Deepening literary conversations

I have been looking for ways to deepen student conversations about literature.  I spent the weekend reading a great book on close reading,   Notice and Note:  Strategies for Close Reading by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst.  It's a great book with teacher and student friendly signposts to alert students to important points in the text.


 I created a series of anchor charts as suggested in the text.  I plan to teach Words to the Wiser and Contrasts and Contradictions to my students this week.  We are reading Johnny Tremain and there are lots of opportunities to practice using these signposts.   

Because I want to jump right in and have students practice using these signposts with the text, I created a series of Think Beyond cards to help scaffold and deepen their conversations.  Each Think Beyond is color coded to correspond to the colored signpost anchor chart hanging on the wall. I think my visual spatial kiddos will really benefit from the color coding.  

Think Beyond Cards