Reading Review for the AHSGE

1. Reading Review for the AHSGE Reading Review for the AHSGE From, Passing the Alabama Graduation Examination in Reading, American Book Company

2. Finding the Main Idea • Definition: • The main idea is the central point or controlling idea of a passage • It is sometimes stated directly in the title, beginning, or end of a passage. • Other times, however, it may only be implied, rather than directly stated. • You may need to determine the implied main idea in a passage of several paragraphs; the main idea will summarize all of the facts and ideas in the passage.

3. Tips for Finding a Stated Main Idea :  • Read the title of the passage. • The main topic for the paragraph or passage is often mentioned in the title. • Read the entire paragraph or passage. • You’ll get an overview of who or what the selection is about. • Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph. • Most of the key words and ideas will be stated in these places. • Choose the answer that is the best statement or restatement of the paragraph or passage. • Your choice should contain the key words mentioned in the title, the first sentences, or the last sentences in each paragraph of the passage.

4. Tips for Determining an Implied Main Idea :  • Read the title. • The title will help you identify the topic of the selection. • Read the entire paragraph or passage. • You’ll get a general understanding of the selection. • Reread the facts and details in each paragraph. • Think of overall ideas that they share in common. • Choose the answer that summarizes all of the facts and ideas in the passage. • Confirm your choice by going back to the passage to check your evidence one more time.

5. Reading for Details, Patterns of Ideas, and Word Meaning :  • Locating details is an essential skill for reading comprehension. • Definition: • The ability to identify facts, reasons, and examples that support the main idea in a paragraph or passage. • You will need to be able to recognize sequence of events in a story as well as understand cause-effect relationships in a passage.

6. Tips for Locating Details: • Read the passage carefully. • Scan the passage to answer the questions with the 5 W’s or H. • Who? • What? • When? • Where? • Why? • How ? • Match key works in your choice of answers with those in the passage. • Always confirm your answer by going back to the passage.

7. Sequence of events or directions • Questions dealing with a sequence of events or directions require you to make connections between events, observations, or instructions in a passage. • Passages can follow one of three logical orders: • Chronological order- events are presented in time order starting from the first event, then going to the second event, third event, etc. • Order of importance- details are organized either from least important to most important, or vice versa. • Spatial order- top to bottom, left to right, clockwise, near to far, front to back, etc.

8. Tips for Answering Questions about Sequence of Events or Directions :  • Skim the passage. • Look for key words that indicate a sequence of events or directions. • Read the passage. • Read the question and scan the sequences to find the answer. • Try to match key words from the question with the events or directions in the passage. • Check your answer against the evidence in the selection.

9. Cause-effect relationships • Authors sometimes explain a topic by including the causes or reasons for an event and the effects or results of an event. • Passages about cause-effect relationships may center on stories, science, history, or news events.

10. Tips for Answering Cause-Effect Questions :  • Read the passage. • Look for key words that signal hat the passage is about causes or effects. • Note any key words in the questions that suggest a cause or effect would be an answer. • Scan for the answer, and use the text to confirm your response

11. Context Clues By analyzing the phrases and signal words that come before or after the underlined word, you can often figure out its meaning.

12. Analogy • An analogy is a partial or limited similarity between groups of words or ideas. • Two things, essentially different in nature, that possess something in common can make an analogy.

13. Inferences, Conclusions, Generalizations, Predictions, and Summary :  • An inference is information not directly stated in a passage. • It is generally stated in a passage • Example: If you notice a dog wagging its tail as you walk toward it, you would infer that it is friendly and eager to meet you. • The dog doesn’t say anything, but its behavior suggests it is friendly.

14. Tips on Answering Questions about conclusions and Predictions :  • Read the passage twice. • Read the question and all the answer choices. • Choose your answer based on the stated facts or clues in the passage.

15. Inferences, Conclusions, Generalizations, Predictions, and Summary :  • Drawing an inference is making an educated guess based on facts and details in a passage. • A generalization is a specific type of inference in which you apply knowledge in a passage to new situations that are related. • Drawing a conclusion is an inference skill where you form a judgment or opinion based on the details in a passage. • Predictions involve thoughts or actions that could continue beyond the passage (known as applying idea). • The meaning of a passage is a sentence that contains the message in a passage.

