Diction and Syntax

One of the greatest changes to assessments is the shift from what to why and how. A student that knows that an author uses figurative language or literary devices does not always understand how these writing tools contribute to meaning.  

Not only will students be expected to interpret the meaning of reading passages on Common Core assessments, they will sometimes be asked how an author achieves characterization, the tone of the text, persuasion, etc.  This level of analysis requires an even deeper level of understanding of the tools authors use to convey meaning.

Don't worry, this blog post is here to help.

At the lower grade levels, students are not expected to know the words syntax or diction. A general understanding about how authors convey ideas is what students need to know. 

Diction

Diction means the words an author uses to convey ideas to a reader.  Similes, metaphors, imagery, personification, etc., all fall under this category.

When students closely read text, they should look for these literary devices and explain how they contribute to meaning.  Some possible student responses could include:

• "The author uses personification to help the reader imagine what it was like in the forest."
• "The metaphor 'as slow as a turtle' in line three helps the reader understand why Devin was so upset with his brother.  It was because he was moving to slow."

Syntax

Syntax is the way that words are arranged in a sentence.  In early grade levels, students learn about the different types of sentences which includes: 

• declarative(a sentence that makes a statement)
• interrogative (a sentence that asks a question)
• imperative (a sentence that gives a command)
• exclamatory (a sentence that expresses strong feeling)

Writers of speeches or persuasive articles often use imperative sentences to call listeners or readers to action.

When students analyze diction and syntax, they are able to deepen their understanding of what they read.

High Interest Low Readability Daily Common Core Practice for Middle School Students

This quick, daily practice is a great resource for middle school students that read below grade level.  It provides middle school level questions with high interest passages that are great for below grade level students.Click Here for More Information

These are great in place of daily grammar warm-ups for middle school.  Review comprehension skills. 

Literature Interactive Journal Passages

Click Here to Access Theme: Doing the Right Thing Stories

Click Here To Access Theme: The American Dream Stories

Click Here to Access Theme: Identity Stories

Click Here To Access Topical Practice: Irony

Hello everyone!  I have some really fun posts planned.  Check back often.  I have been working on several different things.  This is one of them.  It is designed to be such a time saver.

These short stories are thematic and fit right inside of student journals.  Each document provides three stories that teach the same theme, teaching tips, close reading questions, and an answer key.  More themes will be added soon.  Current themes include:

• Identity
• Doing the Right Thing
• The American Dream

This is designed to fit will school district curricula, state assessments, and Common Core.  Students read multiple quick and original stories that address the same themes.  Stories are written using the same writing techniques as award winning novels. These high-interest stories cover multiple genres and are a great addition to lessons.  

Questions are written at different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy to help students evaluate text closely.  Stories can be read in one class period. Each document includes stories that can be extended for an entire week's worth of lessons.  

They are small enough to fit right inside of student journals.  Students can do a close reading of a passage right inside of their notebooks!  This makes them perfect for extending classroom lessons and as a tool for homework.

Use them as a quick assessment between novels.  Use them to review:

• Themes
• Character Analysis
• Literary Devices (Foreshadowing, metaphors, personification, imagery, vivid verbs, symbolism, and more)
• Tone and Mood
• Comparing and Contrasting Texts
• Inferences
• Plot Structure

This is a great tool for Common Core.  It aligns to nearly all of the Common Core Literature Standards.

Close Reading in Math

Close reading is not limited to reading.  It is also a helpful strategy when it comes to math. As students move into the higher grade levels, taking notes, and organizing information properly becomes more important.

Students use colored pencils or even highlighters to highlight important vocabulary words.

Big ideas as also identified.  Students can draw illustrations, use color, or use diagrams to help them remember information.

Important information within word problems is also identified.

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Self-Teaching Math Task Cards

Each Comes With a Printable Box

Click Here

Click Here

Strategies For Answering Common Core Multi-Part Written Response Questions

One of the greatest shifts that students will face when answering test questions is level of complexity.  A greater number of questions will require students to evaluate and break down what they read.  Rather than identifying a trait that a character possesses from a list of answer choices, students are expected to supply text details to support the character trait that they infer about a character.

