Handy Handouts®
Free, educational handouts for teachers and parents*
Number 272
Context Clues—Can You Figure It Out?
by Rynette R. Kjesbo, M.S., CCC-SLP
What Are Context Clues?
Context clues are hints or bits of information that help us figure out the meaning of difficult or unfamiliar words we read. Context clues are the words, phrases, or even pictures that surround a word, which help explain the word’s meaning. For example, “During winter, there is not enough light or water for leaves to keep their green color. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors.” We can determine from the context clues that the word “fades” means “loses color.”
Why Are Context Clues Important?
Understanding
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Identify words they may not know and help them find context clues that will help them figure out the meaning. For example, “Some plants have thorns, spines, and poisons which protect them from hungry animals looking for a snack.” Ask your children, “Would animals want to eat plants with thorns or poisons?” “What do you think protect means?”
* Write a simple sentence on a piece of paper and leave out a key word. Ask your children to fill in the blank with a word that makes sense. For example, “Sam bought a new _____.” Then, add more information to the sentence and discuss how the new context clues affect your children’s choice of words. For example, “Sam bought a new _____ at the bicycle store.”
* Write a sentence using a nonsense word. For example, “Jen hung her new bindersplat on a hanger and put it away in the closet.” Ask your child what the nonsense word could mean and discuss the context clues they used to figure it out.
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Context Clues in Stories Super Fun Deck® | What Makes Sense? Fun Deck® | Item #FD-95 | Item #FD-60 | Story Prediction Fun
Example in Setting: All the children have targets for when they are writing, it might be to use capital letters and finger spaces, when they achieve their target the get to colour in a picture and once
Some children may not be able to understand the words being spoken to them and/or the grammatical rules of sentence construction. Therefore, when their teacher tells the class what they need to do, or explains a new idea or concept,9 they may struggle to understand what is being said. Having inappropriate vocabulary is
While familiarizing myself with context clues and connotation in this unit, I have discovered that it enriches your vocabulary immensely. Context clues give you the ability to find the definitions of words you never knew the meaning of. You can practice this skill by using word association, or by thinking of synonyms for a word or phrase. Another skill that helps with finding new definitions of words is connotation. Connotation can aid in finding new words and their definitions by letting you see how the word fits in and what the use of the word is alongside another phrase or word.
I provided small steps to find the meaning of the unfamiliar words to help the students apply guessing strategies in contexts.
In terms of numeracy, the children were drawing a variety of shapes in the sand which allowed me to use new words with them to further develop their vocabulary. I also used everyday words to help reinforce their existing vocabulary in a new context.
Aristotle said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” What does it really mean to be educated? Many people thought that they knew what education meant, even I felt confident in myself to define education. However, the ideas discussed in class really made me question my definition of education. My definition has changed within the past few weeks as I discovered more about education. I am here to present my definition of education; with the lack of resources, one can still become educated by learning the unknown and putting your knowledge to good use.
Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to evaluate texts by drawing on a growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features
The essential literacy strategy goes along with the standards and learning objectives by using context clues to help the student figure out unknown or unfamiliar words. Students will build reading comprehension skills by using context clues for figuring out unknown or unfamiliar words while they are reading. Then the students will perform the strategies individually. The related skills address the use of prior knowledge of synonyms and antonyms during the hook and transition portion of the lesson. The reading and writing connections go along with the learning objectives, because the students will read their assigned book and picking out words they do not understand. The students will have to write the sentence with the unknown word in it, and use context clues to figure out the definition of the unknown word. The central focus for this unit of study is for the students to use context clues to better their comprehension of what they have read in their assigned books. The students will be able to use context clues within sentences to determine the meaning of unknown or unfamiliar words. These lessons deal with comprehending text by using context clues to help figure out unknown words. The lessons build off each other by adding more detail to learning about context clues. As the lessons progress the students will be more independent when using context clues. The first lesson is learning about what context clues are. The second lesson will focus on using context clues to figure
Identify the key vocabulary (i.e., developmentally appropriate sounds, words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs) essential for children to use during the learning segment.
Another example I would use, would be a picture of 'Peter Rabbit' running, which could be an illustration of the vocabulary words 'wandered' or 'scampered'. During the reading of the story 'Peter Rabbit', I will point to the vocabulary word in the pocket chart and ask my students, 'what is this word'? and we will say it together; example: 'Trembling'. I would then ask the students a comprehension question like; 'What was Peter Rabbit doing'? A students response could be; 'Peter Rabbit was trembling with fright'.
For an example I give a child a book to look at, sit with her and read the words with her. I let her say the word first and if she doesn’t know it I will discuss it, let her say it, talk about it and then move onto the next. Then maybe a few days later sit with the same book and again encourage her to say the words, if she get stuck on the same words again then remind her how we discussed it before.
tasks in such a way that made it difficult for a child to give correct answers. Bryant conducted a
Our activities that involved children in practicing reading "story retell". We use interactive, manipulative ways of learning literacy. We told the children to look at the picture and we told the children the word was something that can be seen in the picture. We asked the children to look for chunks in the word, such as “Touchdown, Munched, Crunched, and Feathers”, and some of them showed it.
This book is about Peters Roget life story and how he created the thesaurus, but a lot of the events in his life can relate to the children while reading. In the beginning, they quickly mention his father’s passing when he was just a child, having to move consistently, and being shy. These are all common things that children can connect to that happen every day. This could draw the students in by not just teaching them new words, but to allow them to realize people have similar situations in
Objective: Students will listen for a word then cover the correct picture when playing vocabulary bingo.