16. Tips for Finding the Meaning :  • Read the passage carefully. • Reread the passage for details. • Choose the statement that best expresses the meaning of the passage.

17. Fact and Opinion :  • A fact is a true statement that can be proven by observation, statistics, or research. • An opinion is a judgment or viewpoint about a person, place, event, or idea.

18. Fact and opinion: examples • Fact: Many vegetables contain vitamins and minerals that are essential to health. • Opinion: Vegetables are easy to cook and are delicious. • Fact: Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciuska, Mississippi, on January 29, 1954. • Opinion: Oprah is my favorite TV talk show.

19. Tips for Identifying Facts and Opinions :  • Facts state information based on observation, statistics, or research. • Opinions express a personal viewpoint or belief about a person, place, event, or idea. • Opinions contain adjectives like: best, worst, favorite, dishonest, etc • Opinions sometimes include phrases such as: I feel, I think, my view, my opinion, etc.

20. Analysis of Literature :  • Analyzing literature improves your understanding of what you are reading. • This will help you think critically about reading selections taken from speeches, short stories, poems, plays, articles, essays, ads, and editorials.

21. Argument and Fallacy :  • An argument often presents opinions that have a positive or negative slant. • An advertisement tries to persuade you to purchase a product such as a car or a service such as trash collection. • An editorial presents a viewpoint on a controversial issue such as violence on television or raising the speed limits. • A valid argument contains good logic, solid evidence, or clear reasons and examples form the reading selection. • A fallacy or false argument contains poor logic, weak evidence, or faulty reasons and examples from the reading selection.

22. Tips for Analyzing an Argument :  • Identify the opinion or viewpoint on the issue. • It will generally appear near the beginning of the selection, but it may also appear at the end as a conclusion. • Read the supporting reasons for the opinion • Decide whether the reasons or examples support the argument.

23. Main Types of Fallacies :  • Jumping to Conclusions is a claim with little proof to support it. • (Vote for the people’s choice! Sun Soap is the best!) • Ad Hominem is attacking the person rather than his or her ideas. • (Bill dresses like a nerd! How could he run for president of Student Council?) • Circular Argument is when part of an argument is used as evidence to support it. • (Looks are more important than talent because looks mean everything.) • Testimonial is when famous persons endorse a product, even though they aren’t experts. • (Bill Cosby loves Jell-O; Robin Williams drives a Prius.) • Either-Or Fallacy is when there are only two sides to an issue. • (Either we eliminate all weapons from this earth, or we’ll blow each other up.) • (This or that)

24. Types of Propaganda :  • Testimonials are a frequently used technique in which famous persons endorse a product even though they are not qualified as experts. • Transfer is a technique in which the public’s feelings on one thing are somehow connected to another unrelated thing. • In-Crowd Appeal is a kind of flattery which encourages viewers to identify with an admired, envied group. • Bandwagon is a technique in which the reader is made to feel that a great movement is beginning.

25. Author’s Purpose for Writing: • To inform. • (present facts and data) • To entertain • (amuse or offer enjoyment) • To persuade. • (urge action on an issue) • To instruct. • (teach concepts and facts) • To describe feelings. • (communicate emotions through words) • To create suspense. • (convey uncertainty) • To motivate. • (incite) • To cause doubt. • (be skeptical)

26. Author’s Purpose for Writing cont. :  • To describe an event • (narrate through series of events) • To teach a lesson • (furnish knowledge) • To introduce a character • (describe a person’s traits) • To create a mood • (establish atmosphere) • To relate an adventure • (tell an exciting story) • To share a personal experience • (tell about an event in your life)

27. Structural Devices :  • Structural Devices refer to elements that help you understand a story, poem, or play. • These devices include plot, character, setting, point of view, mood, and theme or interpretation.

28. Plot and Its Features : • Plot is a pattern of events in a story leading to a conclusion. • Climax is the turning point in a story • Conflict is the struggle between different forces in a story. • (can be with nature, one’s self, with others, or with society) • Foreshadowing is clues or hints of events to come. • Suspense is anticipation about what will happen in a story.

