Pleasant Valley Intermediate 4th Grade Resources
Journey's Comprehension Skills
Cause and Effect
Cause is the reason for something happening.
Effect is what happend as a result.
Signal words that can help you find cause and effect in a text:
Because, therefore, since, if, then, so that, without, cause, effect, how, explain.
Story Structure
The parts of a story that are arranged by the author to convey meaning. This inlcudes exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The elements of a story are also discussed in a story strucutre.
Author's Purpose
The author purpose refers to what the author is writing to the reader about. Is the author writing to inform, entertain, or persuade.
Compare and Contrast
Contrast is to look for differences among two or more elements. Comparing is to look for similarities among two or more elements.
Main Idea
The main idea of a story is what the story is mostly about.
Understanding Chacracters
Understanding characters who are used in a story means to look at their traits, such as feelings and also the role they play in the story.
Sequence of Events
The order of events happening in the story
Persuasion
Process aimed at changing a person's attitude of behavior towards something.
Fact And Opinion
A fact is a statement about something that can be proven or backed up with evidence or research.
An opinion is a belief or judgement that someone has. It cannot be supported by evidence.
Summarize
The reader retells only the most important parts of the text. A good summary includes a beginning, middle, and end. The summary information should include the main idea with
supporting details.
Infer/Predict
Readers merge text clues with their prior knowledge and determine answers to questions that lead to conclusions about underlying themes or ideas.
Conclusions & Generalizations
Conclusion and generalizations refers to the end of a story. A generalization refers to what mainly happened throughout a text.
Visualize
Readers make the printed word real and concrete by creating a “movie” of the text in their minds.
Question
Readers ask themselves questions about the text, their reactions to it, and the author's purpose for writing it.
Monitor/Clarify
"If you don't understand, give it another try! "
Readers should re-read if things do not make sense.
