English Language Arts (US Middle School)
Common Core ELA for US Middle School (grades 6-8): reading literature and informational texts, grammar and conventions, vocabulary, writing, speaking and listening, and canonical middle-school literature.
Ämne: Engelska · Nivå: Högstadium (13–15) · 496 kort
Innehåll
- A theme is a central message, lesson, or insight about life that a literary work conveys. Themes are usually implied rather than stated directly and reveal what the author wants readers to understand.
- Plot is the sequence of events in a story. The standard plot structure has five stages: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution (also called denouement).
- Exposition is the beginning of a story that introduces characters, setting, and the initial situation. It establishes what readers need to know before the main conflict develops.
- Rising action consists of the events that build tension and develop the conflict in a story. Each event typically raises the stakes and brings the protagonist closer to the climax.
- The climax is the turning point of a story — the moment of greatest tension or emotional intensity. After the climax, the outcome of the conflict becomes clear.
- Falling action consists of the events that occur after the climax. The conflict winds down and consequences of the climax begin to play out, leading toward the resolution.
- Resolution (denouement) is the final part of a story where loose ends are tied up and the conflict is fully resolved. Readers learn how the situation is settled.
- Setting is the time and place in which a story occurs. It includes the physical location, time period, social environment, weather, and cultural context.
- Character is a person, animal, or being who takes part in the action of a story. Main characters drive the plot, while minor characters support the main action.
- The protagonist is the main character of a story — the central figure whose actions and choices drive the plot. The protagonist usually faces the central conflict.
- The antagonist is the character or force that opposes the protagonist. An antagonist may be another person, nature, society, or even an internal struggle within the protagonist.
- A dynamic character changes significantly over the course of a story due to events and experiences. A static character remains essentially the same throughout the narrative.
- A round character is complex and has multiple, sometimes contradictory traits, while a flat character is one-dimensional and defined by only a few traits.
- Characterization is the method an author uses to develop characters. Direct characterization tells readers about a character explicitly; indirect characterization reveals traits through actions, speech, thoughts, appearance, and others' reactions.
- Point of view is the perspective from which a story is told. The three main types are first person (I, we), second person (you), and third person (he, she, they).
- First-person point of view uses pronouns like I, me, and my. The narrator is a character within the story who tells events from their own perspective, limiting readers to that character's knowledge.
- Third-person limited point of view tells the story using he/she/they pronouns but follows only one character's thoughts and feelings. Readers learn what that character knows but not what others think.
- Third-person omniscient point of view uses he/she/they pronouns and reveals the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters. The narrator knows everything about all characters and events.
- Mood is the overall emotional atmosphere or feeling that a literary work creates in the reader. Authors build mood through setting, word choice, imagery, and other details.
- Tone is the author's attitude toward the subject or audience, conveyed through word choice and style. Tone can be serious, sarcastic, playful, formal, bitter, hopeful, and so on.
- Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces in a story. Conflict creates tension and drives the plot forward. Without conflict, there is no real story.
- Internal conflict occurs within a character's mind — between competing feelings, values, or decisions. It is often called character vs. self.
- External conflict occurs between a character and an outside force. The four main types are character vs. character, character vs. nature, character vs. society, and character vs. technology.
- A simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things using the words like or as. Example: Her smile was as bright as the sun.
- A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things by saying one is the other, without using like or as. Example: Time is a thief.
- Personification is a figure of speech in which non-human things are given human qualities. Example: The wind whispered through the trees.
- Hyperbole is extreme exaggeration used for emphasis or humor. It is not meant to be taken literally. Example: I have a ton of homework tonight.
- Alliteration is the repetition of the same initial consonant sound in nearby words. Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
- Onomatopoeia is the use of words that imitate the sounds they describe. Examples include buzz, hiss, crash, sizzle, pop, and meow.
- Imagery is descriptive language that appeals to the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch). Authors use imagery to help readers create mental pictures and feel present in a scene.
- A symbol is a person, object, or event that represents something larger than itself. For example, a dove often symbolizes peace, and a heart often symbolizes love.
- Foreshadowing is a literary device in which the author drops hints early in a story about events that will happen later. It builds suspense and prepares the reader.
- Flashback is a scene that interrupts the present action to show events from the past. It gives readers background information about characters or earlier events.
- Irony is a contrast between expectation and reality. The three main types are verbal irony (saying the opposite of what is meant), situational irony (an outcome opposite to what is expected), and dramatic irony (the audience knows something a character does not).
- Dialogue is the conversation between characters in a story. In writing, each speaker's words are placed in quotation marks, and a new paragraph begins each time the speaker changes.
- Mood and tone are different: tone is the author's or narrator's attitude toward the subject, while mood is the feeling the reader experiences from the text.
- An informational text presents factual information about real-world topics. Examples include articles, textbooks, biographies, essays, and news reports.
- The central idea of an informational text is the most important point the author wants to communicate. It is similar to a theme in literature but is usually stated more directly.
- Supporting details are facts, examples, statistics, quotations, and reasons that develop or prove the central idea of a text. They provide evidence for the main point.
- Common text structures include chronological/sequential (events in time order), cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, and description.
- Author's purpose is the reason an author writes a text. The three main purposes are to inform, to persuade, and to entertain. A text can have more than one purpose.
- A fact is a statement that can be proven true or false through evidence. An opinion expresses a belief, feeling, or judgment that cannot be proven.
- An inference is a conclusion drawn by combining evidence from the text with the reader's prior knowledge. Inferences are not stated directly — the reader figures them out.
- A summary is a short retelling of a text that includes only the most important ideas. It is shorter than the original and written in the reader's own words, without personal opinions.
- Context clues are hints in a sentence or paragraph that help readers figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Types of clues include definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and examples.
- A prefix is a word part added to the beginning of a root word that changes its meaning. Examples: un- (not), re- (again), pre- (before), dis- (not, opposite of).
- A suffix is a word part added to the end of a root word that changes its meaning or part of speech. Examples: -ful (full of), -less (without), -tion (act of), -able (able to be).
- A root is the basic part of a word that carries its core meaning. Many English roots come from Greek or Latin. Example: the Latin root "port" means to carry, as in transport, import, export.
- Denotation is the literal, dictionary definition of a word. Connotation is the emotional or cultural association a word carries beyond its literal meaning.
- Synonyms are words with similar meanings (happy/joyful). Antonyms are words with opposite meanings (happy/sad). Homophones sound alike but have different meanings and spellings (their/there/they're).