The Order of things
Words like "first," "next," "then," and "finally" act as these types of clues to show the order of events.
What are signal words (or transition words)?
This type of noun must always be capitalized because it names a specific person, place, or thing.
What is a proper noun?
: To "compare" means to look for things that are the same, while this word means to look for things that are different.
What is contrast?
This figure of speech compares two unlike things using the specific words "like" or "as."
What is a simile?
There are three main reasons an author writes: to Persuade, to Inform, or to do this.
What is to Entertain? (P.I.E.)
In a biography about an inventor, the author likely uses this text structure to show the person's life from birth to adulthood.
What is chronological order (or sequence)?
These are the three main "times" or tenses a verb can express.
What are past, present, and future?
This graphic organizer, made of two overlapping circles, is the most common way to visualize a compare and contrast relationship.
What is a Venn Diagram?
If a teacher says, "The classroom was a zoo," they are using this figure of speech to suggest it was very chaotic.
What is a metaphor?
When you use hints from the sentences around an unknown word to figure out its meaning, you are using these.
What are context clues?
If a recipe says to "preheat the oven" before "mixing the ingredients," this is the step that must happen at the very beginning.
What is preheating the oven?
This punctuation mark is used to show that something belongs to someone, such as "the student's book."
What is an apostrophe?
"Both whales and fish live in the water; however, whales breathe air while fish use gills." This sentence uses "however" to show this.
What is a difference (or a contrast)?
"The wind whispered through the trees" is an example of this, where human qualities are given to non-human things.
What is personification?
If a story uses words like "I," "me," and "my," it is being told from this point of view.
What is first-person?
This specific type of sequence text uses dates and years to organize historical information visually
What is a timeline?
In the sentence "The hungry cat chased the mouse," this word is the adjective.
What is "hungry"?
An author comparing a laptop to a tablet would likely mention these features that they share in common.
What are similarities?
This common phrase, like "it's a piece of cake," has a cultural meaning that is different from the actual words used.
What is an idiom?
This is a "smart guess" or a conclusion a reader makes based on evidence from the text and their own background knowledge.
What is an inference?
In a "How-To" text, if a reader skips a step in the middle, this is the most likely result for the final product.
What is the process failing (or the product not working)?
This is the name for a word that joins two sentences or ideas together, such as "and," "but," or "or."
What is a conjunction?
When comparing two characters in a story, a gifted reader looks not just at their appearance, but at these internal traits
What are personality traits (or character motives)?
In the sentence "The heavy rain pitter-pattered on the tin roof," the author uses this technique to help the reader "hear" the sound.
What is onomatopoeia?
"The protagonist felt resilient after the storm." Using context, this is a likely synonym for resilient.
What is strong (or tough/able to bounce back)?