ELA.12.V.1.3
Description:
Context and Connotation
Apply knowledge of context clues, figurative language, word relationships, reference materials, and/or background knowledge to determine the connotative and denotative meaning of words and phrases, appropriate to grade level.
Maps to Reading Plus skills:
4A, 4B, 4B
Exemplars
4A: Interpreting Word Meaning
4A: Interpreting Word Meaning
Description:
Interpreting Word Meaning
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
L-26
L-26
Grade level: 12
Word count: 2743 words
Author: Virginia Woolf
Synopsis: What goes on in a public garden on a lovely summer day? A lot more than you may think.
Excerpt:
Like most people of their station they were frankly fascinated by any signs of eccentricity betokening a disordered brain, especially in the well to-do; but they were too far off to be certain whether the gestures were merely eccentric or genuinely mad.
Question:
Based upon the following excerpt, the word "betokening" most closely means
- indicating.
- denying.
- practicing.
- discarding.
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
Explain how a character's actions or attitude can change the meaning of a word or phrase.
Evaluator
Organization:
Certica Solutions
4B: Interpreting Analogies
4B: Interpreting Analogies
Description:
Interpreting Analogies
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
L-21
L-21
Grade level: 12
Word count: 3146 words
Author: Stephen Crane
Synopsis: Four men, trapped in a small boat after their ship sinks, face an uncertain future.
Excerpt:
A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a bucking bronco, and by the same token, a bronco is not much smaller. The craft pranced and reared, and plunged like an animal. As each wave came, and she rose for it, she seemed like a horse making at a fence outrageously high.
Question:
The narrator compares sitting in the lifeboat to
- riding a wild horse.
- running through a dark, unfamiliar woods.
- falling from a cliff.
- sitting in a speeding carriage.
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
Describe how an author can use figurative language to create suspense and give an example from a selection.
Evaluator
Organization:
Certica Solutions
4B: Interpreting Analogies
4B: Interpreting Analogies
Description:
Interpreting Analogies
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
L-31
L-31
Grade level: 12
Word count: 2141 words
Author: Luke Cooper
Synopsis: Landscape architect Frederic Law Olmsted was a mastermind of great urban sanctuaries, including New York's Central Park.
Excerpt:
The ability to create the illusion of seclusion in the heart of one of the world's busiest metropolises is a feat unmatched before or since. "This isn't a piece of natural landscape that someone has put a fence around," observed writer Adam Gopnik. "Just the opposite. It's a stage set. ... It's every bit as artificial as Disney World."
Question:
What did writer Adam Gopnik mean when he described Central Park as "a stage set"?
- It was a man-made site with every detail added for a specific purpose.
- It was a piece of natural landscape surrounded by a fence to protect it.
- It was a place where people had to be quiet to experience the sounds of nature.
- It was a stage on which people could act out their frustrations with city life.
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
Choose an essay or speech you have read and describe how the author's use of figurative language helped to make the essay or speech effective and/or meaningful. Use details from the selection to explain and support your answer.
Evaluator
Organization:
Certica Solutions