STAAR TRICKS
When it comes to theme questions, how does STAAR trick most students?
They will put 3 great life lessons for the wrong answers the DO NOT APPLY TO THE STORY!
Good, positive, helpful
What is an independent clause?
A part of a sentence that could be a FULL THOUGHT or sentence by itself
What is a logical fallacy?
Something wrong with your reasoning
What Japanese poem has
5 syllables in the first line,
7 syllables in the 2nd,
and 5 syllables in the last?
A haiku
When a STAAR question mentions multiple paragraphs, that means you must...
(For example in paragraphs 4-7, the author most likely...)
Find what ALL of those paragraphs have in common!
What does persistent mean? Give a synonym...
dogged, insistent, patient, perservering, pertinacious, tenacious
And, or, for, nor, but, so, yet
If I ask a question that is meant to be answered in your head with an OBVIOUS answer (for example, "Do you want to feel healthy?"), it is called...
A rhetorical question
When lines 1 and 3 rhyme TOGETHER and lines 2 and 4 rhyme TOGETHER, we call it what kind of rhyme scheme?
ABAB rhyme scheme.
When a word is repeated in a passage or poem that means it is probably...
Pretty important to the meaning of the passage or poem
What does sympathy mean? Give me a synonym
commiseration, compassion, feeling
A phrase could NOT be a full sentence. It doesn't have a subject doing the action.
If I told you that if you eat Doritos, you will consume trace amounts of dye Red 40, you will become angry, you will punch someone, and you will go to jail; therefore, eating Doritos means you will go to jail...
WHAT LOGICAL FALLACY IS THAT?
Slippery slope
Couplet
Underlines proper nouns, lists, and numbers
FABLES
What are the only 2 ways to separate 2 independent clauses without using a sentence ending?
A comma along with a conjunction (FANBOYS)
OR
a semicolon (it looks like this ;)
What logical fallacy would it be I said "This man cannot help us solve world hunger. His wife left him!"?
Ad hominem
"The living dead were out walking around town," is an example of what figurative language
An oxymoron
What word is like a snake in the grass to many STAAR test takers?
ONLY! Most students do NOT see it and get BITTEN (or tricked!)
Yesterday on of the questions said "Wendy feels indifferent..." What does indifferent mean? Give me a synonym
apathetic, casual, disinterested, insouciant, nonchalant, perfunctory, unconcerned, uncurious, uninterested
There are 4 reasons we use commas to separate. Give me 3 of the 5 to get 500 points:
1) separating in a list
2) direct address (John, fetch me the water!)
3) when you separate a phrase (could be transitional phrase, a gerund, or a prepositional phrase) from an independent clause
(Because the banana was rotten, he didn't eat it.)
4) When you join 2 independent clauses with a comma and a conjunction (FANBOYS)
5) When you separate a quote of a character speaking from how they said it for instance
"You are so rude," hissed Nan.
What logical fallacy is it if I said, "Everybody is buying Yeezies. You should too!"
Bandwagon fallacy
What is an idiom?
An expression that a culture has been saying for so long that it doesn't make sense translated literally until you hear the story behind it! (Example- Break a leg!)