Midterm Reviewer

​Term 1 Midterm Reviewer

G6 English

Finding the Main Idea

The main idea of a paragraph is what the whole paragraph is mostly about. 

​What is the main idea of the text?

I got lost in the mall yesterday. I was with my mom and my sister doing some window shopping. I turned my back for a moment to look into one store. When I looked back they were gone! A kind security guard helped me find them again. That is one experience I never want to have again.

Main Idea: ___________________________________________________________________________

​What is the main idea of the text?

Main Idea: ___________________________________________________________________________

You probably know that guide dogs are used to lead blind people, but did you know that a few blind people have guide horses? These are miniature horses trained as much as guide dogs are. The small horses respond to more than 25 commands. They can see well in the dark. They are also trained to tap with a hoof on the door if they need to go out. One man has even taken his guide horse on an airplane. Isn’t that cool to think about? That these actually exist!

Recalling Facts and Details

Facts and details are small pieces of information that make the story more interesting.

Understanding Sequence

Sequencing is putting things in order, from first to last.

Subject | Subject

Recognizing Cause and Effect

Cause and effect are about how one thing can cause something else to happen.   

The cause is why something happened.  

The effect is what happened.

Comparing and Contrasting

When we compare two things, we tell how they are alike.  

When we contrast two things, we tell how they are different. 

​Making Prediction

Making a prediction is guessing what happened next.

Subject | Subject

Summarizing

How To Summarize a Text

Writing a good summary is not as easy as it may appear. It actually requires quite a bit of finesse. First the student must read and comprehend the text. This may involve unpacking lengthy sentences and decoding challenging vocabulary. Then they must identify main ideas and key points, which means that they must have a good enough understanding of the text to distinguish between essential and nonessential information. Finally they must express this information in their own words. This means that summarizing a text requires both comprehension and expression skills.

Finding Word Meaning in Context

Context clues are hints to the meaning of a difficult word. These hints can be in the same sentence or in the sentences before or after the sentence that uses the difficult word.

Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences

Drawing conclusions means figuring something out for yourself. To draw conclusions, you need to think about what makes the most sense. 

Making Inferences is using what you already know in addition to what the story says. 

​Distinguishing Between Fact and Opinion

Facts are statements that can be proven.

Opinions are statements that can't be proven.​

Identifying Author's Purpose

An author’s purpose is the reason for writing something.

 - Sometimes the purpose is to give us information. 

- Sometimes the purpose is to persuade us to believe or do something. 

- Sometimes the purpose is to entertain us or make us laugh. 

Sometimes an author has more than one purpose for writing. 

Interpreting Figurative Language

A simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things and uses the words “like” or “as” 

A metaphor is a statement that compares two things that are not alike. Unlike similes, metaphors do not use the words “like” or “as.” 

Hyperbole shows exaggeration 

Personification is the attribution of human characteristics to non-living objects. Using personification affects the way readers imagine things, and it sparks an interest in the subject.

​Summarizing

​To summarize, you must read a passage closely, finding the main ideas and supporting details. Then you must briefly write down those ideas in a few sentences or a paragraph. It is important to understand the difference between a summary and paraphrase.

​

Paraphrase is simply a rewriting of a passage in your own words.​