ELA 1st Semester Review

help us to understand the text better.

explain what a photograph or illustration is about

tells the definition of some of the words found in a text.

Cause and Effect-a cause is why something happened. Effect is what happened. (Sometimes the effect is listed first.) 

Compare and Contrast shows how two or more things are alike and/or how they are different. 

Description-a topic, idea, person, place, or thing is described by listing its features, characteristics, or examples.  

Problem and Solution- Tells about a problem (and sometimes says why there is a problem) then gives one or more possible solutions.

Sequence-Describes items or events in order or tells the steps to follow to do something or make something. 

​

• What the author wants you to learn

• Central Message

• Lesson

• Moral​

​Main Idea

​Theme

• ​What is the story about?

• 1-sentence summary​

• ​Stated in text

• ​Usually not stated in text

• ​A big idea about life

• ​Inferred

• ​The theme can be applied to different stories

• ​Stories from different cultures, languages, and customs can have the same themes

• ​Themes DO NOT contain names of characters, places, or details of plots

• ​Themes are not one-word ideas!

• ​Themes are specific.

​

​THEME TOPICS

• ​Love

• ​Friendship

• ​Honesty

• ​Teamwork

• ​Loyalty

• ​Courage

​THEMES

• ​True friends will stand by you, even in difficult moments.

• ​Treat others the way you want to be treated.

Characterization is a writer’s tool, or “literary device” that occurs any time the author uses details to teach us about a person. This is used over the course of a story in order to tell the tale.

• Character traits are adjectives that describe the qualities of a character.

• Character’s traits are different from a character’s feelings.

• Characters’ feelings, or emotions, are a character’s emotional response to things that happen around them.

• Unlike character traits, feelings may come and go quickly.

A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun

​A subject is the person, place, or thing that performs the action.

​

​Dana will teach the students about pronouns.

She will teach the students about pronouns.

​

​

​In both sentences, Dana/She will be doing an action. Dana/She will be teaching.

​An object is the person, place, or thing that receives the action.

​

​Ray will go with Jordan to a Los Angeles Lakers game.

​He will go with him to a Los Angeles Lakers game.

​

​Ray/He is preforming the action of going. and Jordan/him is receiving the action because he is being taken.

​

Shows Ownership

• When a pronoun shows ownership, it is called a possessive pronoun. Possessive nouns use an apostrophe to show ownership (as in the team’s or Juan’s). But possessive pronouns do not use apostrophes.

• The first word of a quotation beings with a capital letter.

• A comma comes in front of each direct quotation.

• One (1) pair of quotation marks are used with each direct quotation.

• Use quotation marks in writings when you are repeating exactly what someone else has said.

• ​End punctuation marks are placed inside the closing quotation mark.

• Use quotation marks before and after the titles of short stories, poems, songs, chapters, and magazine or newspaper articles.

• ​