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TQEs, Hyperdocs, and Notice and Note

Nicole A. Bond
Feb 2, 2019
3 min read

This week, my 7th grade ELA students did some amazing work while analyzing the first five chapters Lois Lowry's The Giver. I should note, I definitely took the opportunity to read a lot of this text out loud, pausing my read aloud ... just when the story gets good, offering the suspense to fuel my students to keep reading. Even my most reluctant readers where asking great questions followed by, "Can I keep reading?" We really hit the reading flow in my classroom this past week (in spite of the weather we've been having in PA.) Also, thanks Pernille Ripp, for giving me the confidence to feel safe reading out loud to my 7th graders knowing that it will inspire them to be readers.

They're TQE work is in the colored Sharpie and my added annotations via class discussion is in black.

There are many reasons they did such great work.

1. I introduced the Notice and Note signposts (that introduction I explain in another post here), and rather than have them play hunt and seek with comprehension questions, I had them look for those instead. This offered a really authentic reading experience. I only asked students to find three as it was their first time looking for them, but offered extra credit if they found more. I caution teachers not to overdue it. If students are constantly having to stop, it will ruin the actual pleasure of reading. Keep that in mind.

2. They catalogued these signposts in a hyperdoc inspired by @theteachingjedi for teaching The Giver. You can find that hyperdoc I modified which you're welcome to make a copy of here. If you would like the FULL HYPERDOC which spawned all sorts of greatness in my classroom by Mr. Kevin Feramisco, you can find it here.

3. After finding at least three different signposts, they met in groups (which I ran out of time to design, so I counted them literally as they came into the room and placed them in entirely random groups.) In these groups, they shared signposts in their discussion, then used used a discussion guide I modified based off the Marisa Thompson's TQE method covered by Jennifer Gonzalez. TQEs stand for: Thoughts, lingering Questions, and Epiphanies. 7th Graders have trouble with the Epiphanies sometimes, but they get it when you explain "Mind=Blown" moments. ;-)

4. Students compiled their TQEs in the hyperdoc (which weren't perfect this first try but were still fantastic, we discussed good/bad questions and ideas, etc.) I asked them to share their TWO BEST TQEs, but not to repeat the TQEs of other groups. Each group was given a colored Sharpie to write their ideas on the paper to share.

5. I lead the short class discussion that followed, marking their questions in black Sharpie, and letting these questions lead discussion. For most of my 7th graders, this is the first time they've done this sort of discussion, so as they get comfortable, I want to do less and less of the leading and hopefully move this to Harkness style round table which is closer to Marissa Thompson's model which she discusses.

In short, if you're a twitter educator, you need to take time to follow the following individuals because this is where I got my ideas: