NOTICE AND NOTE SIGNPOSTS

Authors put some signposts in their stories that help us know what to watch for. These signposts tell us about the characters, about the conflicts or problems in the story, and sometimes about the big life lessons in the story. You have to know what signposts to look for, or you might just read right past them.

Learning and understanding the Notice and Note Signposts will help you to be a SMARTER READER!

CONTRASTS AND CONTRADICTIONS This is one of the ways that an author shows us how a character is changing or developing.

Think about Hermione in the Harry Potter books. She’s a kid who always has her homework done. Not only does she do her homework, but she likes doing homework. She wants the teacher to know that she always knows the answer. So what would you think if one day Hermione came to class and didn’t have her homework done?

It would make us wonder what’s going on because that’s not a part of Hermione’s personality. That change in behavior contradicts what we’ve come to expect.

When authors show us something that doesn’t fit with what we expect, when they present us with a contrast or a contradiction, then we want to pause and ask ourselves one question: Why would the character act this way?

As I read, I’m on the lookout for a place where the author shows me a character acting in a way that is a contrast or contradiction with how he or she has been acting or how I would expect the character would act.

When you notice that contrast or contradiction, stop and ask yourself one question: Why would the character act that way? As you answer that question, you will learn more about the character and sometimes more about the problems he or she faces. Sometimes you might even gain some insight into a theme—the important life lesson the author is trying to share.

AHA MOMENT This is an easy signpost to learn because you’ve had many Aha Moments. For instance, have you ever walked into a class, seen people looking through their class notes, and suddenly remembered what it was you were supposed to do the night before—study for that big test? That’s an Aha Moment.

Aha Moments are those moments when a character realizes something, and that realization will probably change his or her actions in some way.

When you’re reading, the author often gives you clues that the character has come to an important understanding by having the character say something like, “Suddenly I realized,” or “In an instant I say,” or “It came to me in a flash,” or “I now knew,” or “I finally understood that.”

There are many other possibilities, but they will all point to some understanding that the character has finally reached. Those clues are there to tell you that this moment is important, and you need to stop and give it some thought. Once we’ve spotted the text clue to the Aha Moment, we have to pause and do something with it.

There is a question we can ask that will help us understand what’s going to happen. That simple question is: How might this change things? Thinking about possible answers to that question will let us see why the Aha Moment is important and how it affects the story.

TOUGH QUESTIONS We all ask questions such as “What’s for dinner?” or “Where are my shoes?” or “Do I really have to do my homework?” all the time. Those are questions to which we certainly want answers, but they aren’t really tough questions.

Tough Questions are those questions we sometimes ask ourselves or someone ese, that seem, at least for a while, not to have an answer. We might ask, ”How will I ever get over this?” when we hear that a loved one has died, or we might ask, “What should I do?” when we have a difficult, almost impossible, choice to make, or we might ask, “Am I brave enough to say no?” when we’re asked to do something we know we shouldn’t do.

When you share a tough question with a friend-or just think it to yourself—you’re really sharing something that bothers you. In a novel, we call that the internal conflict. If you can spot in a novel the tough questions a character asks of himself or to a friend, then you’ll have found the internal conflict.

AUTHOR’S SHOW US THESE TOUGH QUESTIONS IN SEVERAL WAYS. The main character either asks a trusted person or him or herself a question that obviously doesn’t have an easy answer. Often Tough Questions show up in pairs: “Why won’t they talk to me anymore? Why is everyone treating me this way?” Occasionally, the character might not ask a question, but might say something like, “I wonder if…”

Once you notice the Tough Question (or the statement that begins with “I wonder”), it’s important to stop and ask yourself, What does this question make me wonder about? Think about it this way. If you hear there’s a party, and you’re not invited, you might ask yourself, “Why’d I get left out?” And from that question, you might wonder if you had done something to hurt someone’s feelings. One tough question usually makes us wonder about other things.

When authors want to show us the internal conflict-the deep problems that worry a character-they often let the character share that conflict by having him or her share some difficult questions. He might ask himself the questions, or he might ask a friend.

When we see a Tough Question, we should ask ourselves, What does this question make me wonder about?

WORDS OF THE WISER Authors are, in some ways, like a mom or a dad or a grandparent. They include scenes in which wise words are shared. When I’m reading, I should always be on the lookout for a place where the main character has a quiet and serious talk with a wiser character. That wiser character might be a friend, a brother or sister, a teacher, a parent, or the kindly neighbor down the street.

WORDS OF THE WISER The scene in which a wiser character offers the main character advice that is helpful at this moment in the story but could also be helpful throughout life. After we notice it, we want to ask ourselves one question: “What’s the life lesson and how might this affect the character?”

As you answer this question, you’ll learn more about the character, the conflict he or she faces, the plot, and perhaps the message of theme the author wants you to consider. Character Development, Conflict, Plot, and Theme

AGAIN AND AGAIN When something happens over and over again, that repetition begins to tell us something if we notice it and give it some thought. For example, one day you may be sitting with a few friends when another one joins you. One of the original group grows quiet and after a few minutes gets up and leaves. If that happens over and over again, you notice it and realize that something is up.

AGAIN AND AGAIN When authors repeat something—a word or an image or an event-it means something. When we see those words or images or events again and again, we out to stop and ask ourselves, “Why does this happen again and again?” The answer will generally tell us something about the character or the plot or perhaps even the theme.

MEMORY MOMENT A Memory Moment is the point in the book when the writer interrupts what’s happening in the story to show us the main character as he or she remembers something important.

Sometimes the clue to the Memory Moment is very obvious. The character will say something like, “I remembered the first time I met him,” or “In that very moment the memory came flooding back.”

Other times, the clue is more subtle. The character might say, “My dad liked to tell the story about…” or “This picture always reminded me of … Often those moments are highlighted with words such as remember or memory or reminded.

We want to be on the alert for times when a character shares a moment from the past because it’s likely to tell us something important, either about the character or about the plot. We’re going to have to figure out what it might tell us, and so, when we find this moment in the novel, we want to pause and ask ourselves one question: Why might this memory be important?