In addition to more complex questions, students will also face multi-step reading questions.  These are questions that require a student to address multiple parts of a question. Let us look at an example.

Question:  How does the use of figurative language drive the plot of the story?

Look at the example below.

Although there is one question mark, students must do multiple things in order to fully answer this question.

If a student only gives an example of a metaphor, or if a student only explains the details that helped reveal rising actions, or etc., then the student would have only partially answered the question.

To prevent this, practice breaking down a question with the class.  I worked with my students on underlining different parts of the question to ensure that their responses were fully explained.

There are not any hard rules in terms of the different parts that should be underlined in the question.  The big idea I wanted to convey to students is not to rush through questions. Instead, they should read each question with a pencil in their hands.  Each word and phrase should be broken down to ensure a complete response.

At the upper elementary and middle school grade levels, many of the released Common Core Reading examples are at this same level of complexity. Understanding these written response question answering principles will benefit the students on their daily assignments and on their future Common Core assessments.

Grade 8 Daily Common Core Reading Practice Weeks 1-20 (100 Passages)

I have really enjoyed creating this document. Weeks 1-20 of Grade 8 Common Core Reading/English practice is complete.  This document has been such a great resource for my students.  It has now been combined into a twenty week bundle.  The document contains 100 different quick literature and informational text passages that enable students to review character traits, character motive, metaphors, similes, poetry, author's purpose, irony, realistic fiction, historical fiction, informational text, fantasy, and even more topics and genres. Students review English Literature topics and review for Common Core at the same time. Students can use this as daily review when they first enter the classroom.  Close reading, multiple choice, and short response question varieties are include.Click Here to see a preview of the document and get more information.

Click Here

Middle School Common Core Resources: Back to School Sale

The Teachers Pay Teachers back to school sale is in full swing.  Stock up on Common Core resources. Enter code BTS14 for additional savings.  

Daily Common Core reviews literature concepts in just a few minutes.  Use them as students first enter the classroom.  There is a passage and Common Core questions for each day of the school week.  Common Core exit slips and task cards make reviewing literature concepts so much easier.

Click the link to access the middle school resources from my store.Click Here

Middle School Science Fiction Close Reading and Comprehension

I truly enjoy both reading and writing YA fiction.  It was my love for YA fiction that inspired me to write this short science fiction tale.  I really enjoy the look on the middle school students' faces that I work with when they really get into a story.  It is priceless to see a student really enjoy and understand what they read.  This story, Scars and Sorters, was set in a futuristic world because students really enjoy high-action plots.  It contains the same literary devices and themes of literature, but it is set in an utopian science fiction world to draw readers into the story.  It contains close reading writing, comprehension questions, and a character analysis graphic organizer.  This is great as Common Core Literature practice and as a resource to extend literature lessons.

Plot Synopsis

This story is set in a world where humans are no longer allowed to exist.  Learn with the main character what happens when someone breaks the rules of society.  Below is a story excerpt.Click Here To Access The Story

Common Core Wall Charts

I want to introduce new Common Core wall charts for 6th and 7th grade.  Click on the links below for more information.
Click here for grade 6
Click here for grade 7
Click here for grade 8
Click here for grades 9-10
Click here for grades 11-12

Click below for Common Core Math Charts
Click here for grade 6 math charts

Middle School Common Core Bundle 1

On sale for 50% only for 48 hours.  This is a great value.  The entire bundle of 120+ task cards is on sale for $7.50 for this limited time period.  It is equivalent to purchasing two boxes of task cards and getting three boxes for free.  Characters RL.3, Figurative Language RL.4, and RI.4, Elements of Poetry and Drama RL.5, Point of View RL.6 and RI.6 are all included.Click Here To Access Them.

Differentiated Point of View Task Cards

If you have looked at the new Common Core Standards, then you already know that Common Core (RL.6 and RI.6) both want students to know some interesting things about point of view.  They must know more than first and third point of views.  At some grade levels, students must compare firsthand and secondhand accounts of information. They must also determine how a narrator's point of view affects how events are retold. This set of 36 task cards covers each of these Common Core requirements and more.Click Here To Access It.

