Language Arts 8 Vocabulary Words
Here is your set of vocabulary words for the year. You will have a weekly quiz on 9 randomly selected words from this list. The score from this quiz will not go into the grade book. However, you will chart your progress individually and we will chart the class average. After several practice quizzes, you will have a test which will be graded. It is your job to study these words on your own. See me if you need help! J
Bloom’s Taxonomy—Levels of Understanding
1. / Knowledge / The lowest level of understanding where you can only recall or recognize information, ideas, etc.2. / Comprehension / Understanding the main idea and being able to put it into your own words.
3. / Application / Taking an idea or skill from one place and using or applying it in another.
4. / Analysis / Breaking down a concept or idea into its parts and showing the relationship among the parts.
5. / Synthesis / Bringing together different parts of concepts or ideas to form a new understanding or new whole.
6. / Evaluation / Making informed judgments about the value of ideas or materials. Using criteria to support your opinions and views.
Literary Terms—Short Story
7. / Plot / The series of events (what happens) in a story.8. / Exposition / The part of the story that sets the scene, identifies characters, and establishes the beginning situation of a story or play.
9. / Inciting Incident / The incident (event) or moment that upsets the normal situation and sets the rest of the story in motion.
10. / Rising Action / The collection of events that lead up to the climax.
11. / Climax / The turning point or highest point of action in a story.
12. / Falling Action / Events after the climax that lead to the resolution.
13. / Resolution / The end of a story.
14. / Conflict / A struggle between opposing forces, such as between two people (man vs. man), a person and something in nature (man vs. nature) or society (man vs. society), or even between two drives, impulses, or parts of the self (man vs. self).
15. / Setting / The time and place of a story, poem or play.
16. / Protagonist / The main character in a story (usually the good guy).
17. / Antagonist / The character in opposition to or struggling with the protagonist (usually the bad guy).
18. / Round / A character that we know a lot about and that is fully developed.
19. / Flat / A character we do not know a lot about and who is not well developed.
20. / Dynamic / A character that changes throughout a story.
21. / Static / A character that does not change throughout a story.
22. / Point of View / The perspective a story is told from, as in first person, third person, omniscient, etc.
23. / Narrator / The person who tells the story.
24. / First Person / The point of view where the narrator is telling the story directly; uses “I” rather than “he” or “she”.
25. / Third Person / The point of view where the narrator is not a character in the story; uses “he” or “she” rather than “I”.
26. / Omniscient / The point of view where the narrator is all knowing.
27. / Theme / The point or message of a story.
28. / Fiction / A type of writing that is untrue and made up.
29. / Non-Fiction / A type of writing that is true.
30. / Genre / A type, category, or division of literature like mystery, romance, action, adventure, or science fiction.
Literary Terms--Poetry
31. / Narrative Poetry / Poetry that tells a story.
32. / Lyric Poetry / Poetry that expresses a poet’s personal thoughts, feelings, and emotions in vivid language. It may resemble a song in form or style (that’s why it’s called lyric, as in song lyrics).
33. / Stanza / A group of lines in a poem, like a paragraph in an essay.
34. / Couplet / A two-line stanza.
35. / Repetition / Using the same or similar words, sounds, images, rhythms, meters, etc. for effect.
36. / Alliteration / The repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words. EX: Show respect, responsibility, and restraint.
37. / Assonance / The repetition or a pattern of similar vowel sounds
EX: After every evening event…. or as in the tongue twister "Moses supposes his toeses are roses."
38. / Consonance / The repetition of similar consonant sounds, especially at the ends of words, as in lost and past or confess and dismiss.
39. / Rhyme Scheme / The pattern of the rhyme in a poem.
40. / Free Verse / Poetry that has no set meter or pattern. It can be rhymed or unrhymed.
41. / Epic / A long, serious poem that tells the story of a heroic figure, like the Iliad and Odyssey by the Greek writer Homer.
42. / Sonnet / A poem that is 14 lines long with a particular rhyme scheme.
43. / Haiku / A Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables, often reflecting on some aspect of nature.
44. / Concrete Poem / A poem that forms a distinct shape on the page, which is related to the subject of the poem. EX: A poem about raindrops where the words fall down the page like drops of rain.
45. / Meter / The rhythmical pattern of a poem; the number of stresses or beats in a line.
