Vocabulary Strategies

SKILL: Inflectional Ending/ Suffix

An inflectional ending or suffix is a letter or letters added to the end of a base word.

*The endings –ed, –ing, and –s may be added to verbs to change the tense. You can use endings to help you figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word.

  1. The endings –s and –es can be added to singular nouns to make them plural.
  2.  The endings –s, -ed, and –ing can be added to verbs to change the tense.
  3. The endings –er and –est can be added to adjectives to use them to compare.

Rule to remember: Some base words drop the final –e before adding an ending.

Example: rustle + ing = rustling                      ignore + ing =ignoring

Reading Comprehension Skills

SKILL: Draw conclusions

*A conclusion is a decision you make after thinking about the details in what you read.

*Often your prior knowledge can help you draw, or make, a conclusion.

*When you draw a conclusion, be sure it makes sense and is supported by what you have read.

*Sometimes you must draw a conclusion to answer a question asked in a book, by a teacher, or on a test. The details you need for your answer may be in one place or in several places. Use those details plus what you already know to draw a conclusion that answers the question.

SKILL- Author’s Purpose/ While you are reading, think about why the author wrote it. 

An author may write to persuade, to inform, to entertain, or to express himself or herself.

To persuade- The author is trying to convince the reader or change the reader’s opinion.

To entertain- The author is trying to make me laugh or keep me interested in a fictional story.

To inform- The author is giving me facts about something that took place.

To share feelings- The author is writing to share their own personal feelings. (example- a journal, letter, postcard, diary)

Figurative Language

Types of Figurative Language- Figurative language is used to make writing more interesting. It helps the reader visualize what they are reading.

Simile- Comparing two unlike things using like or as.

Example: She is as thin as a toothpick.

Metaphor- Comparing two unlike things without using like or as.

Example: She is a toothpick.

Personification- Giving human characteristics to non-living things or objects.

Example: The waves danced along the shore.

Onomatopoeia- A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Example: Bam!

Hyperbole- An exaggeration.

Example: I am so hungry, I could eat a horse. 

Genres

Theme- the underlying meaning of a story.  It is often not stated. You can figure out a theme when you have finished reading from events and other evidence in the story. It is the idea that holds a story together. A theme is the big idea that the reader determines from the setting, events, and characters in a story.

POETRY- 

A poem is a composition arranged in lines. Some poems have rhyme, some have a rhythm, and some have both.

Narrative poem- a long poem that tells a story.

FICTION-

Fictional stories always have the following:

  1. Setting- where and when the story takes place. Writers use details, such as sights and sounds, to describe it.
  2. Plot
  3. Characters

Types of Fiction:

  1. Historical Fiction- a combination of imagination and fact, with fictional characters and plot placed in a factual historical setting. It is realistic fiction that takes place in the past and is often full of adventure.
NONFICTION-
Types of Nonfiction:
  1. Expository Nonfiction- Explains a person, a thing, or an idea. It tells a real-life story.