Context Clues: Reading Strategies Across Content Areas, Lecture notes of Spanish

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Context Clues

Reading Strategies Across the Content Areas

Why Use Context Clues? Using context clues helps one figure out unknown words without using a dictionary. Dictionaries are not provided in life (or on standardized tests). The more a student “thinks” about a word, the higher the chance of retention.

Six Types of Context Clues

• Definition
• Example-Illustration
• Contrast
• Logic
• Root Words and Affixes (Word Parts)
• Grammar

Important words are also often written in

bold or in italics in academic texts.

DEFINITION Readers use the definition in the sentence to understand the unknown word. Examples: o Mary retained, or kept, the deed to her mother’s house. o Spanish noblemen lived in encomiendas , estates given to Spaniards in the new world beginning in

CONTRAST Readers understand the unknown word because it is compared or contrasted with another word in the sentence. Examples: Her sisters were thin, but Imelda herself was obese. The United States is an open country, especially when compared with a hermetic nation like Bhutan.

LOGIC Readers think about the rest of the sentence to understand the unknown word. Owls are mainly nocturnal, but other birds of prey hunt during daylight hours. Because he ate candy morning, noon and night, it was inevitable that he would have a lot of cavities in his teeth.

GRAMMAR

Readers use the word’s function in the

sentence or its part of speech to

figure out the unknown word.

Example: A spider’s exoskeleton is extremely strong and does not stretch. In order to increase in size, spiders must form a new exoskeleton. Most spiders molt five to ten times. By determining that the word is a verb , students know that it’s something spiders DO – helping them to conceptualize the word. What would they need to DO in context?

EXAMPLES IN CONTEXT

“communal”

• Root Words and Affixes
• Communal- prefix “com” meaning with or together as in the word community
• Contrast
• “Communal possessions” is contrasted to “private property,” so because possessions and property are the same thing, private must be the opposite of communal.

The eight-man expedition was pinned down in a ferocious blizzard high on K2, waiting to make an assault on the summit, when a team member named Art Gilkey developed thrombophlebitis , a life- threatening altitude-induced blood clot (91). Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air. New York, NY: Random House, 1997. Print. Logic

• The meaning of “assault” can be understood in the context of the sentence dealing with the summit of a mountain. Definition
• The definition of “thrombophlebitis” is listed immediately following the word.

Preview selections. Identify vocabulary that may be a problem for students.

Reading Levels Differ.

This study revealed that mutations were occurring at about the same rate across the full genome—not just in specific parts. This might help explain why efforts to keep some plants at bay with single-gene- targeting herbicides are often only briefly successful. It should also hearten researchers who are searching for ways to improve crops. But to truly expedite strategic breeding for many crops, full genome sequencing will be crucial to giving horticulturalists a genetic map to different traits.

Write sentences on the board

for bellwork or exit slips.

Have students determine

word meaning from the

context.

Use organizers for active

reading or to conceptualize

unfamiliar terms.

FRAYER MODELS

Frayer Model Definition in your own words Facts/characteristics Examples Nonexamples Quadrilateral A quadrilateral is a shape with 4 sides.

• 4 sides
• may or may not be of equal length
• sides may or may not be parallel
• square
• rectangle
• trapezoid
• rhombus
• circle
• triangle
• pentagon
• dodecahedron