R EADING SIGNPOSTS Adapted from Kylene Beers & Robert E. Probst.
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Transcript of R EADING SIGNPOSTS Adapted from Kylene Beers & Robert E. Probst.
READING SIGNPOSTS
Adapted from Kylene Beers & Robert E. Probst
WHAT IS A SIGNPOST?A signpost is a
signal that points to the correct direction needed to take to accurately arrive at the desired destination.
HOW DO SIGNPOSTS HELP IN READING?
Signposts help you to get to where you want to go!
They can also help you while reading!
HOW? Have you every read
an entire page and then thought, “Wait, what did I just read?”
Signposts help you to THINK about what you are reading so you won’t get lost!
THERE ARE SIX READING
SIGNPOSTS1. Contrasts and Contradictions
2. Aha Moment3. Tough Questions
4. Words of the Wiser5. Again and Again6. Memory Moment
CONTRASTS AND CONTRADICTIONS
A sharp contrast between what we would expect and what we observe the character doing; behavior that contradicts previous behavior or well-established patterns.
A character behaves or thinks in a way we don’t expect, or an element of a setting is something we would not expect.
Definition Clues
Why would the character act (feel) this way?
EXAMPLE: CONTRASTS AND CONTRADICTIONS
Byron is basically a juvenile delinquent and kills a bird. When he thinks he is alone, he cries. This tender behavior contradicts the tough-guy exterior we’ve seen in the early pages of the book, suggesting that he may be more than simply a bully.
AHA MOMENT
A character's realization of some thing that shifts his actions or understanding of himself, others, or the world around him.
Phrases, usually expressing suddenness, like: “Suddenly I
understood…” “It came to me in a flash
that…” “The realization hit me
like alighting bolt…” “in an instant I knew…”
Definition Clues
How might this change things?
EXAMPLE: AHA MOMENT
Luke has an aha moment in Among the Hidden. “The answer was there instantly, as if he’d known it all along and his brain was just waiting for him to come looking” (pp. 145-146)
TOUGH QUESTIONS
Questions a character raises that reveal his or her inner struggles.
Phrases expressing serious doubt or confusion: “What could I possibility
do to…?” “I couldn’t imagine how I
could cope with…” “How could I ever
understand why she…?” “Never had I been so
confused about…”
Definition Clues
What does this question make me wonder about?
EXAMPLE: TOUGH QUESTIONS
Esperanza asks herself questions such as:“Why did Papa
have to die. Why did he leave me and Mama?” (pg. 38).
WORDS OF THE WISER
The advice or insight a wiser character, who is usually older, offers about life to the main character.
The main character and another are usually off by themselves, in a quiet, serious moment, and the wiser figure shares his wisdom or advice in an effort to help the main character with a problem or a decision.
Definition Clues
What’s the life lesson and how might it affect the character?
EXAMPLE: WORDS OF THE WISER
Tuck take Winnie on a rowboat and says, “It’s a wheel, Winnie. Everything’s a wheel, turning and turning, never stopping. The frog is part of it, and the bugs, and the fish, and the wood thrush, too. And people. But never the same ones. Always coming in new places, always growing and changing, and always moving on. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s the way it is. (pg. 62).
AGAIN AND AGAIN
Events, images, or particular words that recur over a portion of the novel.
A word is repeated, sometimes used in an odd way, over and over in the story.
An image reappears several times during the course of the book.
Definition Clues
Why might the author bring this up again and again?
EXAMPLE: AGAIN AND AGAIN
In The Giver, “release” is used repeatedly. Bud, in Bud, Not Buddy, continually examines
the small bag of rocks with strange numbers on them that his mother had collected.
In Hatchet, Brian keeps referring to something he calls, “the Secret”.
MEMORY MOMENT
A recollection by a character that interrupts the forward progress of the story.
The ongoing flow of the narrative is interrupted by a memory that comes to the character, often taking several paragraphs to recount before we are returned to the events of the present moment.
Definition Clues
Why might this memory be important?
EXAMPLE: MEMORY MOMENT
In The Outsiders, Ponyboy remembers when his friend Johnny was badly beaten.
The reader now understands the situation in the community and the rival between the two gangs.
SIGNPOSTS These SIX Signposts will help you while
reading! Using these signposts while you read
FICTION books will be the most helpful.
What are you waiting for? GET READING!
REFERENCES
Beers, K., & Probst, R. (2013). Notice and note: Strategies for close reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.