Context Clues Direct Instruction

1. Context Clues Direct Instruction

2. Today’s Learning Goal • L.8.4. I can determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. • I can use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

3. In your vocabulary notebook: • Define the term “Context” • Define the term “Clue” • Based on both definitions above, what do you think the term “Context Clue” means?

4. http://www.flocabulary.com/context-clues/

5. Synonym Clue Example #2 • “The two pleasant, skylarking young lieutenants were the first to gain possession of the bucket of water. They played over it in their fashion.” • What does skylarking mean? Which clues did you use to come up with your predicted meaning? • Denotation: horsing around; playing around

6. Synonym Clue Example #3 • “He remained tense in the trembling little box, his eyes fixed on the numbers over the door that blinked on and off so haltingly, as if at any moment they might simply give up.” • What does haltingly mean? Which clues did you use to come up with your predicted meaning? • Denotation: unsteadily, without certainty

7. Synonym Clue • A synonym, or a word with the same meaning, is used in the same sentence or a nearby sentence to help establish another word’s meaning.

8. Antonym Example #2 • “‘You’re afraid,’ said his father, with total assurance. ‘When are you going to grow up an act like a man? Are you going to be timid all your life?’” • What does timid mean? Which clues did you use to come up with your predicted meaning? • Denotation: lacking courage or self-confidence, weak

9. Antonym Example #2 • “Back and forth we fought with songs, firing ourselves into the kind of hot excitement a man needs to carry him into battle. But then, in a lull, one of the bands began a quieter tune.” • What does lull mean? Which clues did you use to come up with your predicted meaning? • Denotation: break in activity

10. Antonym Clue • An antonym, or a word with the opposite meaning, is used in the same sentence or a nearby sentence to help establish another word’s meaning.

11. Explanation Example #2 • “Just then an armored car came across the bridge and advanced slowly up the street. The sniper wanted to fire but he knew it was useless. His bullets would never pierce the steel that covered the gray monster.” • What does armored mean? Which clues did you use to come up with your predicted meaning? • Denotation: bulletproof

12. Explanation Example #3 • “Of course Martin was always uncomfortable in elevators, afraid they would fall, but there was something especially unpleasant about this one. Perhaps its baleful atmosphere was due to the light from the single fluorescent ceiling strip, beak and dim on the dirty brown walls.” • What does baleful mean? Which clues did you use to come up with your predicted meaning? • Denotation: ominous, dark, sinister

13. Explanation Clue • The unknown word is defined or explained in some way in the same sentence or in a sentence nearby.

14. Example/Inference #2 • “Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms.” • What does spasmodically mean? Which clues did you use to come up with your predicted meaning? • Denotation: irregularly, intermittently

15. Example/Inference #3 • “‘Mushroom,’ Mary answered. ‘I bet it hefts ten pounds.’” • What does hefts mean? Which clues did you use to come up with your predicted meaning? • Denotation: weighs

16. Example/Inference Clue • Specific examples, likenesses, comparisons, hints, etc. are used to define the term in the same sentence or nearby sentences.