The little pencil simply means that the record is what we call in MS access
as a dirty record.

This simply means that the record you were viewing has been modified, and
access is ready to write that reocrd (form data) back to disk the table that
the form is based on. the writing of data will occur when you leave the
record, or simply close the form

If you move to a record and view that record but do not modify anything on
the record, you'll not see that pencil appear.