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Notice and Note Signposts
Notice and Note Signposts
Notice and Note is a close reading annotation tool to help you pay attention to characterization in a novel and how the little moments reveal important parts of characterization. As you read, look out for the "signposts" and note how they connect with each other over the course of the story (see the six "signposts" to look for below). You can also use the attached "Signposts Notice and Note Tracking Sheet".
Potential Annotation Symbols
Signposts Notice and Note Tracking Sheet.pdfMemory Moment
A memory interrupts the flow of the story, but reveals something important about the character or plot.
Stop and Ask Yourself: Why might this memory be important?
Words of the Wiser
A wiser, often older, character shares his or her experience, wisdom, or lesson about life with the main character, hoping to guide him or her through a difficult decision.
Stop and Ask Yourself: How could this advice affect the character?
Tough Questions
A time when the main character asks him or herself, or someone else, a tough question (one that does not have an easy answer).
Stop and Ask Yourself: What does this tough question make me wonder about?
Aha Moment
A character’s insight or sudden understanding reveals something important about the character or plot.
Stop and Ask Yourself: Why might this realization be important?
Contrasts and Contradictions
The character acts in a way that contradicts how he or she has acted before or that contrasts with how we would act or that reveals a difference among the characters.
Stop and Ask Yourself: Why did the character act or feel that way?
Again and Again
Events, images, or particular words that reoccur over a portion of the novel.
Stop and Ask Yourself: Why might the author bring this up again and again?
Questioning
Questioning
Questioning as you read allows you to check your comprehension and make some inferences about how the story is going to develop. One great way to ask questions is to break them down based on the type of question and the information it provides. You can use the Question Stems below to help you ask different types of questions about the text that you are reading. You can find a notetaker to the right to help you with tracking your questions.
You can also see this Sample of Questions someone might ask as they approach a Close Reading.
Questioning Note TrackerThe Answer is in the Text
The Answer is in Your Head
Right There (Explicitly Said)
The answer is directly stated in the text.
Stems:
What/who did...
When did...
Who is...
Where is/was...
Define...
Identify the facts...
Basic Recall of Information
Putting it Together (Inferences)
The answer is in the text, but you have to pull together ideas from many spots.
Stems:
How are __ and __ different/alike?
How does ___ change?
Why did ___ do ____?
What is the best summary?
Predict the outcome of ____?
Concept/Skill Building
Author and You (Connections)
The answer requires you to use both the text and your background knowledge.
Stems:
What does the author mean by ___?
What can you conclude about ___?
How is ___ connected to __?
What ideas justify ___?
What is the theme of ___?
Strategic Thinking
On Your Own
The answer is based on your own prior knowledge. What is your experience?
Stems:
In your opinion...?
Do you believe...?
What do you think it would be like...?
What qualities are important for...?
How would you define...?
Personal Connections
Building Personal, Literary, and World Connections
Building Personal, Literary, and World Connections
Building Connections, whether personal, literary, or world is an important way to develop a sophisticated insight into a text. It can also help you decide what evidence is most relevant for you to include in your analysis. For instance, you can imagine how noticing that Dorian Gray reflects the Narcissus tale helps you better understand Dorian as a character. In another example, your knowledge of beauty standards on social media might influence the evidence you see about Dorian Gray's quest for beauty and its influence on his morality.
Building connections can also enhance your understanding because you're able to consider what you already know and how it helps you understand the text better.
Blackout Analysis
Blackout Analysis
Blackout Analysis is a good way to pay attention to Diction, Imagery, Details, and track devices over the course of a text (things like Motif, Extended Metaphor, and Prosopopoeia). See the notes to the side for full directions and student examples.
How To:
Put boxes around words related to your literary device and/or its tone. For instance, if annotating for diction that demonstrates Characterization, I'd put boxes around any word that related to my Character.
(Mentally) Cross out everything you didn't put a box around. It is unimportant.
Based only on the words you have left (the ones you kept), make some quick annotations about what that reveals about the Character or Motif, specifically the author's tone towards that object.
Literary 3 x 3
Literary 3 x 3
Literary 3x3 focuses on pulling together the steps of a literary analysis into an intentional practice. William Melvin Kelley suggests that a prospective writer of fiction should create three, three-word sentences that summarize an intended plot to be sure that the story contains a beginning, middle, and end. This process REVERSES this format to go well beyond the plot, to state (and analyze) the essence of a work.
THE LEFT COLUMN: Basic plot points to check comprehension
EX: Susan Glaspell's "AJury of Her Peers" could be summarized as follows:
Minnie kills husband.
Men seek evidence.
Women hide evidence.
Such a summary restates the basic plot but doesn't say much about the real issues of this short story. It does not answer questions as to why Minnie has killed her husband, how the men differ from the women in their attitude toward her guilt, or whether the concealing of evidence is morally right.Contrast that generic summary with more insightful versions that will occupy the right column.
THE RIGHT COLUMN: Complex insights about the essence of a text
EX: Susan Glaspell's "AJury of Her Peers" could be interpreted as follows:
Apathy strangles devotion.
Tidiness uncovers truth.
Sympathy chokes justice.
You can see a practical application of this method in my video annotating "Dulce et Decorum Est" on the Poetry page.
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