Kuunari

The series “Reading Notice and Note” features essays I wrote for a distance learning class while reading the book Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading by G. Kylene Beers and Robert E Probst. Overall, I found the book and the class enjoyable and hope this series helps others as they read and think about the book. 

Most juvenile and young adult fiction includes the Words of the Wiser signpost. As characters are struggling with the constraints of childhood while dealing with the problems posed by the plot, authors will use an older or wiser character to deliver a life lesson. These life lessons tell the reader more about the character as well as revealing the themes of the book.

While this signpost might appear less often in books that students read than most of the other signposts, Words of the Wiser signals a very important moment to the narrative.  Students must pause and ponder when they come across it to better understand the text. 

The theme of a book is the message or big idea and authors often use scenes that contain Words of the Wiser to convey that theme. In these scenes, a character will receive advice from a wiser and/or older character, conveying an important life lesson. As readers notice this signpost, they can guide their thinking by using the question, “what’s the life lesson and how might it affect the character?” to better understand the scene and message the author is attempting to convey.

The life lesson is sometimes clearly stated but sometimes it is obfuscated. Readers need to be able to identify the theme of stories, but developing readers often struggle to identify the theme, particularly in longer texts. The Words to the Wiser signpost helps these readers to find these themes by knowing when to pay attention to this information. 

The first step for a teacher preparing their students to utilize the Words of the Wiser signpost in their own reading is to have a lesson teaching the concept. The teacher needs to explain what Words of the Wiser is and model identifying and thinking about the scene is a short text. After the teacher has modeled this signpost, the students can practice identifying and discussing this signpost.

The students should use the question “how might this advice affect the character?” to think about the signpost in the text. Once they have thought about and written down some ideas, partner and class conversations allow the students to show their understanding and the teacher to respond to any struggles or misconceptions. 

As the teacher and students become better at identifying the signpost, the teacher can sprinkle in additional questions to foster deeper thought and conversation. There were two that I found particularly valuable to help students go deeper in their thinking about this signpost. The first connects the Words of the Wiser to the problem that the character faces. Often in the scene with Words of the Wiser, there is also a tough question asked by the younger character. As the students read the wiser character’s answer, the teacher can ask their students, “does [the lesson] give you an idea of a problem or internal conflict the main character faces?”

The teacher should encourage students to make connections between the signposts as the often are complementary in what they reveal about the subtext of the story. The second question that is useful has the students pondering if it’s better for the lesson to be direct, “don’t steal,” or if the lesson should be indirect, like in “Thank You, Ma’m” by Langston Hughes, when the older woman says “shoes got by devilish means will burn your feet.”

Students often struggle to understand how to infer about text, and asking them if a lesson is better if it is direct or indirect helps to point out to the students when they are inferring by understanding an indirect lesson.

Children spend most of their life being told what to do by teachers, parents, and other adults in their lives. Once they understand what Words of the Wiser is, they will quickly be able to apply the signpost to their own reading and be able to identify the author’s theme with ease and understanding.