alliteration - repeating the same beginning sounds of words, for example "soft, sandy shores" or "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" character - a person or thing (see personification definition below) that speaks or acts in a story, novel, or play - Types of characters: a) a static character stays the same throughout a story b) a dynamic character changes over the course of a story c) a protagonist is the main character in a story d) an antagonist is a character who causes a conflict for the protagonist connotation - the feeling associated with a word (examples: the words "pop quiz" often carry with them a feeling of uneasiness, but "ice cream" brings a smile to the face of most children; "assertive" has a more positive connotation than "aggressive" or "pushy") dialect - how people from certain areas of the country speak figures of speech- expressions that are unique to a particular group of people that have a meaning other than the literal meaning of the words contained in that expression figurative meaning - the meaning associated with a word when used in a particular figure of speech, idiom, or metaphor (example: In the question "What's up?" the expression is asking "How are you doing?" but it has nothing to do with the literal meaning of "up".) foreshadowing - when an author hints at future events, usually negative - "This was the first bad thing to happen to him today, but more was yet to come." literal meaning - the dictionary definition of a word metaphor - a creative comparison between two things that are not usually compared Examples: "His toes were ice cubes." "Her heart was an accordion, being stretched and crushed every few minutes as she decided what to do." oxymoron - a statement that appears to contradict itself (alternate definition: a figure of speech which brings two contradictory terms together) Examples: "honest thief," "bad luck," "big baby," "awfully nice," "common differences," "fully empty," etc. narration - the way a story is told "First person narration" - when the main character tells his or her own story - look for the first person pronouns (I, me, we, us) and possessive pronouns (my, mine, our, ours). I remind students to think of Roman Numeral I "Third person narration" - when an outside observer tells the story - look for the third person pronouns (he, she, and they) and possessive pronouns (his, her, hers, their, theirs) - "third person omniscient" - when the narrator knows everything about what has happened including the characters' thoughts and feelings - "third person limited" - when the narrator only knows the story from his or her point of view; for example, a child who may not understand everything he or she is witnessing, or an outside observer who can't speak about characters' thoughts and emotions narrator - the person who tells the story personification - giving something that is not a person, human-like qualities (animals or objects that speak, think, feel, and/or walk on two legs). Disney movies and fairy tales are full of personification. plot - the events of a story plot structure - how events of the plot are organized; is the story told in chronological order (beginning, middle, and end) or does it use "flashback" sequences in which background information is revealed plot summary - retelling the key events of a story protagonist - the main character in a story, play, or novel setting - the time and place in which a story takes place simile - a creative comparison between two things that are not usually compared that uses the word "like" or "as" to link the two things Examples: "Her lips were like rose petals." "Her eyes sparkled as diamonds do." "His angry eyes were like daggers." theme - the central idea that runs through the story, usually expressed as an abstract noun (for example, loyalty, bravery, honesty, etc.). This is not the same as the subject of the story or a plot summary. It helps define how characters and plot events are connected, as there are specific consequences to specific actions by characters. The way a plot is structured (see plot structure definition above) often leads us to a life lesson, what we are to conclude about a theme based upon the consequences characters encounter as a result of their choices and their actions. Poetry Terms end rhyme - when the word at the end of a line rhymes the ending sound of a previous line in the poem free verse poem - a poem that is not bound by a particular rhyme scheme or other metered pattern internal rhyme - when words within the same line of poetry rhyme poem - metrical writing; art of rhythmical
composition which engages the senses prose - writing that resembles everyday speech rhyme scheme - the pattern of rhyme in a formatted poem; the first ending sound of a line is labeled 'a' and any other lines that have that ending sound are also labeled 'a'; the next line-ending sound is labeled 'b', then stanza - a group of lines in a poem that are separated from other lines by a blank line; a stanza in poetry functions like a paragraph in a story or essay, unified by a topic, a specific period of time, etc. verse - A line of poetry Other Important Language Arts Terms antonyms - words that have the opposite meaning (good vs. bad; short vs. tall; etc.) homophones - words that sound the same, but have different meanings (to, too, and two; their, there, and they're; weather and whether; hear and here; etc.) synonyms - words that have the same meaning (small and tiny; gigantic and huge; etc.) |