Important ELA Skills
BY: Angela Garrow
Table of Contents
● Citing Text Evidence
● Inferences
● Context Clues
● Central Idea
● Theme
● Summaries
● Key People Events, Ideas
● Author’s Purpose
● Point of View
● Reading Strategies
Citing Text Evidence
What is Citing?
Citing textual evidence requires
students to look back into the
text for evidence to support an
idea, answer a question or make
a claim. ... Students also need to
practice finding strong evidence
to support their ideas.
What is Text Evidence?
Textual evidence deals with facts
in writing and the strategies used
to figure out whether or not the
information is factual. ... Textual
evidence comes into play when
an author presents a position or
thesis and uses evidence to
support the claims.
How do I Cite evidence?
How will citing evidence benefit me?
So we are able to go back into the story
and prove our answers so that people
don’t think we are making things up!”
Inference
An inference is an idea or conclusion
that's drawn from evidence and
reasoning. Inferencing is making an
educated guess, a choice, a decision.
Context Clues
Context clues are hints found within a
sentence, paragraph, or passage that a
reader can use to understand the
meanings of new or unfamiliar words.
... A reader must be aware that many
words have several possible meanings.
Central Idea
CENTRAL IDEA refers to what the text is mainly
about. Central idea is NOT the topic of the text.
Central idea can most often be stated in one
sentence.
Theme
Theme is an underlying message or the
big idea of a story. This message could
tell more about human nature or life in
general. Many stories have more than
one theme.
Summaries
A summary is a short statement of
the main points (as in a book or
report)
Key People Events & Ideas
In a literary text, the people, events, and ideas all
influence one another. The same is true for an
informational text. All the elements work
together to support and clarify the central idea of
the text.
Author’s Purpose
The author's purpose describes the reason
behind why the author chose to write a
specific piece. Generally, the purpose of a
children's story is to persuade, inform,
entertain, or describe. ... Authors use
informative writing to teach their readers
something.
Point of View
When a person is telling a story, whether through
their own personal experiences or through someone
else's experiences, we know that as the point of
view of the story. ... When an author begins writing a
story, they have to decide who is going to tell their
story.
Reading Strategies
More Strategies
More Strategies
Strategies,