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Reading and Writing 6-8 / Week 04 / Friday
5/6
Week 04 · Word Choice and Tone

Friday

Nova's Signal Review
// Every word casts a shade
⏱ about 20 min

Friday: Nova's Signal Review

Nova glides over the Signal Desk and the string lights blink on. "Signal Review," she says. "Four passages, one week of words."

Rocket stretches. "Rain, a garden, a lamp and a dog. I remember all of it."

"Remembering is a start," Raven says. "Nova wants to know what you noticed."

Nova lays a soft circle of light on the corkboard. "Shades, clues, figures and tone. Four tools. Show me you can hold all four."

"And if I drop one?" Rocket asks.

"Then you pick it up," Nova says, "the way you did with trudged on Monday."

Look back

This week you read Three Ways to Say Rain and Cleanup Day at the Garden. Then came The Lamp That Waited and Scout Comes Home, Two Ways.

You learned to notice shades of meaning, use context clues, read figurative language and name tone.

Think back to each passage as you work. Look back whenever you need to.

REVIEW 1: SHADES AND CLUES
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Drizzled, poured and drummed share which denotation?
Which word did Rocket choose because it sounded like Saturday?
In the garden report, what told you brisk means cool and quick?
Unlike Raven, who sat still, Rocket was restless. Which clue type?
REVIEW 2: FIGURES AND TONE
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
The lamp waits for us, patient as a porch dog. Which figure is patient as a porch dog?
A small moon that has learned our names is
Which set of words builds a worried tone?
Tone is
REVIEW 3: THE PASSAGES
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Why did nobody skate on Saturday in Three Ways to Say Rain?
Who hung a thank-you card on the garden gate?
In The Lamp That Waited, what is the issue by eight?
Where did Scout appear in both reports?
SCOUT'S AFTERNOON IN REPORT TWO
  • What happened first in report two?
  • Tap the cards in order.
1First
2Next
3Then
4Last
SentenceTrue or false?
Connotation is the plain dictionary meaning of a word.?
A context clue is found near the unknown word.?
Personification gives a thing human actions.?
Two reports about the same event must have the same tone.?
Rocket writes the way rain falls is a simile.?
A definition clue explains the word right in the sentence.?
Scurried means moved slowly.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEDenotation is the plain meaning; connotation is the feeling. The two Scout reports proved tone can change.
WORK OUT AN UNKNOWN WORD
  • ?Guess a meaning that fits.
  • ?Stop at the word instead of skipping it.
  • ?Read the words around it for a clue.
  • ?Reread the sentence with your meaning in place.
WHY THIS EXERCISEThis is the routine from Tuesday. It turns strangers into words you know.
Which word did Rocket use for Scout in the playful report, comparing him to a town leader? Type the word.
WHY THIS EXERCISECalling a dog a mayor is a simile that sets a playful tone in one word.
Which word names a figure of speech that gives a thing human actions? Type the word.
WHY THIS EXERCISENaming the figure helps you spot it, and spotting it helps you use it in your own column.
Try it
Tell someone at home the four tools from this week in your own words.
Give one example of each from the passages you read.

Four tools, all picked up. Tomorrow is Press Day, and your column goes out with the issue.

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