46. / Foot / The smallest unit of rhythm in a poem.
Literary Terms—General
47. / Figurative Language / The category of words or language that creates a mental picture for the reader by going beyond the literal meaning of words, as in metaphors, similes, and personification.
48. / Literal / The actual or true meaning of a word or phrase. What is said is what is meant.
49. / Connotation / The emotional and imaginative association surrounding a word; what you think of when you hear a word.
50. / Denotation / The strict dictionary meaning of a word.
51. / Symbolism / When something stands for or represents something else. EX: night might represent death.
52. / Simile / A figure of speech where two things are compared using the word "like" or "as." EX: “Life is like a box of chocolates.”
53. / Metaphor / A figure of speech where two things are compared by saying one thing is the other. EX: “my love is a rose” NOT “my love is like a rose.”
54. / Onomatopoeia / A figure of speech where words are used to imitate sounds like buzz, crash, hiss, cluck, splat.
55. / Hyperbole / An exaggeration made for effect and should not be taken literally. EX: “I’ve got a million things to do.”
56. / Euphemism / A polite way of saying something, like “passed away” instead of “croaked” or “died.”
57. / Personification / Giving a non-human object human characteristics. EX: “the sea was angry” or “the leaves danced”.
58. / Irony / A situation or statement where there is a significant difference between what is expected and what actually happens. EX: A fire station burning down is an example of irony.
59. / Flashback / An interruption of a story where a writer presents a scene that happened in an earlier time.
60. / Foreshadowing / When hints are given in a story about events that will happen in the future.
61. / Juxtaposition / The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side for the purpose of comparison, contrast, or effect. EX: a picture of a Hummer next to a tricycle could be juxtaposition.
Writing Terms
62. / Narrative Writing / Writing that tells a story.
63. / Expository Writing / Writing to explain.
64. / Persuasive Writing / Writing to convince.
65. / Content / In six trait writing, the trait that refers to the main idea of a piece of writing, or what the writing is about.
66. / Organization / In six trait writing, the trait that refers to the internal structure of the writing; how it is put together.
67. / Word Choice / In six trait writing, the trait that refers to the use of precise, colorful and rich words to communicate.
68. / Sentence Fluency / In six trait writing, the trait that refers to smoothly using sentences of varying length and style.
69. / Voice / In six trait writing, the trait that refers to the personality of the author coming through in writing.
70. / Conventions / In six trait writing, the trait that refers to the mechanical correctness of the writing, including spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
71. / Thesis Statement / The sentence that expresses the main point, main idea, or argument the author is trying to make in a piece of writing.
72. / Paraphrase / To put something into your own words.
73. / Plagiarism / Taking credit for someone else’s ideas or words; copying someone else’s work without quoting it.
Grammar Terms
74. / Noun / This part of speech is a person, place, thing or idea. EX: cat, love, mom, freedom
75. / Pronoun / This part of speech is used in place of a noun. EX: his, me, they
76. / Adjective / This part of speech modifies (describes) a noun or pronoun. EX: beautiful
77. / Verb / This part of speech expresses an action or state of being. EX: run, jump, be, are.
78. / Adverb / This part of speech modifies (describes) a verb, adjective, or adverb. EX: quickly, fast, slowly, very
79. / Preposition / This part of speech shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and some other word in a sentence. EX: on, above, below, into
80. / Conjunction / This part of speech joins words or groups of words. EX: and, or, but, nor
81. / Interjection / This part of speech is a word that expresses strong emotion. EX: wow, bang, darn.
82. / Synonym / Two words that mean basically the same thing, like pretty and beautiful.
83. / Homonym / Words that sound the same but mean different things, like to, two, and too or hear and here.
84. / Antonym / Words that have opposite meanings, like hot and cold or soft and hard.
85. / Run-On Sentence / Two or more sentences run together and incorrectly punctuated as one.
86. / Sentence Fragment / A group of words that is punctuated as if it were a complete sentence, but lacking a subject, verb, or complete thought.
Reading Terms
87. / Infer or Inference / An educated guess based on information in the text and your prior knowledge.
88. / Prediction / An educated guess specifically about what will happen in the future or a later point in a story.
89. / Author’s Purpose / The author’s reason for writing a particular piece of text.