29. Setting and Its Features :  • Setting include the place and time in a story. • Place is the location where a story takes place. • Time is when the story occurs.

30. Character and Its Features :  • Character is an imaginary person that appears in a literary work. • Antagonist is an opponent or rival of the hero. • Protagonist is the hero or main character. • Dialogue is a conversation between two people in a story . • Narrator is the person telling a story.

31. Point of View and Its Features: • Point of view is the perspective form which a writer tells a story. • Harper Lee writes To Kill A Mockingbird from the point of view of Scout, a young girl living in a small town in Alabama. • First person point of view is when the narrator tells the story from the “I” point of view. • In House on Mango Street, Esperanza tells her story as the main character. • Third person point of view is when the writer tells the story describing characters as “he,” “she,” or “they.” • Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle is an example of this point of view.

32. Mood and Tone : • Mood is the atmosphere of a literary work. • The writer creates a mood through details in the setting and plot. • Tone is a feeling or attitude conveyed to the reader in a work of literature.

33. Types of moods and tones(learn these words) • Angry • Anxious • Beguiling • Boring • Calm • Cynical • Depressed • Disgusting • Dramatic • Expectant • Fearful • Gloomy • Happy • Humorous • Hysterical • Lackadaisical • Lethargic • Lighthearted • Lofty • Macabre • Mocking • Nervous • Optimistic • Pensive • Pessimistic • Poetic • Relaxed • Remorseful • Sad • Satirical • Suspenseful • Sympathetic • Tearful • Tense • Threatening • Tragic

34. Theme or Interpretation : • Theme or interpretation is the message or meaning in a story, poem, or play. • The reader is then able to gain insights into literature and life. • Examples: • The theme of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is that we all must wear masks that hide our true selves. • One interpretation of Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” is that life is full of surprises that can kill you.

35. Tips for understanding structural devices: • Study the definitions and examples of plot, character, setting, point of view, mood, and theme from this section.

36. Rhetorical Devices : • Rhetorical Devices are ways of expressing ideas that are unusual. • Writers use rhetorical devices to achieve special effects in a passage. • These effects are achieved by how the authors arrange their words. • These devices can be found in poetry, stories, essays, speeches, editorials, and advertisements.

37. Types of rhetorical devices: • Alliteration • Analogy • Euphemisms • Hyperbole • Metaphor • Onomatopoeia • Personification • Rhyme • Simile

38. Specific Rhetorical Devices : • Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonants in lines of poetry or prose. • “Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,” – Langston Hughes • “Perfected poems, powerful punch lines/ Pummeling petty powder puffs in my prime” - Blackalicious • Analogy is a comparison between two things or ideas. • Comparing life to a journey; comparing students in a school to members of a family • Euphemisms is using mild words to describe something instead of using offensive or sexist words. • Passed away for “died” • Perspire for “sweat • Restroom for “bathroom” • Sanitation engineer for “trash man”

39. Specific Rhetorical Devices : • Hyperbole is an exaggeration to create an effect. • “I would rather die than eat Brussels sprouts!” • I was so surprised you could knock me over with a feather! • Metaphor is a direct comparison between two unlike things without using the words “like” or “as.” • The sun was a ball of fire. • The Beatles song “Blackbird,” written during the Civil Rights era, encourages racial equality by the metaphor of a blackbird learning to fly. • Onomatopoeia- words whose sound suggests their meaning. • Splash, buzz, hiss, boom • “The moan of doves in immemorial elms;/ And murmuring of innumerable bees,” - Tennyson

40. Specific Rhetorical Devices : • Personification- giving human qualities to something not human • “As she sang softly at the evil face of the moon,” –Jean Toomer • “The oak trees whispered softly in the night breeze,” – John Steinbeck • Rhyme- occurs when groups of words have the same sounds • “The old horse thrust his long head out,/ And grave with wonder gazed about:” –Whittier • Simile- comparison between two things using “like” or “as” • “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child” – African American Spiritual • Cute as a button • “I’m like a bird/ I’ll only fly away” –Nelly Furtado

41. Tips for understanding rhetorical devices: • Study the definitions and examples of alliteration, analogy, euphemisms, hyperbole, metaphor, onomatopoeia, personification, rhyme, and simile. • Read the literary selection at least twice. • Try to summarize the selection in your own words. • Decide which answer best describes the structural or rhetorical device you are asked to find. • Choose your answer, and then confirm it by going back to the selection.

