Notice & Note Signposts: Intro to Upcoming Webinar

By Jiali Wang

One paramount goal of literacy acquisition is to empower our students. But how can teachers invite students to critically think about what are they reading and what they write? In this blog, Dr. Kylene Beers' strategy of Notice & Note signposts will be introduced as a powerful strategy for students to become more aware of what to notice during reading and writing. 

Source: HMH Website

This is an image introducing the categories of signposts that help readers to dig deeper. To see other categories of signposts that help students become better readers, click here (the Spanish version included).

What is Notice & Note signposts strategy?

The Notice and Note Signposts strategy helps students engage in a careful analysis of complex texts and helps them read sources closely. If we think of signposts as the signs we see when we are driving, when we go to a place that is unfamiliar, we ought to pay more attention to the signs, since they guide us and let us know where we are and where to go.

It is similar when students are grappling with the complex, new texts. The idea is that when students see such signposts, they should slow down, note, ask questions of the text.

​This resource provided by HMH introduces what this strategy is intended for and how it works.

• Click below for a brief introduction video of this strategy.

• Click below for a podcast expanding on more details.

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• Click below to see what the strategy looks like in a classroom.​​

Here, we feature some key points and quotes from these resources:

What inspires this strategy?

Teachers ask good guiding questions throughout the whole group reading. However, students need scaffolding to do the same level of thinking on their own. 

Why is this strategy helpful?

Students can have some concrete strategies and examples. So the signposts invite students to the texts and then there are some anchor questions that help students to be reflective. So when teachers see a signpost, they are going to ask some particular questions that go along with that.​ Teacher might consider encouraging more than just identification of the signposts. Encourage the questions, inquiries, and conversations that follow.

How can this strategy help improve writing?

"Students begin to notice what good writers do and observe the signposts -- what hints they give, what structure they use. They may then later translate into their own communication of ideas and writing."

Remember...

We are teaching kids to be alert as they are reading, to notice the moves that the author makes, and then to stop and ask themselves what that means. So try not to use the word "find;" instead, try to use the word "notice."

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Join us to Learn More!
12/10/2020 3:30-5pm (PST)/ 6:30-8pm (EST) ​

Free Webinar Registration

Title:  Using the Notice and Note Signposts to Create Empowered Readers - Even from a Distance

Co-Sponsors: National Writing Project, UCI Writing Project ​

Description: Join us in this interactive workshop as we discuss how the Notice and Note Signposts—both fiction and nonfiction—help all readers read closely but also read to become empowered readers and writers. Yes, writers! We’ll help those who are new to the signposts understand how to use them and take those with experience into using them with more complex texts. And, we’ll be showing how these signposts help students as they write about the texts they have read. Also, not knowing where our students will be in December, we’ll share how to have conversations about the signposts when distance learning is required. We’ll be using picture story books, poetry, and current fiction and nonfiction as examples. In this session, we’ll also show how the signposts provide a way into harder conversations about race, justice, and equity at age appropriate levels.   

Bios
Kylene Beers, Ed.D. 
is an award-winning educator and co-author, with Robert E. Probst, of Disrupting Thinking (Scholastic) and Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading (Heinemann). She is a past-President of the National Council of Teachers of English, received an NCTE Leadership Award, held a reading research position in the Comer School Development Program at Yale University School of Medicine, and has most recently served as the Senior Reading Advisor to the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia University. 

Robert E. Probst, Ed.D.
is an author, consultant, and Professor Emeritus of English Education at Georgia State University as well as a Research Fellow for Florida International University. With his colleague and co-author, Kylene Beers, he consults with schools, both nationally and internationally, on literacy improvement, issues surrounding struggling readers, and meeting standards.

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