PRAXIS II 5001: Reading & Language Arts

Exposition

Introduces readers to the people, places, and basic story

Complication ("rising action")

Series of events that complicate the story and build up to the climax

Climax

High point of the story; moment of greatest tension. Turning point of the story

Falling acion

Missing pieces of the puzzle are filled in; story settles down

Resolution/Denouement

Conclusion of the story

Round characters

Fully developed, complex, 3-D characters. Embody contradictions and undergo change/growth

Flat characters

One-dimensional, undeveloped, static. Often stereotypes or symbolic

Protagonist

Hero or main character of the story; the one who faces conflict and change

Antagonist

Person, force, or idea that works against the protagonist

Setting

Time and place of the story

Tone

Mood or attitude conveyed in the writing

Situational irony

Incongruity between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.

First-person narrator

Tells story from his/her own POV using "I

Second-person POV

Writer uses the pronoun "you"; reader becomes a character in the story

Third person narrator

Writer uses pronouns "he," "she," and "they." Narrator is removed from the action so the story is more objective

Omniscient

All knowing

Limited narrator

Third person, only having access to thoughts and feelings of one character in the story

Perspective

The narrator's attitude throughout the story

Nonfiction literature

Truth-based account of actual events. No narrator, direct conversation from author to reader

Descriptive writing

Describing a person, place, or thing

Narrative writing

Telling a story or describing an event

Expository writing

Exploring and explaining an idea or position

Persuasive writing

Arguing a specific point of view

Satire

Form of comedy; writer exposes and ridicules in order to inspire change

Verbal irony

Intended meaning is opposite of the expressed meaning

Hyperbole

Extreme exaggeration

Memoirs

More exploratory, examining the impact of people and events

Word choice

Diction; specific language the writer uses to describe people, places and things

Style

Distinctive way a writer uses language to inform or promote an idea

Emotional language

Targets a reader's emotions instead of appealing to reason

Emotive poem

Aims to capture a mood or emotion and to make readers feel that mood/emotion

Lyrical poem

Short, emotional poems that are personal from a single speaker

Imagistic poem

Aims to capture a moment and help us experience that moment through our senses

Narrative poem

Tell stories

Argumentative poem

Explores an idea, such as love or valor

Elegy

Laments the loss of someone or something

Ode

Celebrates a person, place, thing, or event

Exact rhyme

Share the same last syllables. Eg. cat, hat; laugh, staff

Half-rhymes

Share only the final consonant(s). Eg. cat, hot; adamant, government

Eye rhymes

Looks like a rhyme because the word endings are spelled the same; Eg., bough, through, enough, though

Alliteration

Pitter patter - /p/, /tt/, /r/

Onomatopoeia

A word that sounds like its meaning; the sound is the definition of the word. Eg. buzz, hiss, moan

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds within a sentence or a phrase to create internal rhyme

Meter

The number of syllables in a line and how the stress falls on those syllables

Iambic meter

Stress falls on every other syllable

Foot

Each drumbeat in a meter; da-dum

Tetrameter

Four feet per line

Stanza

Poetic "paragraphs

Punctuation in poetry

Tell where to pause, regardless of line breaks

Purpose of line breaks and stanzas

(1) Call attention to last word of each line; (2) Set aside each group of words as a distinct idea

Concrete or Visual poetry

Words create a visual effect

Sonnet

14 lines, iambic pentameter

Ballad

Poem that usually tells a story and is meant to be sung; abcb defe ghih. Tend to emphasize action over emotion/ideas

Villanelle

5 three-line stanzas with aba rhyme + final quatrain with abaa rhyme. Line one must be repeated in 6, 12, and 18. Line three must be repeated in 9, 15, and 19.

Blank or metered verse

Guided only by meter, not rhyme. Lines have a set number of syllables. Eg., haiku

Limerick

5-line poem with rhyme scheme aabba. Usually funny content

Free verse

Free from restrictions of meter and rhyme. Often use a thematic structure or repetitive pattern

Alphabetic principle

Letters represent the sounds of a language

Direct instruction

Method of passing information from a teacher to a student

Scaffolding

Teachers initially provide reading assistance, then gradually shift the learning responsibility to students.

Shared reading

Students reading along while an expert reads fluently; The reader demonstrates what it is that good readers do

Sight words

Immediately recognizable words in print

Social interaction theory

Importance of the surrounding environment in literacy development. Language acquisition is not innate but must be fostered from cultural environment

Metacognition

Think about how the text affects them directly while reading

Phonology

System of sounds in a language

Phoneme

Single sound

Sound segmentation

Separate sounds in a word

Syllabication

The process of splitting a word into its separate syllables, or putting them together to form new words

Instructional text

Accuracy rate of 90-95%, and the student can read with help

Frustrational text

Accuracy rate below 90%, student can't read book yet