FAST ELA Grade 5 Reading flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Plot climax

The turning point of a story, where the main conflict reaches its greatest tension and the outcome begins to be decided. It usually falls near the end of the rising action.

Indirect characterization

Revealing a character's traits through actions, speech, thoughts, appearance, or other characters' reactions rather than through direct statements by the narrator about the character.

Theme

The underlying message about life or human nature that a literary work communicates. It is expressed as a complete statement supported by events, not as a single topic word.

Rhyme scheme

The pattern of end rhymes in a poem, labeled with letters so that lines rhyming with each other share a letter, such as AABB or ABAB.

Stage directions

Notes in a drama script, usually in brackets or italics, that tell actors how to move, speak, or behave and describe scenery, lighting, or sound effects.

Third-person omniscient narrator

A narrator outside the story who knows and reports the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of all the characters, not just one.

Personification

A figure of speech giving human qualities or actions to something nonhuman, as in the wind whispered through the trees or the sun smiled down.

Central idea

The most important point an informational text makes about its topic. It is stated or implied and is supported throughout by details, examples, and explanations.

Text structure

The way an author organizes information, such as cause and effect, compare and contrast, chronological order, problem and solution, or description. Signal words often reveal it.

Author's claim

The position or opinion an author argues for in a text. It must be supported by evidence such as facts, examples, statistics, or expert statements.

Firsthand account

A text written by someone who personally experienced or witnessed an event. It often includes personal feelings, observations, and details only a participant would know.

Text feature

A visual or organizational element such as a heading, caption, diagram, timeline, map, or bold word that helps readers locate and understand information in a text.

Inference

A logical conclusion reached by combining evidence from the text with the reader's own background knowledge. It is not stated directly in the passage.

Context clues

Words, phrases, or sentences around an unknown word that suggest its meaning, including definition restatements, examples, contrasts, and general sense of the passage.

Prefix

A word part attached before a base word that changes its meaning, such as un- meaning not, re- meaning again, or pre- meaning before.

Suffix

A word part attached after a base word that changes its meaning or part of speech, such as -less meaning without or -ful meaning full of.

Greek and Latin roots

Meaningful word parts from Greek or Latin that form the core of many English words, such as bio for life, graph for write, and port for carry.

Homophone

One of two or more words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings, such as their, there, and they're or to, too, and two.

Connotation

The feeling or attitude a word suggests beyond its dictionary meaning. Thin, slim, and skinny share a basic meaning but carry different connotations.

Idiom

A fixed expression whose meaning cannot be understood from the literal meanings of its words, such as break the ice or hit the books.

Guide words

The two words printed at the top of a dictionary page that show the first and last entries on that page, used to locate a word quickly.

Primary source

A direct record created by someone who witnessed or took part in an event, such as a diary, letter, photograph, or interview from that time.

Secondary source

A source that interprets, analyzes, or summarizes information from primary sources, such as a textbook chapter, encyclopedia article, or documentary summary.

Multimodal text

A text that combines two or more modes, such as written words, images, sound, and layout, so that each mode contributes meaning to the whole message.

Source reliability

The trustworthiness of information, judged by the author's expertise, the publisher, the publication date, and whether evidence and sources are cited.

Target audience

The specific group of people a message is designed for. Identifying it helps explain the word choices, images, and techniques the creator used.

Paraphrase

Restating a source's idea in your own words and sentence structure while keeping the meaning, usually without quotation marks but still crediting the source.

Fluency

Reading smoothly and accurately at an appropriate rate with expression, including proper phrasing and attention to punctuation. It supports comprehension of the text.

Prosody

The expressive part of oral reading: appropriate phrasing, emphasis, intonation, and pauses that reflect the meaning and punctuation of the text.

Syllable division

A decoding strategy that splits an unfamiliar multisyllable word into pronounceable parts using vowel patterns, then blends the parts and checks the meaning in context.

Silent e pattern

A syllable pattern in which a final silent e usually makes the preceding vowel long, as in cake, hope, and tide. Also called vowel-consonant-e.

Vowel team

Two or more letters that together spell a single vowel sound, such as ea in bread, oa in boat, or ai in rain.