Thursday, September 2, 2010

Topic: Categories of Context Clues.


Purpose of this blog: Review of interesting articles and ideas in past English education journals, K-12.

10-second review: Attempt to identify types of context clues.

Title: “Increasing Comprehension Through Use of Context Clue Categories.” JW Lee. Journal of Reading (December 1978), 259-262.

Summary: Students try to identify types of context clues available:

Comparison/contrast: “The Children were more tractable than she had anticipated; in fact, only Joel was at all stubborn.”

Synonym: Sentence contains a synonym.

Summary: “He was completely disheveled. His hair was mused, his shirttail was out….”

Association: “He was out of it in an instant with the agility of a pickpocket.”

Reflection of mood or situation: “It was a dark night. The moon was hidden behind thick clouds. As we entered the old deserted shed, it seemed dark and impenetrable.”

Comment: As you will see from these examples, context clues are not very clear cut. But at least this article made an attempt at classifying them. Students can make their own study of types of context clues by using the sentence completion exercises in the SAT preparation books. RayS.

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