42. Types of Literature • Writers use many different forms of literature to communicate their messages. Some of these forms have been used for centuries, while others are more recent inventions. • Nonfiction, biography, autobiography, fiction, novel, short story, poem, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, romance, allegory, epic, fable, tall tale, folk tale, myth, legend

43. Types of literature: • Nonfiction- writing that is intended or appears to be based entirely on facts. • Magazine articles, newspaper reports, economics books, scientific journals, biographies, autobiographies • Biography- the account of a person’s life as written by someone besides that person. • William Roper’s The Life of Sir Thomas Moore and Walter Isaacsons’ Einstein: His Life and Universe • Autobiography- the account of a person’s life as written by that person, sometimes called memoir. • Helen Keller’s The Story of My Life and Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope

44. Types of literature: • Fiction- narrative writing drawn from imagination, though the story may be based on history and fact; most frequently associated with novels and short stories. • Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. • Novel- an extended fictional narrative. • William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies, which is under 200 pages long, to Marcel Proust’s 4,800-page In Search of Lost Time • Short story- a short piece of fictional narrative, anywhere from 20,000 to 200 words (or less). • Stephen King’s “Shawshank Redemption,” and Philip K. Dick’s “Minority Report”

45. Types of literature: • Poem- writing that contains audible qualities and meaning, with conventions like rhyme and rhythm, in addition to characteristics of other genres. • Robert Frost’s “The Road Less Traveled,” Langston Hughes’ “Harlem,” and any songs with lyrics • Fantasy- stories that take place in imaginary worlds, often featuring magic and Medieval elements • J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia trilogies • Science fiction- similar to fantasy writing, but is often set in the future and relies on speculative scientific explanations for events, rather than magic. • Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend and many comic book stories

46. Types of literature: • Mystery- stories that rely on suspense, plot puzzles, and clues to maintain audience interest • Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Ultimatum and the Lost TV series • Romance- stories focusing on passionate love • Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Nicholas Sparks’sThe Notebook • Allegory- a story, in which characters and events are mostly metaphor, that is meant to teach a lesson • The parables of Jesus and George Orwell’s Animal Farm

47. Types of literature: • Epic a long narrative poem that presents the adventures of mighty characters, including a heroic central figure • Beowulf and Homer’s The Odyssey • Fable- a brief tale that centers on a moral lesson, often using a lot of personification • The works of Aesop • http://www.aesopfables.com/aesopsel.html • Tall tale- a highly exaggerated story from the North American frontier that uses realistic language to describe its often superhuman characters • the tales of Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett, and Johnny Appleseed • http://www.paulbunyantrail.com/talltale.html

48. Types of literature: • Fairy tale- a simple story set in the past, often involving supernatural events and characters. • “Hansel and Gretel” and “Little Red Riding Hood” • Myth- supernatural stories used by a culture to explain the world around and to provide ancient explanations for things from the beginning of existence to morality to war and love. • Stories of Greek gods and goddesses, the Egyptian Book of the Dead

49. Types of literature: • Folk tale- stories that explain things about a culture, like the traditions, holidays, humor, laws, and proverbs of a particular group of people, often featuring exaggerated versions of real people. • “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “Rip Van Winkle,” and the story of a young George Washington saying “I cannot tell as lie” about cutting down his father’s cherry tree • Legend- stories somewhat based on real people and events, sharing many elements with myths and folk tales, often coming in many versions by many different writers, with some striving for realism and some including supernatural elements. • Robin Hood, King Arthur, the City of Atlantis, and the Loch Ness Monster

50. Types of literature: • Special Note: • Many genres in this list are kinds of fiction, but many also contain elements of nonfiction such as references to real people and events. • Remember: combinations of these genres are always possible. A writer could create a science fiction novel, an allegorical short story, a mythic poem, or anything else imaginable.