The task cards are differentiated to cover the different point of view requirements across multiple grade levels.  They contain text dependent questions and also use wording from the Common Core Standards.  Since many students are still trying to understand the Common Core Standards, the task cards also teach and review.  Plus, the document comes with a printable box.  This is great to use as a point of view learning center.  Or, send home a box of self-teaching task cards with a student that needs extra practice.Click Here To Access It

Poetry and Drama Task Cards

Poetry and drama (plays) are often the forgotten reading genres.  Being able to infer, interpret, and identify text details in a wide variety of genres is ideal.  These task cards teach students elements of poetry and drama and are written at different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy so that students will know and analyze information within these two genres. The task cards are self-teaching so that students or small groups can work independently.  The task cards also come with a printable box to make storage and use convenient.Click Here To Access Them

Common Core Standard RL.5 Poetry, Common Core Poetry, Common Core Plays, Text Structure, How to Analyze Poetry

Analyzing How Authors Use Figurative Language

In order for students to deeply understand what they read, they must go beyond identifying instances of similes and metaphors.  They must examine how the use of such features contributes to the text.

As I work closely with students, they are constantly reminded of this principle as they read.  Annotating the text and close reading are both ways to get students to see how an author's craft contributes to a text.

Next, we examine the techniques that different authors use across reading passages.  This enables students to go beyond the surface level of comprehension into deeper levels of critical thinking and Bloom's Taxonomy.

This page is from one of my grade levels of Daily Common Core Reading Practice.  I carefully monitor students to get them to think of all of the details in a text as information that works together to convey an idea.

Click Here To Access These Task Cards

Click Here to Access Poetry and Drama Task Cards

Click Here to Access These Playing Cards

Click Here to Access Them

How Diction and Syntax Helps Readers

Close reading is one of the most widely discussed phrases.  The easy part for a reader is knowing to closely read text.  The hard part is knowing what to pay attention to while reading.  As students read, they should identify literary techniques that writers use and explain how these techniques contribute to a reading passage. Diction and syntax are just two things a reader should pay close attention to as they read.

Diction means the words an author uses to convey ideas to a reader.  Similes, metaphors, imagery, personification, etc., all fall under this category. Syntax is the way that words are arranged in a sentence.

I created this chart to help my students understand why diction and syntax are so important.  Click Here for Useful Diction and Syntax Tips

Elements of Drama

I am here to share a visual that I created for my students. Each genre has its own characteristics.  These are the elements of drama/plays.

Click Here to Access Poetry and Drama Task Cards

Tone and Mood of a Reading Passage

Tone is an author's attitude about a topic in a literary text or informational text.  Not only is it important for a reader to notice subtle clues in order to determine an author's tone, it is also important to have a wide vocabulary of tone words to draw from when describing a reading passage.

Describing the tone of a text is an area where my students have shown a great amount of growth.  It is something that students must practice in order to develop skill. 

For tone task cards Click Here

Reading Strategy Activity: Visualizing Information

If you have ever flipped through an old family album, you have seen Polaroid pictures.  The Polaroid camera could produce a fully printed image with the snap of a button.

Small pictures that kids create in the classroom are great additions to reading journals and serve as a guide for remembering important information.

DIY Visualizing "Photographs"

As students read, they can write what they visualize or take visual notes on these pieces of construction paper.

Materials Needed Include:

white cardstock paper

black cardstock paper

scissors

a ruler

chalk markers or chalk for writing

glue sticks or double-sided tape

1.  First, cut out 3 x 3 inch squares of black paper.  

2.  Next, cut out 4 x 5 inch rectangles of white paper.

3.  Paste the black cards on top of the white cards.  Allow a half of an inch space on the left and right sides of the new "picture".

4.  The extra space at the bottom of each card enables students to write a caption about the picture.  

Possible Uses Include:
*Use the pictures to draw steps in a math or science process.

This card shows the water cycle.

*Illustrate the plot structure of a story.

*Show a visual of cause and effect in a story or informational text.