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Lesson · Grade 4 · English Language Arts

Using Context Clues for a New Word

  • Grade 4
  • English Language Arts
  • 1 min 15 s
  • British Columbia
  • BC4-EN-10

A short passage about an old barn contains the unfamiliar word "dilapidated", and the video walks through four steps on the right: spot the new word, look for clues nearby (the sagging roof, the missing door, the peeled paint), make a guess ("falling apart"), and check it by swapping the guess into the sentence. The passage is shown again with the guess in place so students see it reads sensibly, and the video ends on the one-line recap: spot, clues, guess, check.

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In one sentence

The question this lesson answers

You are reading, and you meet a word you do not know. What do you do?

Here is a short passage. One word in it may be new to you.

Transcript

What the lesson says

You are reading, and you meet a word you do not know. What do you do?

Here is a short passage. One word in it may be new to you.

Step one: spot the new word. Here it is: dilapidated.

Do not stop there. The words around it are clues to what it means.

Step two: look for clues in the words nearby.

The first clue: the roof sagged.

The second clue: a door was missing.

The third clue: the paint had peeled away.

All three clues say the same thing: the barn is old and broken.

Step three: make a guess. Dilapidated probably means falling apart.

Step four: check the guess. Swap it into the sentence in place of the new word.

The old barn was falling apart. That makes sense, so the guess is a good one.

If the sentence did not make sense, you would go back and try another guess.

Spot the new word, find the clues, make a guess, then check that it fits.

Curriculum

Where this fits

British Columbia, Grade 4

English Language Arts, Strategies and processes: reading strategiesBC4-EN-10

Next: Prefixes and Suffixes: Reading a Long Word in Parts

British Columbia, Grade 5

English Language Arts, Strategies and processes: reading strategiesBC5-EN-11

Next: Word parts: prefixes, roots and suffixes

British Columbia, Grade 6

English Language Arts, Strategies and processes: reading strategiesBC6-EN-13

Next: Word parts: prefixes, roots and suffixes

British Columbia, Grade 7

English Language Arts, Strategies and processes: reading strategiesBC7-EN-13

Next: Word parts: prefixes, roots and suffixes

This lesson is also listed in Grade 5, Grade 6 and Grade 7.

The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.

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