LEARNING TARGET

I will determine or clarify the meaning of
unknown and multiple-meaning words or
phrases based on grade 8 reading and
content, choosing from a variety of
strategies.
Warm up
Guess what the underlined word means?
 1. Children who are hyperactive are
easily distracted; teachers should make
sure there are no distractions to keep
them focused.

2. She’s resilient, not weak.
Context Clues: You be
the Detective
Context Clues

As you read along, write down the
underlined phrases to complete your
notes. You will then paste or staple your
CLOZE notes in your interactive notebook.
Context Clues – What Are They?
• Context clue is information from the text
that help you to decide the meaning of
unknown words in the story or article you
are reading.
• As a reader you must act similar to a
detective and put together clues from
sentences surrounding an unknown word
in order to make an intelligent “guess” or
“infer” what the definition of a word is.
Context Clues – How Do They Help
You Read New Words?
• Textbook writers and authors include
words or phrases to help their readers
understand the meaning of a new or
difficult word.
Still Wondering What a
Context Clue Is?
 Click
on the link below to watch a
video clip. Pay careful attention to
what the song tells you
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
6spWj7Ol3x0
 https://www.flocabulary.com/context
-clues/
Types of Context Clues
Authors use many different
types of context clues when
writing texts.
Five Types of Context Clues
1. Definition/Explanation Clues
2. Restatement/Synonym Clues
3. Contrast/Antonym Clues
4. Inference/General Clues
5. Punctuation
1. Definition/Explanation Clues
• Sometimes a word’s or phrase’s meaning is
explained immediately after its use.
• Example: “Haberdashery,
which is a store that
sells men’s clothing, is becoming more
common today.
2. Restatement/Synonym Clues
• Sometimes a hard word or phrase is said in a simple
way.
• Example: “Lou was sent to the haberdashery to find a
new suit. He needed to wear it for his uncle’s
wedding.”
• Because the sentence says that Lou would find a suit
at the haberdashery, then it must be a place where
clothes for men are sold.
3. Contrast/Antonym Clues
• Sometimes a word of phrase is clarified by the
presentation of the opposite meaning somewhere
close to it. Look for signal words when applying
context clues.
• Example: “Lou
wanted to go to the haberdashery, but
Ann wanted to shop at the boutique.”
• The signal word but tells the reader that an opposite
thought is going to be stated.
4. Inference/General Context Clues
• Sometimes a word or phrase is not immediately
clarified within the same sentence. Meaning must be
inferred or implied. The reader must look for clues
within, before, and after the sentence in which the
word is used.
• Example: “The
haberdashery was Lou’s favorite place.
He loved shopping for nice suits. The people who
worked there were so kind and helpful.”
5. Punctuation
• Readers can also use clues of punctuation and type style to infer
meaning, such as quotation marks (showing the word has a
special meaning), dashes, parentheses, or brackets (enclosing a
definition), italics (showing the word will be defined), or a
comma before defining the word.
• Examples:
– Tom’s father was a haberdasher, or men’s shop keeper, in the
story.
– Tom’s father was a haberdasher (men’s shop keeper) in the
story.
– In the story, Tom’s father was a haberdasher – or men’s shop
keeper.
– Tom’s father was a “haberdasher”. He had a clothing store for
men.
CONTEXT CLUES
PRACTICE
Word
Read the passage and
complete the chart:
Definition
Context Clue
Type of clue
Direct definition context clues are
words that say, “Stop - don’t touch that
dictionary. The definition of the word
you don’t know is right here in the text!"
EXAMPLES:
There are many theories, or ideas,
about what made the Ice Ages
happen.
 In this sentence the word “ideas” tells us
that theories are different thoughts people
have about something.
 After a time, glaciers, or slowly
moving rivers of ice, formed over
many parts of the Earth.
 In this sentence the words “slowly moving
rivers of ice” tell us what glaciers are.

Synonym context clues are words around a
difficult word that mean the same or nearly
the same as the word.
EXAMPLES:




After seeing the picture of the starving
children, we felt compassion or pity for their
suffering.
In this sentence the word “pity” tells us that
compassion means to have understanding for.
Mary admonished her students and they knew
they were in hot water for their actions.
In this sentence the words “in hot water” tell us
that admonished means cautioned or scolded.
Antonym context clues are words around a
difficult word that mean the opposite or
nearly the opposite as the word.
EXAMPLE:


Joe was reluctant to take the job of captain
of the team. He was afraid that the time it
would take would hurt his grades. On the
other hand, Billy was eager for the chance
to be the team captain.
In this sentence the words “on the other hand”
and “eager” tell us that Billy feels the opposite of
Joe, therefore, reluctant means uncertain or
cautious.
Now it is your turn to be
a detective and follow
the clues!
Use what you have learned about
context clues to complete the activity
on the next 5 slides.
Context Clues Practice Activity
Your friend Ryan has moved to a new country and is learning
a new language. Read what he wrote in his diary and see if
you can figure out the meaning to the underlined words.
Dear Diary,
I overslept this morning. I had to eat my bowl of poof-poofs very
quickly, and I almost missed the tramzam. When I got to school, I realized
I had forgotten my zilgping . Luckily, Ms. Jutzi is very zoosh, and told me
I could bring it tomorrow.
After school, some friends and I played plingming. It’s a new game I
am learning. We scored 7 points and they only scored 5 points, so we were
the zoiters!
Dad says that next weekend we’re going to the fladder . I can’t wait!
I love to swim and play in the sand. I hope I don’t get a sunburn though.
Well, I better go to bed soon. I don’t want to wake up late again and
miss my tramzam!
Until tomorrow,
Ryan
CONTEXT CLUES
Warm up
1. The archeologist carefully removed the tome from its ancient
resting and proceeded to read the pages related to marriage in
ancient Greece.
What does the word tome probably mean?
a. Pen
b. weapon
c. book
d. sausage
2. The Navajo language is an unwritten language of extreme
complexity with no alphabet or symbols, and is spoken only on
the lands of the Navajo Nation in the American Southwest. During
World War II a Navajo code was created for the U.S. Navy. This
code was virtually undecipherable to anyone except Navajo
speaking persons.
What does the word virtually probably mean?
a. Pleasant
b. almost
c. never
d. always
CONTEXT CLUES
Warm up
3. Lakes occupy less than two percent of the Earth’s surface, yet
they help sustain life. For instance, lakes give us fish to eat, irrigate
crops, and generate electrical power.
What does the word sustain probably mean?
a. support
b. obstruct
c. prolong
d. destroy
4. The ancient Greeks pioneered many of the kinds of writing we
consider standard today. They wrote speeches, plays, poems,
books about science and learning, long histories of the things
that happened to them.
What does the word pioneered probably mean?
a. complicated
b. developed
c. destroyed
d. explored
CONTEXT CLUES
Warm up
5. Fifty-five mostly prominent, male delegates attended the Philadelphia
Convention in 1787. About seventy-five percent of the delegates had
served in Congress and others were important people in their home states.
These men are often referred to as the Framers of the Constitution.
What does the word prominent probably mean?
a. unimportant b. unknown c. common d. important
6. Bats that eat fruit and nectar spread seeds and help flowers
grow. Without bats many important plants would not thrive.
What does the word thrive probably mean?
a. flourish
b. die
c. wither
d. deteriorate