Authors often include other words or phrases that can help with the understanding of a new word. These words or phrases are referred to as context clues. Context Clues are words in the text that help you figure out what a new, unfamiliar word might mean. The definition of the word you don’t know may be right there in the text!

What are context clues?

Stop! The clues are in the text!

Learn how to guess words in context

Guessing vocabulary in context

Context clues..

Cows Context Clues

Rocket to the Moon

TV411: Using the Context

Context Clues

Learning New Vocabulary Can Be Fun!

Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings. The words happy and sad are antonyms. The words hot and cold are antonyms.

Homonyms are words with one spelling, one pronunciation, but two unrelated meanings. The word bear is a homonym. (The bear is a large animal. I cannot bear to hear a baby cry.) The word left is a homonym. (I left my keys in the door. I use my left hand to write.)

Homophones are words that sound alike but are different in spelling, meaning or origin. An example of a pair of homophones is blew and blue. Another example is to, too and two.

Homographs are words that have one spelling but two pronunciations and two distinct meanings or usages. The word wind is a homograph. (The wind is blowing the leaves. I need to wind up the toy.) The word saw is a homograph. (I saw the bike fall over. The man can saw the wood.)
 

Synonyms Challenge

Antonyms Challenge

Antonyms and Synonyms Crossword Puzzle

Homonyms

Homonyms

Alan Cooper's Homophones/Homonyms

Field Trip Adventure

Connotation is the set of associations implied by a word in addition to its literal meaning. Connotations can be negative, neutral, or positive.

negative

a) There are many vagrants in the city.

b) She is a penny-pincher.

neutral

a) There are many people with no fixed address in the

city.

b) She is someone who pays attention to the cost of things.

positive

a) There are many homeless in the city.

b) She is thrifty.

Denotation is a literal meaning of a word (the dictionary definition).

Mrs. Dowling's Connotation and Denotation

Connotations and Denotations

Definition of Connotation and Denotation

Poetic Elements: Connotation and Denotation

• Her smile was as bright as the sun.
• Her smile was bright like the sun.

A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things without using "as" or "like".

• Her smile was the sun on a summer day.

Similes

Simile Crossword

List of Similes

Analogy Challenge

Said What?

Metaphors

RHL School: Metaphors

Metaphor in Poetry

BrainPOP: Similes and Metaphors

Knowing a word's origin means knowing how that word got started in the first place. Some dictionaries give the word origin after the part of speech. Others give it at the end of the entry. It is usually set off by brackets. The abbreviations and symbols inside the brackets tell how the word came into English. The abbreviations and symbols are explained, usually, at the front of the dictionary. For example:

glo.ry (glôr' E) n. pl. -ries {<OFr. <L. gloria}

The example shows that glory came from Old French, which took it from Latin. In Latin it was spelled gloria.

A fancy name for word origin would be etymology.

PBS: Do You Speak American? Track that Word!

Understanding Word Origin in the Dictionary

The Internet Public Library: Word Origins

A Very Difficult Etymoloical Game

Spanish's Gift to English

Behind the Name

Where Do Languages Come From?

A root word is a word that has nothing added at the beginning or the end. It stands on its own as a word, it has a meaning. New words can be made from root words by adding beginnings (prefixes) and endings (suffixes).

Roots and Prefixes Game

Virtual Salt's Root Words and Prefixes

Caution: Prefixes at Work

Constructing Prefixes

Suffix and Base Word Match

Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes

Common Prefixes

Suffixes

The Suffix/Prefix Machine

Oswego's Using Suffixes

Oswego's Let's Practice Suffixes

Funbrain's "Rooting Out Words" Game

BBC Skillwise: What are Root Words?

