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How to use contextual clues to improve reading comprehension and vocabulary

Learning to use context clues to discover the meaning of unfamiliar words is an essential reading strategy and vocabulary builder. Identifying context clues on reading is made easier by searching for context clue key categories within the context of an effective step-by-step strategy. So, this is the strategy:

When you come to an unfamiliar word, apply the steps of the FP BAGSELLING strategy in the following order until you have a good clue as to the meaning of an unfamiliar word.

End the sentence.
See how the word fits into the whole sentence.

Say the word out loud.
Sometimes hearing the word will give you a clue of the meaning.

Syllables: examine each part of the word.
Parts of words can be helpful clues to meaning.

Before: read the sentence before the unknown word.
The sentence above can give you a clue as to what the word means.

After-Read the sentence that follows the unknown word.
The subsequent sentence can define, explain, or provide an example of the word.

Grammar: determine the part of speech.
Pay attention to where the word is placed in the sentence, the end of the word, and its grammatical relationship to other known words for clues to the meaning.

Context clue categories:

Synonym – Sometimes an unknown word is defined by using a synonym.
Synonyms appear in apposition, in which case commas, hyphens, or parentheses are used.
The closet, or closet, opened the door to a whole new world.

Antonym – Sometimes an unknown word is defined by using an antonym.
Antonym clues often use signal words, for example, however, no, but, in contrast
Example: You pointed to a looey, not a right turn.

Logic: Your own knowledge of the content and structure of the text can provide clues to the meaning.
Logical clues can lead to a logical guess about the meaning of an unknown word.
Example: he stroked the canine and then made it sit up and beg for a bone.

Example: when it is part of a list of examples or if the unknown word itself provides an example,
either provides good clues to the meaning. Sample clues will often use transition words, for example, such as, for example, as
Example: adventurous, troublemakers, and mad pioneers found their way to the west.

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