Building Blocks
This common text structure explains why something happened and what occurred as a result.
What is Cause and Effect?
This is the reading strategy where you combine what is written in the text with your own background knowledge to figure out something the author didn't explicitly say.
What is making an inference?
This type of noun always gets a capital letter because it names a specific person, place, or thing (like "Virginia Beach" or "Harry Potter").
What is a proper noun?
While prose is divided into paragraphs, poetry is typically divided into groups of lines called this.
What is a stanza?
This is the official number of times a 6th grader will ask, "Is this for a grade?" during a single school week.
What is one million? (Accept any unreasonably high number).
If a text features words like similarly, on the other hand, however, and both, it is using this text structure.
What is Compare and Contrast?
Find the antonym context clue in this sentence to figure out what gregarious means: "While her brother was quiet and preferred to be alone, Maya was incredibly gregarious."
What is sociable, friendly, or outgoing?
Fix the subject-verb agreement error in this sentence: "The group of middle school students love Friday afternoons."
What is "The group of middle school students loves Friday afternoons"? (Because "group" is singular).
Sizzle, pop, hiss, and buzz are all examples of this sound device where the word mimics the sound it makes.
What is onomatopoeia?
If a metaphor is a direct comparison, finish this silly metaphor: "My backpack is a..."
What is a black hole / a lead brick / a garbage can? (Accept any creative, funny metaphor).
A recipe for making the ultimate Virginia ham biscuit or a guide on how to survive middle school would use this step-by-step text structure.
What is Chronological / Sequential Order?
This term refers to the literal, strict dictionary definition of a word, without any emotional vibes attached.
What is denotation?
In the sentence "She quickly ran to the bus," what part of speech is the word "She"?
What is a pronoun?
"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" is a classic example of this device, which repeats the initial consonant sound.
What is alliteration?
This punctuation mark looks like a period sitting on top of a comma, and acts like it's too cool to just be a regular period.
What is a semicolon?
This nonfiction text feature sits right under a photograph or illustration, explaining exactly what the reader is looking at.
What is a caption?
Unlike denotation, this term describes the emotional feeling or cultural baggage a word carries (like how "scrawny" feels negative, but "slim" feels positive).
What is connotation?
These are the three coordinating conjunctions often used with a comma to join two independent clauses, easily remembered by the first three letters of the acronym FANBOYS.
What are For, And, Nor?
This is the pattern of rhymes at the end of the lines in a poem, usually tracked using letters like AABB or ABAB.
What is a rhyme scheme?
If you are writing a story about a protagonist who is a talking slice of pizza, their main antagonist would likely be this character.
What is a hungry teenager / a pineapple / a mouth?
When an author states an opinion and then uses facts, statistics, and expert quotes to back it up, they are building this type of nonfiction writing.
What is an argument / persuasive text?
Look at this sentence: "The Principal’s speech was so tedious that three students in the front row fell fast asleep." Use context clues to define tedious.
What is boring, dull, or monotonous?
This is the error that occurs when two independent clauses are joined together with only a comma and no coordinating conjunction.
What is a comma splice?
This type of poetry does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern—it just flows like natural speech.
What is free verse?
This is the ultimate "forbidden food" that text evidence suggests is currently glued to the underside of 40% of middle school desks.
What is chewing gum?