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In this lesson we'll subject you to some verbs and predicates. Each one is a necessary part of a complete breakfas—er...sentence.
Choosing words carefully is important. You may end up vexing the assemblage of citizens you're conversing with...or you might even just plain bore...
ELA 4: Dictionaries vs. Context Clues 343 Views
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Description:
If you're not like us carrying a handy dandy super-heavy dictionary around, you might need another strategy to figure out what words mean. You know, aside from googling them. Today's video is all about using context clues.
Transcript
- 00:05
[Dino and Coop singing]
- 00:13
Picture it: you're reading along, happy as a clam…
- 00:16
…when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, BOOM! [Clam with a smile]
- 00:19
A word you don't recognize. [The clam explodes]
- 00:20
So what do you do??
Full Transcript
- 00:21
Well, you could cry in the fetal position and never read a book again… [Boy on the floor crying]
- 00:24
…or you could look it up in the dictionary…
- 00:26
…or you could figure out what it means from context clues, those little hints about
- 00:30
meaning we find in the text. [Sherlock appears]
- 00:32
But which route should you take?
- 00:33
Definitely not the fetal position…it's not great for your back. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]
- 00:37
Which leaves the highway to Dictionary City, or the road to Context Clueville. [A roadsign]
- 00:41
And in case you were wondering, no, you don't need a driver's license. [No sign appears over a driver's license]
- 00:44
So let's start with dictionaries!
- 00:46
There are a whole bunch of benefits to using a dictionary, and the main one is that we'll [Dino pointing at a blackboard]
- 00:50
know that the definition is correct.
- 00:52
After all, the dictionary is put together by a whole bunch of language experts. [Two language experts deciding what to name their job title]
- 00:56
Another plus?
- 00:57
The words are all in alphabetical order, which makes the definitions really easy to find.
- 00:59
And we're glad they went for the alphabetical system instead of, say…the system of how
- 01:03
much some guy named Larry likes the word. [Larry stood next to his order of words]
- 01:06
Does he like "cardigan" more than "sweater"?
- 01:08
Who knows.
- 01:09
But, for all their plusses, dictionaries do have some drawbacks.
- 01:12
For one thing, they're kind of a pain to haul around.
- 01:14
If you're going to the park for a quiet read, you don't necessarily want to drag your Merriam-Webster [Guy with a giant dictionary on his back]
- 01:18
along with you.
- 01:19
They can also be a bit confusing.
- 01:21
Sometimes they offer definitions that are hard to understand, or lots of definitions
- 01:25
for one word.
- 01:26
And everyone knows, the only place you want to go to get more confused is a magic show. [Dictionary performing at a magic show]
- 01:31
Looking something up in a dictionary also ruins the flow of your reading.
- 01:34
If you're finally getting to a story's exciting climax, a guest appearance by a dictionary [Two men about to fight]
- 01:39
is going to slow things down. [A dictionary appears in between them]
- 01:41
No offense, dictionary.
- 01:42
Context clues, on the other hand, don't interrupt the flow of our reading.
- 01:45
By figuring stuff out on the fly, you can keep pesky dictionaries from ruining the action.
- 01:49
Which is good, if you prefer action to dictionaries. [One of the men kicks the dictionary away]
- 01:52
Also, since context clues require us to really think, we're more likely to remember the word.
- 01:56
That said, context clues aren't without their flaws.
- 01:59
For one thing, it's hard to tell if we came up with the right definition.
- 02:02
Without the authority of the dictionary on our side, we're really just making an educated [Guy is stopped from passing onto a bridge by a guy asking him the definition of loathsome]
- 02:05
guess, so we might be right...
- 02:07
…or we might be very, very wrong. [The guy explodes]
- 02:09
Another weakness of context clues?
- 02:11
Sometimes the text doesn't give us all of the clues we need…
- 02:13
…which leaves us floating around without a paddle, unlikely to reach the Shores of [Boy looking unhappy on a boat]
- 02:17
Clarity.
- 02:18
We might make it to the Rapids of Confusion, but uh…that's not a great place to be… [Boy looks worried]
- 02:23
So as we can see, dictionaries and context clues have all sorts of pros and cons, but
- 02:26
we're sure that when the time comes, you'll pick the right one.
- 02:30
…or maybe you'll pick "Taking a two-hour break from reading to play video games." [Two guys playing video games]
- 02:34
Great.
- 02:35
Real helpful.
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