Context Clues

 

When you’re reading a story or an article and you come across a word you don’t know, you can use context clues to help you understand the unknown word. Context clues are bits of information from the sentence or passage where the unknown word is located. When combined with prior knowledge, context clues allow you to decide the meaning of the unknown word.  You often do not need to use a dictionary to find the meaning of a new word. Instead you can use context clues.

Sometimes the definition of the unknown word is in the sentence. For example: When Sally was playing, she jumped into a patch of brambles, prickly vines and shrubs, which scratched her legs and arms. (Brambles are prickly vines and shrubs.)

Sometimes there is a synonym to help define the unknown work. For example: Jeff spilled grape juice on his mother’s new davenport. He quickly got a towel to soak up the pool of grape juice that was on the sofa. (Sofa is a synonym for davenport.)

Sometimes an antonym is used to help define the unknown word. The homeless people lived in poverty in contrast to their wealthy neighbors who lived huge mansions. Wealthy is an antonym for poverty.

Fisher Hill has a English literacy workbook program for Spanish-speaking teens and adults. One component of the literacy program is the English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker series. Reading comprehension is the ability to draw meaning from written words. Reading comprehension is the goal of reading. Using context clues will help readers understand what they are reading.

There are six workbooks in the English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker series. Each workbook is made up of twenty lessons. Lessons include practice with fluency, vocabulary, visualization, comprehension, phonology and phonics. The books are bilingual. The directions are in Spanish. English translations for the Spanish directions are located at the back of each workbook. There is an answer key at the end of each lesson.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker series and our English literacy program for Spanish-speaking teens and adults.