Word Wonders
These are the words or sentences around an unknown word that help you figure out its meaning.
What are context clues?
This is the time and place in which a story happens.
What is the setting?
This is the main point the author wants you to remember about a specific paragraph or article.
What is the main idea?
These are the short titles found at the beginning of a section of text that tell the reader what that specific part of the article will be about.
What are headings (or subheadings)?
The raindrops danced on the rooftop" is an example of this, where human qualities are given to non-human things.
What is personification?
This is the reference tool you would use if you wanted to find a synonym for the word "excited"
What is a thesaurus?
This is the "big idea" or the life lesson the author wants the reader to learn from a story.
What is the theme?
These are the three main reasons an author writes a text, often remembered by the acronym P.I.E.
What are Persuade, Inform, and Entertain?
This text structure explains why something happened and what happened as a result.
What is Cause and Effect?
This type of figurative language compares two unlike things using the words "like" or "as.
What is a simile?
In the word "disagreeable," this part of the word is the prefix.
What is "dis-"?
A struggle between a character and an outside force (like a storm or an enemy) is known as this type of conflict.
What is external conflict?
This is a short statement that tells the most important parts of a text from the beginning, middle, and end.
What is a summary?
This text feature is found underneath a picture or photograph and explains what is happening in the image.
What is a caption?
"I've told you a million times to clean your room!" is an example of this extreme exaggeration.
What is hyperbole?
This reference tool provides a list of specialized terms and their definitions, usually found at the very back of a nonfiction book.
What is a glossary?
This is the part of the plot where the tension is at its highest point and the main character faces their biggest challenge.
What is the climax?
"The James River is in Virginia" is a fact, but "The James River is the prettiest river in the world" is one of these.
What is an opinion?
If an author is explaining the similarities and differences between two different animals, they are using this text structure.
What is Compare and Contrast?
This is a direct comparison between two things that does NOT use "like" or "as" (Example: "The snow was a white blanket").
What is a metaphor?
If the root "tele" means "far" and "scope" means "to see," this is what a telescope is used for.
What is seeing things from far away?
This term describes a character who drives the story forward, often embodying the hero. This other force or character that opposes them, creating conflict.
What is the protagonist and antagonist?
These are the specific facts, examples, or statistics that "prove" or support the main idea.
What are supporting details?
Signal words like first, next, then, and finally indicate that the author is using this type of text structure.
What is Chronological Order (or Sequential Order)?
This is when an author uses very descriptive language that appeals to the reader's five senses.
What is imagery (or sensory language)?