and excellent writing, Notice and Note is one of the best teacher handbooks I've read.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book for its practicality. It has scripts, ready-to-copy signpost bookmarks, text examples plus more suggestions. I do believe it is ultimately better for middle grades than for my area (high school), but I do recommend it for teachers.

[Jake Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this structure will be extremely helpful for students that give generic/unsupported responses. Maybe, just maybe, (about to get idealistic) teach skills that create close readers who enjoy books more because they are engaged with books more. Idk. I may be dreaming.

[Kristin McDonough · Rating 5 out of 5]

This professional book about reading comprehension is an amazing resource. The signposts and anchor questions that Beers and Probst have designed to help readers slow down to notice and reflect on what they are reading are powerful. These signposts and anchor questions will not only help students think and engage more deeply with the text, but they will also help them engage in authentic, meaningful conversations about what they are reading. I cannot wait to try these with my students this year!

[Shannon Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I say it again. It.Just.Makes.Sense. :)

This book is SO practical. Kind of one of those books that as you read it you pop yourself upside the head and think, why haven't I been doing this????????????????

EXCELLENT book and very excited to be having a twitter book chat about it June 6,13,20 at 8pm CST. Hashtag is #NNNchat. Come join the party! We have also created a facebook group.

[Dua Syed · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great text for anyone who wants to teach literature in a way where students are able to truly connect with and engage in dialogue with what they read. The idea that all stories (even sometimes non-fiction) can be boiled down and distilled to a few universal elements is so interesting. The "words of a wiser", the "contrasts and contradictions". And by searching for them while we read, we not only have a more investigative, active and engaged reading journey, but the central questions allow us to generate a plethora of our own. Why is this character acting in contradiction to their previous behavior -- is it because there has been change or development? By noticing these signposts across texts, we are better able to recognize that all stories are infinite manifestations of the same key elements. We are able to recognize the patterns in stories and in our own lives.

I also appreciated how this book defined the reading process. We are not passive receptacle of words, but meaning is created out of the synthesis of the text and our own mental structures. It's a transactional process, a conversation that has been going on and will continue to go on for as long as the text exists. How cool would it be if students viewed every instance of them opening up a book as a moment when they're joining a conversation that transcends distance and time?

[Stacey Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for middle and high school teachers who want to provide specific and direct lessons for students who struggle either to engage with text or who struggle to figure out how to look deeper at text. The signposts offered are a great way to teach students to watch and notice so that they can ask the right questions that will allow them to think deeper about the text. Our struggling readers can do the deeper thinking they just need the tools to know what to pay attention to. This breaks it down for us, so that we teach them the fundamental skills to get them started so that they pay attention to the right things, slow themselves down, and ask the right questions.

[Diz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author's present six basic questions that can help young readers understand how to approach fiction in a critical way. They present many examples of conversations, so it is easy to imagine how these questions work in the classroom. Additionally, there are excerpts from young adult novels that can be used to introduce these concepts in your classroom. If you teach reading, this is an excellent book to pick up.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I. Dislike. Signposts.

I wouldn't mind them if they were just... reading tools or another suggested metaphorical reading guideline to use until students gradually discover what reading strategies work best for them. But signposts aren't just that... They're treated like some sort of religion in schools and it drives me bonkers. Unpopular educator opinion, but sorry (not sorry). However, there is a lot of merit to this book aside from signposts, and I think my dislike mostly stems from schools praising/taking signposts too far.

[Kirstin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this- will be using the signposts this next year. I have always found the way we teach comprehension to be problematic. This shows you can teach that stories have patterns and you can look for certain "signposts" that occur in nearly all novels or stories. Instead of teaching students to "make inferences" or "locate cause and effect" you teach them to find the events in a story that will offer examples of these things.

[Cburton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has some really good ideas. I look forward to trying some of them out this year.

[Elizabeth (NC) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent book and is changing the way I am teaching reading this year. I might need to change my review at the end of the year after I have some experience with it under my belt.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book for English teachers!

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this!

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book and will use this as a constant reference in my classroom. I'll definitely be using all the strategies in this book with my 5/6 class this coming year to dig deeper and get kids to discuss more than the surface of the book. Good for all teachers third grade and up!

[Meaghan Odell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read with easy-to-use, applicable strategies for readers of ALL levels. Required reading for any Language arts/social studies teacher.