Fish Tanks 1

Fish Tanks 2

Examples:

• ounces = oz.
• pound = lb.
• inches = in.
• January = Jan.
• Saturday = Sat.
• Ohio = OH

Month Abbreviations

Common Abbreviations

FactMonster's Common Abbreviations

State Abbreviations

We use a dictionary to find a word's spelling, pronunciation, definitions, origin, forms, and part of speech (noun, verb, etc.). Each word in a dictionary is considered an entry word. The words are listed in alphabetical order, and guide words at the top of the page help you determine if the word you are looking for is on that page. In addition to words, other information can often be found in dictionaries, such as measurement tables, explanations of common symbols, and sometimes maps and lists, such as a list of the U.S. Presidents.

Online dictionaries are usually used by typing the word in a search box. Words often have a sound icon by them so that you can actually hear the word's pronunciation.

The dictionary is not the only type of reference tool we can use to get details about words or text:

• dictionary - a book or site containing the words of a language with their meanings, and sometimes also their pronunciation, grammatical labels, inflections, etymologies, etc.
• footnotes - comments at the bottom of a page, often preceded by a numbered mark or asterisk, etc., which relates the comment to a particular part of the main text
• glossaries - often found at the back of a book, this is a list of words used in that text and a short explanation of the word's meaning
• sidebars - extra information about an article's subject matter that is given importance by means of a separate box or panel
• thesaurus - a book which lists words and their synonyms, and sometimes their antonyms, too
   
   

Word Central

ThinkQuest: Using a Dictionary

ThinkQuest: Dictionary Quiz

Reference Materials

Lesson 1: Using a Dictionary

Lesson 2: Using a Dictionary

Using Guide Words Game: Dino Hunters

Space Station of the 21st Century

The Free Online Dictionary

Dictionary.com

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Rhyming Dictionary

How to Use a Dictionary

Merriam-Webster Thesaurus

AllWords.com

3-D Dictionary of Computer Terms

What you decide to read -- and how you read it -- depends on why you are reading. You might ask yourself these questions.

• Are you reading to find out information on a topic?
• Are you reading to understand or interpret an idea or concept?
• Are you trying to solve a problem?
• Are you reading for your own enjoyment?

Read to Solve Problems

Locating Information to Solve Problems

Locating Answers to Questions

Using Encyclopedias

Using an Almanac

BBC: Types of Text

Reference Sources

Game: Using Reference Sources

What are the different Reference Sources?

Practice identifying the Reference Source

Learn About the Newspaper

Newspaper Practice

Game: Know About the Newspaper

A Newspaper Quiz

Kids Online Resources

Choosing a book by purpose or genre

To predict what will happen or what a character will do next, or in the future, read clues and use what you know to figure it out. To write a response to a prediction question, it is always important to support your prediction using the text from the story that gave the clues or ideas for the prediction.

To analyze a story, it is important to compare and contrast. Think about how the characteristics or descriptions of two or more things are alike and different. To write a response to a compare and contrast question, write a balanced answer of both 1)how they are the same, and 2)how they are different.

Journey North

Summarizing Strategies

Reading Skills Rocket

Main Idea

Sometimes a story can tell something just by including clues to let the reader know. When the reader knows something, yet it isn’t directly stated anywhere, it is an inference. To understand inferences, think about the clues in the story, and use your experiences or knowledge to figure out what is happening.

Making Inferences about Characters

Making an Inference

Inference Skills in Reading

BBC: Inference Skills in Reading

Inference Battleship

Making an Inference and Drawing Conclusions

Inferences, and How You Know

• Beginning, Middle, End
• Cause and Effect
• Chronological Narrative
• Descriptive Paragraph
• K-W-L
• Main Idea & Supporting Details
• QAD
• Spider Maps
• SQ3R
• Story Map
• Summary
• Venn Diagrams
• Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

Graphic Organizers

ReadingQuest

Library of Graphic Organizers

Venn Diagrams 1

Venn Diagrams 2

Using QAD

Graphic Organizers

Create Your Own Graphic Organizer

NCREL Graphic Organizers

CREATE Mississippi's Story Map

Drawing Conclusions

Into the Book

BBC: Scanning Text

BBC: Skimming Texts

BBC: Summarizing Text

A Story Summary

Organize Your Summary

Literature Circle Word Wizard

Literature Circle Questioner

Literature Circle Summarizer

Literature Circle Passage Picker

Using SQ3R

Using Question Bookmarks

Book Adventure (Find the book you want!)

