Problem and Solution- what problems the characters face and how they solve them.

Main idea- tells what the entire passage is about.

Details- should support the main idea.

Drawing conclusions- statement readers make after reading a passage or story. Use the story clues and your own experiences to figure out things that were not fully explained in a story.

Inference is a conclusion or deduction made from evidence. Use your own knowledge & all information that the author gives you in order to make an inference.

Judgments- the final decision.

Decision- considers the reasons FOR and AGAINST the decision.

Cause- what made the effect happen.

Effect- what happened.

Context Clues- Use the unknown words surrounding an unknown word to help determine what the unknown word means. Use the author's clues and your own knowledge to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word.

Predicting outcomes- a guess about what will happen. Use the story clues and your own knowledge to make a prediction.

Generalization- a rule or statement that covers many examples or situations.

Comparison- tells how things are alike. It helps to show how things are related.

Contrast- tells how things are different.

Summarizing- a short way of telling about a story in your own words.

Figurative language- compares two unlike things to paint vivid word pictures.

Similes- figurative languge that makes a comparison using as or like. (The bed was as hard as a board. The simile is hard as a board. It helps describe the bed, comparing it to a board. It means that the bed was very hard.)

Metaphors- figurative language that makes a comparison with the form of the verb be . (Harry was a vacuum cleaner at dinner tonight.

Exaggeration- figurative language that overstates something or stretches the truth to make a point.

Idioms- figurative language expressions whose meanings are different from the actual meaning of the words used. (Fred could not wait to break the news to his parents. Fred is not going to "break" anything. This is another way of saying he is going to tell his parents something they don't know.)

Onomatopoeia- words that aretaken from the sounds they make. (chirp, clink, creak, drip, honk, roar, slurp, splash)

Connotation- the exact meaning of a word as stated in the dictionary.

Denotation- the word's meaning and the feelings or attitudes most people have when they hear the word.

Author's purpose- write to entertain (enjoyment from what is read), inform (gives information, facts, and ideas), or persuade (to convince to do something, buy something, or believe in something).

Analogy- a special kind of sentence that shows how pairs of words are related, or go together.

Sequence- the order in which events happen in a story.

Classification- the process of arranging things into groups or categories with common characteristics.

Fact- a statement that tells something that can be proved true or false.

Opinion- a statement that tells what a person thinks or believes about something.

Story Elements- setting, characters, and plot.

Setting- the time, place, and environment in which the story takes place.

Characters- the people, animals, or things that the story is centered around.

Plot- has a beginning, middle, and an end that center around a problem and how the problem is solved. It is a series of events.

Folktale- story that was handed down orally long before being written.

Tall tale- a story that tells about real or imaginary charcters whose abilities or actions are highly exaggerated.

Legend- a story that is often connected with a national hero or historical event.

Synonyms- words with same or similar meanings.

Antonyms - words with opposite meanings.

Parts of a book- title page, table of contents, copyright page, glossary, and index.

Glossary- part of the book (in the back) that defines important words found in the book.

Index- alphabetical lists of topics at the back of the book that tell what pages to find a topic on in that book. There are also SUBTOPICS in the index.

Table of Contents- tells what the book is about and how the book's information is organized.

Headings- chapters have heading to tell what the chapter is about.

Bibliography- lists books, magazine articles, and other sources that were used to get information to write that book or paper.

Dictionary- lists entries for words in alphabetical order. Use a dictionary to to find a word's correct spelling, pronunciation, and definition.

Encyclopedia- is a set of reference books with many volumes. Each volume contains articles that are arranged by topic, alphabetically, with guide words at the top of the page.

Atlas- a book of maps that gives infromation about different places in the world.

Card catalog- drawers with guide letters on the fronts that are used to find books listed in the library three different ways-author, title, & subject. There are three cards for every library book in the card catalog.

Newspapers- provide information about local and national news, sports, weather, entertainmant, editorials, and comics.

Almanac- A book that contains lots of different kinds of facts and information. It is always very current, because it is published each year. The information is not in alphabetical order, so look in the index to find topics and where they are located.

Telephone directory-

Guide words- alphabetically listed words that are found at the top of each page that give you clues about what other words can be found on that page. The wods on the left hand side is always the first word on the page. The word on the right hand side is the last word on the page.

Word referents- a word substitute that takes the place of one or more words in a sentence. The referent is the word or words to which the word substitute refers.

Homographs- words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings and pronunciations.

Homophones- words that are pronounced the same, but have different spellings and meanings.

Multiple meanings- a word with more than one meaning.

Prefix- a word part added to the beginnig of a word that changes the meaning of the word. Click to see common prefixes.

Suffix- a word part added to the end of a word that changes the meaning of the word. Click to see common suffixes.

Root/Base words- the simplest form of a word, the main part of a word.

Compound words- are words formed from two or more words. There are three kinds of compound words.

Contraction- is a shortened form of two words. Use an apostrophe to show where a letter or letters are left out.