So far, we’ve written a recount of our summer, an instructional text on how to use an iPod, and some other instructional texts. We have analyzed advertisements and looked at language features.

Recently we studied context clues and learned four methods of figuring a word out. The methods are; Definition or restatement, Examples or summaries, comparison and contrast, and cause and effect.

We also got three words each which we had to look at and create sentences using the words.
My three words were, censure, covert and amiable. And my sentences were;
“The teacher censured a student when she noticed he was chewing gum, which is against the school policy.”
“They discussed the private matter covertly.”
“The amiable man smiled when he was hit with a snowball.” 

Censure is a verb that means to express disapproval, to blame or to condemn. 
Covert is an adjective which means secret or hidden.
Amiable is also an adjective and it means to be good-natured, friendly or to have a pleasing and kindly disposition. 

We’ve also looked at word part analysis and root words and prefixes and suffixes.
For example a root word, port, means to carry. But when you attach the prefix, ‘ex’, which means out of. You get the word ‘export’ which means to carry out. Or you can add the prefix, ‘im‘ which means into, or ‘trans‘ which means across. When you attach a prefix to a root word, the meaning changes.
When you attach as suffix such as ‘able’ to the root word with the prefix already attached, the word becomes importable or exportable or transportable.

Here is some examples of word roots and prefixes:

Root or prefix             Meaning                               Examples

And here are a few examples of suffixes:

Suffix    Meaning          Examples