[Justin Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty solid book about literacy strategies.
Beers and Probst give clear, concrete examples of what the strategies are as well as entire sample lessons to take and use.
As someone who uses reading as a core of lesson planning in upper level Spanish classes, I found some great nuggets here of ways to encourage pausing in students, creating moments to reflect on the deeper aspects of the piece.
It does use a typical-in-education-work "numbered system" (6 signposts), which I always find cringey. But, if you look beyond that, there is a lot of good here.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book that really helped me to not only zone in on my own reading habits, but to greatly improve the reading habits of my students. I had some really fantastic conversations with students surrounding the books they were reading. I especially liked that all of the materials for these lessons were included, even a scripted lesson to teach if you so desire. This helped ease some of my anxiety about teaching these signposts correctly to my students. I would strongly recommend this book to any ELA or reading teacher wishing to help their students read their books with a more careful eye.

[Sarah Zerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

why: I have been wanting to read this for a while, but it's also a text I need to review for the course I'm teaching at CU this fall.

when: start 7/17, end 7/19

how: I read this in hard copy once again. I did lots of reading sitting outside at Grand Teton National Park with the dogs while my traveling companions were checking out attractions in the park that the dogs could not visit. I finished reading it in the passenger seat of the car en route from Grand Teton to Grand Mesa, Colorado.

thoughts: I'm impressed by the process that became this book. Beers and Probst read dozens of the novels typically assigned in high school and middle school and kept note of when they paused as readers to think about what they were reading. From these notes, they identified six common signposts where engaged readers may stop to think about a text and ask questions of it (for example, when there is a contradiction from something expected or when a character has an aha moment or when something in the text repeats again and again). The idea is that you can use these signposts to teach students to do more than just decode the words--you can use them to teach students to really think about a complex text, which is something that students absolutely must be able to do on their own. I think this will be a very useful text for my CU students, and I'm looking forward to integrating this work into my own classroom. The signposts may replace the tricks of successful readers I've been using for the last few years. The signposts are way more concrete and specific and really show students what to do.

review haiku:
notice and note your
questions, connections, and thoughts
unpack complexity

[Laura Leaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the introduction by Beers and Probst. Their stance on "rigor" is a refreshing change from what is usually discussed in department meetings (and it has nothing to do with the difficulty of the text). As every good reader knows, you can do a rigorous reading of Green Eggs and Ham. Making a class rigorous does not mean you need to increase the difficulty of the books by assigning Moby-Dick to 9th graders. I also very much liked the discussion on the importance of discussion (a book-reading community) and the difference between "monologic and dialogic talk." Excellent stuff.

The system the authors promote is designed for emerging/beginning close readers though. My "gifted" high school seniors would kill me if I required them to use some of these strategies while they read something like Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. They already know too much for these charts to be useful and not tedious. Nevertheless, if you teach reading this is a good book to have on the shelf.

[Tao Hu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book intrigues me.

At the beginning of the book, the author addresses why reading novels is important for kids' development and how the reading can help. I cannot agree more to what the author advocates here. Surrounded by computer geeks at work place, I definitely see the needs to have literature education to foster empathy and some common sense in the early phase of one's education life.

Then the author brings forward the six signposts of Contrasts and Contradictions, Aha Moment, Tough Questions, Words of the Wiser, Again and Again, Memory Moment. I am sure there are more than one method to teach kids read the novels, and this signpost approach will be just one of them. But I am amazed by the rationale behind this framework. My instinct is that this framework can make the intangible reading skills tangible to the both the adults and the kids, and make those un-teachable skills teachable.

I am excited by the approach proposed by this book. Will definitely try it myself and also ask my daughter try it.

[Susan Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took so many notes in the initial chapters of Note and Notice that I created a google doc. Beers and Probst really changed my thinking about two important characteristics of the Readers' Workshop: "the minilesson" and guided reading work. Before you think I am suggesting we through these things out, that's not the case. I am suggesting as I think they were, to varying our diet of offerings. Beers and Probst make a good case for me to divide my book offerings to students in three ways: whole class novels (well chosen), guided reading selections, and STUDENT SELECTED BOOKS. They also make a very strong case for longer lessons as you introduce these "signposts". It all makes sense and I spent the book thinking about ways to move these lessons down through the primary classes as well. (I'm starting to think very common core) Great resource for the reading workshop not just in the intermediate and middle school class. I've already loaned it out to one of my teachers.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really helpful book, but not in the way that I thought. My district has had a very defined strategy for teaching close reading, and this book is much, much looser. It's not entirely focused on close reading, but more the kinds of questions and signposts readers look for as they read so that they can dig deeper into a text. It is heavily focused on fiction, so I'll need to find another book to help me with informational texts, but this was still so thorough I don't really fault it for that. The book comes with some really good clarifying explanations and lesson plans for teaching the "signposts" that are discussed in the book, as well as graphic organizers and all kinds of goodies for teaching. Highly recommend for teachers who want to take their close reading practices to the next level.