Help your students dig deeper into informational text with these holiday-themed close reading passages and questions focused on Christmas Around the World.

Notice and Note, Close Reading

Notice and Note are a set of strategies for close reading first made popular by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst. The idea behind Notice and Note is for students to notice six different “signposts” as they read and make note of them.

In the Christmas Around the World Close Reading Passages, students have pages designed for margin notes where they can practice notice and note.

Here are the six signposts to teach students, so they can notice them when they read Christmas Around the World:

1. Contrasting Ideas – Any contradictions in details, predictions, or ideas.
2. Words of the Wiser – In nonfiction, when there are lessons to learn.
3. AHA Moment – Stop and ask, would the text be the same without this?
4. Again & Again – What words or ideas are repeating?
5. Memory Moment – When the text is interrupted by something different, something to remember.
6. Tough Questions – What questions are posed and why are they important to me?