We were in the midst of a lively mentor text analysis of James Howe’s “Everything Will Be Okay” for our just-launched memoir unit. I was thrilled to see my sixth graders making note of the way in which Howe had woven in various characteristics of memoir (the mini-lesson of the day!), but less than thrilled to see that one of them was twirling around his bookmark and gazing at it in what appeared to be a distracted sort of way. Just as I was about to say something, Colin looked up at me thoughtfully, waved his bookmark, and said: “That was an ‘Ah-ha Moment’, right? At the end there, when Howe said, ‘I will decide for myself?’”
The bookmark in question was this one:
which I had created to anchor our Notice & Note (Kylene Beers and Bob Probst, Heinemann) thinking during our class read aloud of Priscilla Cumming’s Red Kayak. The room grew quiet as Colin explained his thinking. And then pandemonium broke broke out. It was as though the proverbial lightbulb had been suddenly switched on, and suddenly there was light…and clarity about what exactly constituted memoir and differentiated it as a genre from personal narrative.
Among their excited chatter, I could hear many of the now- familiar- to- us signposts. So, we opened up a Google doc and charted this thinking in order to see if some of what we had learned in Reading Workshop could now be put to use in Writing Workshop. This is what we noted:
Then we compared “Everything Will Be Okay” with our first mentor text, Mario Cuomo’s “The Blue Spruce” , to see if our theory about Notice & Note signposts (i.e. that some of the signposts were, actually, characteristic of memoir) held true. We decided that:
- Memory Moments give you a bit of the writer’s history so that you “get” the problems and conflicts he/she faced.
- Contrasts & Contradictions showed up when the narrator was beginning to realize something important, this is where the “turn” in the memoir takes place
- Again & Again words or phrases definitely point to the “big idea” or the lesson learned. In the Cuomo memoir, it was the word “dream”, and in Howe’s it was the phrase “everything will be okay”.
- Ah-ha Moments tend to show up at the end of the memoir, sometimes right after the Contrasts & Contradictions Moment. This is the reflective part – the writer has figured out something.
My students had theories about how other signposts could show up, too:
- The writer may need a Words of the Wiser to help him/her come to a realization or have insight about something.
- Or, the character might gain insight through Tough Questions that he poses to himself. For example, James Howe could have asked himself “Is this the kind of man I want to be?” and through the process of coming to terms with this question he may have arrived at his realization: “I will decide for myself what kind of boy I am, what kind of man I will become”.
This was exciting work for us. There are, of course, so many connections between the work we do as readers and the work that writing demands. Still, it is rather wonderful to come to the realization that we have added the Notice & Note signposts to our writing toolkit. I imagine that we will be reaching in for these as we begin our flash drafts next week and continue on to revising and publishing our memoirs.
When reading workshop meets writing workshop, it is a very good thing!
Have you used the Notice & Note signposts in your memoir units? If so, please share what you have learned with us!
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
I don’t teach in a workshop format with my 8th graders in my district, but I planned my narrative to intentionally utilize the signposts. We would examine them in the texts we were reading and then students would try them out in their own weekly “rough draft” narratives. After three weeks and three rough draft” narratives, they chose their best one to take to a final draft. They often revised and put in signposts that they might not have known about before but that could help move their narrative. I think an important part of our conversation was that a story is not good because it has a certain number of signposts but because the author intentionally chooses to use a signpost to achieve a certain goal. Unfortunately, many students come to writing thinking it is like a recipe; if they mix in a couple characters, a description of setting, and some plot events, then they will have a fabulous story. The decision making that authors go through is so important for kids to see.
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This so SO COOL! I love it on so many levels!!!
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I love the bookmark! What a great way to give them a resource that is not just another hole-punched paper for their binders! I struggle at times with how to teach them to use the mentor texts and this post is a great resource! What a beautiful moment for you in class!
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This is such brilliant work, Tara! How wonderful that Colin picked up on this and led the entire class on a journey with the sign posts. And, yes, it is fantastic when RW and WW intersect!
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I love the idea of charting on Google Docs what they notice. I teach 9th graders, and I think they would love this. How can you do this in Google Docs with the actual text? Am I missing something obvious?
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I had typed a copy of the story onto Googledocs . That is time consuming, but worth it.
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Tara, I love Notice & Note, but I haven’t had the chance to teach it in a classroom since it came out after I had already taken on role of a coach. Your post gave me chills. This is exactly the kind of moment every reading teacher dreams of, I think! And to make this connection to how the signposts will help them as writers… brilliant thinking. Give those kids a hearty pat on the back from me!
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Dear Tara, We meet at the Boothbay retreat and you told me all about your blog. I have been following you ever since and have learned so much. Thanks for all the time, energy, and information you put into your posts. I look forward to my first cup of coffee and “Two Writing Teachers’ every morning!
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Thank you, Joyce! Perhaps we’ll see each other at Boothbay again!
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My fifth graders did the same thing when we first took a look at Goosebumps during our personal narrative unit. There is a link to their analysis below (which I wrote up based on their conversation). This is their first year with the signposts, and the first year doing writer’s workshop.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5es-k1ppE9ONmdfNXFTeGhZdFctdlE5NTk3WDZBV1k2Yi1n/view?usp=sharing
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Reblogged this on A Teaching Life and commented:
Posting on Two Writing Teachers today: Notice & Note in our memoir unit:
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Reblogged this on The Joy of Writing.
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It is awesome to see the wheels turning in the minds of your students. Love this!
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I enjoyed reading this post. I loved your students aha moment ( and yours when you realized he really was paying attention). Most of all (i know i have said it before) I just love this sight, because I know that if I want to learn more about writing, teaching writing, or writing about/in a particular genra, I can google my question plus TWT blog and I will get relevant info and great ideas!
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