Why Notice and Note is a game changer

I have been a convert to Notice and Note since the moment I heard Kylene Beers first speak. I champion her New Book Disrupting Thinking on a level that is near zealotry. I know that the teachings in these books will help our students to become better thinkers and more attentive as they look at text.

I do not know that it works because some standardized test tells me their level has increased. Frankly, I do not care about the score they achieve on a standardized reading assessment. Do I want them to do well? Of course but only because the frustration that goes along with reading a too hard test is not the type of reading experience I want for my students. AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU!

I do not know that it works because my students do well on a STAR placement exam or can crush those all-important AR quizzes (we need accountability after all). Or because they have mastered some skill according to Lexia.

I know Notice and Note and BHH and other tools that I have taught and continue to teach my students to utilize work because I see them in action. I see them in their journals and hear them in their conversations. When a student asks his book club if they thought something was a Contrast and Contradiction and the discussion that develops shows not only engagement but active thought, I KNOW IT WORKS.  When a student writes about their connection to children that have suffered abuse with the BHH framework discussing not only the text but what it made them consider and how it made them feel, I KNOW IT WORKS. When a student that is watching Wonder and is excitedly telling his tablemates that they have missed a signpost, that one of those “WW things” just happened and is writing it down because he knows it is important to pay attention to what he is experiencing, I KNOW IT WORKS.

I am so incredibly gratefully that a moment in a day started a change in my teaching and how I view achievement in reading. The numbers are not the focus, the thoughts are, the conversations are. The students are.

Thank you Kylene Beers and Bob Probst for this gift that I will continue to help my students utilize in the classroom.

Now here are some of today’s mindmaps we started from WONDER. Different achievement points so far but I celebrate them all.