Reading Literature
The central message or life lesson the author communicates through the text. Themes are stated as complete sentences or general statements about life.
What is Theme?
The most important idea in an informational text. In literature, use "theme" instead.
What is the Central Idea?
The perspective from which a story is told. First person uses "I." Third person limited follows one character. Third person omniscient knows all characters' thoughts.
What is Point of View?
The time and place in which a story occurs. Setting can affect characters' behavior and the plot.
What is Setting?
Specific words, phrases, or sentences from the text used to support an answer or claim.
The feeling or atmosphere a text creates in the reader. Examples: tense, melancholy, joyful.
What is Mood?
How a text is organized or built. In fiction: plot structure (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution). In poetry: stanzas, lines, rhyme scheme.
What is Structure?
The sequence of events in a story: exposition → rising action → climax → falling action → resolution.
What is Plot?
The pattern of end rhymes in a poem, labeled with letters (ABAB, AABB, etc.).
What is Rhyme Scheme?
The author's attitude toward the subject or audience. Examples: serious, humorous, sarcastic, hopeful.
What is Tone?
A conclusion you draw from evidence + your own reasoning. The text does not say it directly, but the evidence points to it.
What is Inference?
The central struggle in a story. Can be internal (within a character) or external (with another character, society, or nature).
What is Conflict?
Language that goes beyond the literal meaning. Includes simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, idiom, and allusion.
What is Figurative Language?
A grouped set of lines in a poem, like a paragraph in prose.
How the author reveals a character's personality — through thoughts, actions, dialogue, appearance, or other characters' reactions.
What is Characterization?
The point at which the central conflict is solved or ended.
What is Resolution?
The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words. Example: "Peter Piper picked a peck."
What is Alliteration?
The emotional or cultural associations a word carries, beyond its dictionary definition. Example: "home" connotes warmth; "house" is neutral.
What is Connotative Meaning?
The perspective from which a story is told. Narrator uses I, me, and my.
The voice that tells the story. The narrator is NOT always the author.
What is Narrator?