Middle School Reading Comprehension Tips
How can I remember the difference between a simile and a metaphor?
With middle school reading comprehension, similes and metaphors are both types of figurative language, this means that they're taking something literal and turning it to something almost poetic. In middle school reading comprehension, metaphors are a literal comparison, meaning "the sky was the ocean." The sky is not actually the ocean, it's a comparison to show how vast and great and powerful the sky is appearing. Similes, on the other hand, are not a direct comparison; it uses "like" or "as", meaning "the sky was as blue as the ocean." Now we're not doing a direct comparison likening the two things as being the same; now they're only similar, which is a slightly less strong comparison but still gives it a poetic feel.
How can I remember what I've read?
In order to better remember what you've been reading make sure you set aside a quiet place where you can read in peace without any distractions. Make sure there is no music on, nothing is going on in the background thats going to distract you from what you're reading and make sure you're asking yourself questions while you're reading. Who's speaking right now, why would they be telling me this information, does this mean anything important for the rest of the story? Next, after each paragraph make sure you pause for a moment and think about what youve read. It's also a great time to jot down any vocabulary words you might not know and to check them out and see if there's any extra meaning you can get from that paragraph.
What are the types of literary conflict and why are they important?
Whenever you're reading a story, conflict is the main thing that's going to drive a story ahead. Conflict is a problem in the story for one of the major characters. There are many different types of conflict you may encounter, first being "character vs. character." Meaning, one person versus somebody else in the story that's causing them problems. The second type of conflict would be "character vs. nature," meaning some kind of natural disaster--hurricane, tornado, earthquake--that is beyond the character's control that is causing them problems. The next type of conflict would be the "character vs. society or technology," meaning some kind of machine or some kind of government or something completely beyond their control that is a large element to society is causing problems for them. The last form of conflict would be the "character vs. themselves." Think about a character that has problems inside themselves. This is an internal conflict, meaning nobody else in the story will necessarily know about the conflict. They're often wrestling with their morals to make a particular decision, "should I rob the bank; should I turn in the money; what should I be doing?" Think of that as "character vs. themselves."
What's the secret to memorizing vocabulary words?
One of the best ways to memorize vocabulary words, and my personal favorite, is to use flashcards. Write the word on the front, and on the back, write the definition and the part of speech. This is going to help you, because not only can you take the flashcards with you wherever you go, and test yourself on the go, you also now have a visual of the word, and you have something that you can physically shuffle and go through all the words. Another way I suggest using vocabulary cards is you should set up three distinct piles while you're going through them. The pile of the words which you definitely know, which you won't have to review as much, a middle pile of the words that you kind of know, but you might forget one thing on them, and the last pile is the words that you completely do not know. That last pile, the third pile, the words you don't know, you should continually go over until all your flashcards should be in the "I know them pile." You should be able to go through them with ease.
What's the secret to remembering the meaning of vocabulary words?
A good way to help learn vocabulary words is to write them in a sentence that reflects their meaning. It's easy to put a word in any sentence, for example "Ann is benevolent." but you need to explain what benevolent means by the sentence you're creating. So: "Ann is benevolent because she gives to many charities and does lots of non profit work." meaning that Ann is an extremely generous person based on what you've written in that other part the sentence. Always think back. You need to know what that word means based on the sentence you've written. This may seem kind of tedious when you're doing it, but when you're back on a test you can think; "Benevolent. What does that mean?" and you can think back to your sentence and remember what you had to write in order to explain that word to yourself.
How can "visual learners" memorize vocabulary words?
Another tip to help learn vocabulary words is to visualize them. Draw a picture or scene that might help you remember this item of vocabulary. For "versatile", for example, you might draw a Swiss army knife; it can be used in many different situations, which is what versatile means, which will help you do better on your vocabulary test and remember the word.
