1. Signposts & Anchor Questions
NOTICE AND NOTE
Signposts & Anchor Questions

2. Why are these strategies important?
Help us become readers who:
Demonstrate independence
Build strong content knowledge
Comprehend (understand) a text as well as critique
Provide more legit evidence to support ideas
Understand the text in a deeper, more meaningful way

3. Notice & Note: Signposts
Turn & Talk: Think about what a signpost is. What comes to your mind?
Answer:

4. Signposts…
A signpost is something that helps you know where you’re going or tells you something about the route, something you ought to be doing while on the road…

5. Reading with Signposts
Signposts on roads help us know what’s happening – or might be happening- so we can be better drivers.
Authors put ‘signposts’ in their stories that help us know what to watch for. They tell us about: characters, conflicts, theme, etc…
It’s important to know what signposts to look for or you might just read right past them.

6. When YOU take a JOURNEY through a book, don’t forget to STOP
When YOU take a JOURNEY through a book, don’t forget to STOP! At any Notice & Note Signposts:
Contrasts & Contradictions
Aha Moment
Words of the Wiser
Tough Questions
Again and Again
Memory Moment
Note - Anchor Questions that accompany each Signpost
will be in RED!

7. Notice and Note: Contrasts & Contradictions
Character development, internal conflict, relationship of setting with plot…

8. Turn & Talk…
Think about ‘Harry Potter.’ Who has read any of the books or see any of the movies?
Think about the character Hermione. She’s a kid who always has her homework done and actually likes doing her work. So, what would you think if one day Hermione came to class and didn’t have her homework done?

9. Why would the character act this way?
With the Hermione example, 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 author’s show us something that doesn’t fit with what we expect (a contrast or a contradiction), then we want to pause and ask ourselves:
Why would the character act this way?

10. Why would the character act this way?
What is it?
Definition: A technique when the author shows us how a character is changing.
Contrast: To compare something or show differences
Contradiction: showing the opposite of
A character says or does something that’s opposite of what he or she has been doing all along.
When a character acts in a way that contrasts with what you would expect.
Why would the character act this way?

11. “Thank You, Ma’am”
We will read the selection together. As I read aloud, be on the lookout for a place where the author shows 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 to act.
When you notice the C or C, STOP and ask yourself one question: Why would the character act that way?
This is a story about a boy who tries to steal a purse from a woman…be sure to look for examples of this strategy as we read.

12. How ‘C&C’ helps us understand a story better…
You learn more about the character and sometimes more about the problems he or she faces.
It often may help you gain insight into a theme- the important life lesson the author is trying to share.

13. Notice and Note: Aha Moment
How character’s actions are related to the conflict, plot, theme…

14. Turn & Talk…
You walk into a class and see people looking through their class notes. What would you most likely realize or remember from this?

15. How might this change things?
‘Aha Moments’
Definition: The character realizes or starts to realize something that changes his actions or thinking.
‘Suddenly I realized’
‘In an instant I saw’
‘It came to me in a flash’
‘Finally I understood that’
How might this change things?

16. “Crash”
Your reading today has several scenes pulled from a book titled Crash by Jerry Spinelli
It’s about a middle-school kid nicknamed Crash who bullies another kid. The kid he cullies is named Penn Webb, and Crash calls him by his last name.
The first scene is from the beginning of the story, pg. 2, when the main character, Crash, is outside and sees Penn walking down the sidewalk.
When you notice the ‘Aha’ moment, STOP and ask yourself one question: How might this change things?

17. Notice and Note: Words of the Wiser
Recognizing Theme

18. Turn & Talk…
What are some examples of advice you have gotten from someone who is older than yourself? (Ex: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!)
How did that advice prove to be words of wisdom?
(Haste Makes Waste Ex…)

19. What’s the life lesson and how might this affect the character?
Words of the Wiser…
Definition: Advice that is a life lesson
Authors are often like a parent or grand-parent in how they include scenes in which wise words are shared.
Be on the lookout for a place in the story where the main character has a serious talk with a wiser, usually older, character.
What’s the life lesson and how might this affect the character?

20. “Riding Freedom”
A young girl named Charlotte who lives during the mid-1800s.
Her parents are dead and she lives in an orphanage.
She loves horses, but the overseer of the orphanage where she lives forbids her to work with them simply because she’s a girl.
Life there is hard, and at some point she realizes she can’t stay there, so she runs away from the orphanage
Let’s take a look at a short scene, the one where Charlotte tells a trusted older and wiser adult at the orphanage that she must escape. The friend’s name is Vern, and he takes care of the horses. One of the horses name is Justice.

21. “Riding Freedom”
When you notice the ‘Words of the Wiser’, STOP and ask yourself one question: What’s the life lesson and how might this effect the character?

22. Notice and Note: Tough Questions
Internal Conflict

23. Turn & Talk…
What do you think is the difference between a simple question and a tough question?
“What’s for dinner?”
“Where are my shoes?”
“How will I ever get over this?”
“What should I do?”

24. What does this question make me wonder about?
Tough Questions…
Definition: When the main character either asks a trusted person or him or herself a question that obviously doesn’t have an easy answer.
When authors want to show us the internal conflict they often let the character share that conflict by having him or her share some difficult questions.
What does this question make me wonder about?

25. “A Long Walk to Water”
Excerpt from a book about what happens to an eleven year old who lives in Sudan during a time in which rebels are raiding villages.
In one scene, eleven year old Salva has become separated from the rest of his family after rebels have attacked his village.
Now he is alone and scared and running.
When you notice the ‘Tough Question’, STOP and ask yourself one question: What does this question make me wonder about?

26. Notice and Note: Again & Again
Plot, characters, theme

27. Turn & Talk…
Much of what we learn about our friends- enemies too- we learn by noticing patterns in their behavior. What is an example of where you’ve noticed someone repeating a behavior (either a positive or negative one)? What did it it mean?
Ex: Lunch Table

28. Why does this keep showing up again and again?
‘Again & Again’
Definition: When authors repeat something- a word, image, or an event- it means something.
When we see those words, images, or events again and again, we should stop and ask ourselves:
Why does this keep showing up again and again?

29. “Hatchet” Excerpt from a book titled, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.
Brian, the main character, is seated next to the pilot in a small plane flying over the forests in the far north.
When you notice the ‘Again & Again’, STOP and ask yourself one question: Why does this keep showing up again and again?

30. Notice and Note: Memory Moment
Making predictions, Theme

31. Memory Moment
Definition: 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.
Helps us understand why characters do what they do.
“I remembered the first time when…”
“ In that very moment the memory came flooding back…”
“My dad liked to tell the story about…”
“This picture always reminded me of…”

32. Why might this memory be important?
Memory Moment
It likely tells us something important, either about the character or about the plot.
Why might this memory be important?

33. “Hope Was Here”
About a girl named Hope who, once again, must leave a place she’s called home to move.
Part in the novel where she and her aunt are getting in their car to begin their latest move.
When you notice the ‘Memory Moment’, STOP and ask yourself one question: Why might this memory be important?