Developing and sustaining foundational language skills
English Language Arts and Reading.7.2.B
The student is expected to
use context such as contrast or cause and effect to clarify the meaning of words; and
A student expectation is directly related to the knowledge and skills statement, is more specific about how students demonstrate their learning, and always begins with a verb. Student expectations are further broken down into their component parts, often referred to as “breakouts.”
Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--vocabulary. The student uses newly acquired vocabulary expressively.
A knowledge and skills statement is a broad statement of what students must know and be able to do. It generally begins with a learning strand and ends with the phrase “The student is expected to:” Knowledge and skills statements always include related student expectations.
Glossary Support for ELA.7.2.B
an organizational pattern that explains reasons why something happens or has happened and/or the consequences of something happening
Authors often include hints or clues to help the reader understand the specific meaning of words. Sometimes these hints can be found in the sentence structure surrounding an unfamiliar word. Students should recognize that conjunctions, such as however and so, as well as phrases, such as resulting in and as opposed to, can indicate the relationships between ideas in and across sentences. Identifying the implied relationship between ideas helps signal to students how the unfamiliar word should be interpreted. For example, in the sentence "Through this experiment we found that Subject A exhibited signs of phototropism, as opposed to Subject B, which showed no growth in response to light," students should use the contrast phrase as opposed to and the information that follows to create context for the meaning of the word phototropism.
Supporting Information for ELA.7.2.B
Research
Ilter, I. (2019). The efficacy of context clue strategy instruction on middle grades students' vocabulary development. Research in Middle Level Education, 42(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/19404476.2018.1554522
Summary: This study compares the effectiveness of instruction on the use of context clues for wide reading practices in terms of their impact on vocabulary. Forty-four randomly selected sixth-graders were assigned to experiment and controlled control conditions. Students selected for the control groups used a wide strategy approach. However, students selected for the experimental group were taught how to use context cues to infer meaning. Direct instruction was used to present the concept to the students. At the end of the study, 30 multiple-choice items were used to determine the level of understanding of word meanings in context. the findings suggest that the experimental group out performed the control group. The results suggest that teaching students how to infer meaning from context clues is an instructional strategy that positively impacts the level of student achievement in reading.