Context Clues and Word Structure

1. Context Clues and Word Structure Ms. Christoph ESE ~ Intensive Reading

2. Words and Phrases in Context • The student selects and uses strategies to understand words and text and to make and confirm inferences from what is read, including interpreting diagrams, graphs, and statistical illustrations. (LA.A.1.4.2)

3. You need to be able to do the following: • Figure out the meaning of words by using context clues (looking at how the word is being used) • Draw conclusions and make inferences (put 2 and 2 together and get 4) • Read between the lines • Understand, analyze, and explain diagrams, graphs, and other illustrations

4. Sample Question: Context Clues Today the provisions of the Geneva Treaty, which have been amended and expanded several times, are more commonly known as the Geneva Conventions. They provide rules about the treatment of prisoners of war, civilians, hospitals and medical transports, as well as members of the armed forces. • What does the word Conventions mean in this excerpt from the article on the Geneva Treaty? a. Established customs or traditions b. Groups of people assembling together c. International agreements on specific subjects d. Members of an organization conducting business

5. What is a context clue? • Text that surrounds a word and gives a hint to its meaning. • Examples

6. Description • Description: explains what the word is like. The path to the Dead Place was torturous. It wound through forests and zigzagged through narrow valleys.

7. Comparison • Comparison: likens an idea/word to what is already known (“like” and “as” are signal words) Those summer days stayed in his memory indelibly, like pictures carved in stone.

8. Contrast • Contrast: Shows the difference between one word and the idea expressed by another word (“although,” “but,” “however,” and “yet” are signal words) She sat mesmerized by the teacher’s lecture, but moved on to her next class once the bell rang.

9. Cause and Effect • Cause and effect: meaning of a word is found by discovering the effect of its action (“because,” “since,” “therefore,” and “consequently” are signal words) People began a boycott of the city bus system, therefore the buses traveled empty while many people walked to work.

10. Inference • Inference: the main idea of a passage helps determine a word’s meaning There was the shriek of a door being torn from its hinges. Screams and barking cries of consternation came from the television set. The photograph of Harrison Bergeron on the screen jumped again and again, as though dancing to the tune of an earthquake.

11. Appositive • Appositive: word or a phrase that is placed next to another word in order to explain or define it. The pilot calibrated the knobs on the instrument panel, making small adjustments until the plane was level.

12. Example • Example: providing a model or sample of an unfamiliar word to help determine its meaning Her speech was indecipherable. (For example) No one could understand what she said.

13. Word Structure • Structure: using the parts of a word to understand its meaning Biped = an animal with two feet (bi = two, ped= foot)

14. The basic parts of words are: (The structure of a word = how a word is built) • Prefix: can be considered a syllable that is attached to the beginning of the word that changes the meaning of the word. • Root or base: Refers to the essential part of the word and is where derives its meaning. • Suffix: A letter or letters added to the end of the word that can change its tense.