Books and Authors

Reading A to Z (Get Online Leveled books.)

Choosing a book by purpose or genre

Choosing a magazine

When reading, it is important to think about what happened (the effect), and the reason why it happened (the cause).

 _____happened because ________.    effect                               cause

If you are reading something that can be proven by evidence, it is a fact. If you are reading something that is a personal belief that tells how someone feels or thinks, it is an opinion.

To understand the characters in a story, read to figure out what the characters are like. Pay attention to what they say and do, and how others react to them. Think about their feelings, actions, and emotions.

The plot is the chain of events. To understand the plot, think about what will happen next. Also, think how the events affect the story, and even think about how the story would be different if one of the events was left out or changed.

Point of view is the author’s choice of speaker. To analyze a story, it also helps to think why the author chose to write from this point of view and how the story would be different if the story were told from another point of view.

The theme is the overall message the author is telling. To figure out the theme, look at the lessons the character learned, or look at the lesson the student learned. The title usually gives a clue to help figure out the theme of the story.

There are two main types of reading material: fiction and non-fiction. Both types may be further divided into genres. A genre is a fancy name for a group of books which share a similar style, form, or content.

NON-FICTION GENRES

All of the information in a non-fiction book is based on the known true facts.

• Biography - A biography is the story of a real person's life, written or told by someone else.

• Autobiography - An autobiography is the story of a real person's life, written or told by that person.

• How-to-Books

• Science Books

• History Books

• ...and so on.

FICTION GENRES

Fictional stories may be based on actual events or people or may be based entirely on the author's imagination, but fictional stories all contain elements that are made up or created by the author.

• Realistic Fiction stories take place in modern time, and the characters are involved in events that could really happen.

• Mystery is a story about a puzzling event that is not solved until the end, keeping the reader in suspense.

• Fantasy is a make-believe story that includes elements that are impossible, such as talking animals or magical powers. Fairy tales are fantasy stories that were often created to teach children behavior in an entertaining way.

• Science Fiction stories include futuristic technology -- a blend of scientific fact and fictional elements.

• Historical Fiction stories take place in a particular time period in the past. Often the basic setting is real, but the characters are fictional.

• Folk Tales are stories with no known creator. The stories were originally passed down by word of mouth. Tall tales are generally folk tales in which the main character is bigger than life in some way (like Paul Bunyan).

• Myths are stories that usually explain something about the world, and involve supernatural beings.

• Poetry is verse written to inspire thought or create a response of feeling from the reader. It often uses rhythm and rhyme to help convey its meaning.

Figurative language is a tool that an author uses to help the reader picture what is happening in a story or poem and to make the story, words, or characters more interesting. Some common types of figurative language are: simile, metaphor, idioms, hyperbole, personification, alliteration, and onomatopoeia.

simile – a comparison using the words “like” or “as”. For example, “He was as quiet as a mouse.” Or “Her eyes sparkled like diamonds as she opened her gift.”

metaphor – a comparison that does not use the words “like” or “as”. For example, “He’s a tiger when it comes to getting through that yard work!”

idioms – figures of speech that don’t literally mean what the words say. For example, “It’s raining cats and dogs.” (It’s really raining hard.) Or “That was a piece of cake!” (That was easy.)

hyperbole - Hyperbole is a figure of speech which is an exaggeration. For example, “I nearly died laughing.” Or “I tried a million times to get that lid off!”

personification - Personification is giving human qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics to inanimate objects. For example, “The trees whispered threats that the storm may be coming this way.” While you can definitely hear the wind in the trees, trees do not “whisper” – a human quality.

alliteration - Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words. For example, “The sweet sound of songbirds signaled spring’s arrival.”