Why are kids taught to use "context clues", where they guess what words mean while reading?

Question

I just heard of this ( I guess my school didn't teach it). We learned to use a dictionary while reading and look up all the words we didn't comprehend. It makes no sense to guess at meanings, when the writer specifically chose those words to communicate. Why teach kids to guess?

Answer 1

Context clues are taught so you don't have to carry around a dictionary when you read a book. It's just another learning tool. Whether or not it's a true advancement depends on how well children us the the tool. Dictionary finds were the standard then and now there something different.

Answer 2

Making predictions has been taught for years! As a teacher context clues are taught to help readers understand a story without having to use a dictionary all the time. The dictionary is still used, but its easier when reading a book to make a quick one or two word guess...then spending time reading the definition and then possibly still not getting it. In a dictionary it can often be even more confusing for a youngster as their may be 3-4 definitions. Its really just a quick way of understanding a word by looking at the surrounding sentences. You can make a quick inference and move on for more understanding.

Granted sometimes you can't make a guess and you would need a dictionary or someone who understands it to help you.

In sum, if you become more aware of the words around the difficult words you encounter in your reading, you will save your self many trips to the dictionary. You will be able to make logical guesses about the meanings of many words.

Heres an example for a second grader.

The "elated" children jumped up and down as Dad brought their new puppy to the car.

If you look at the surrounding words of the sentence you can see that elated has something to do with the kids jumping up and down as they got a new puppy. A logical guess would be that elated means excited, happy, overjoyed, etc...

The dictionary version says this:
elate- to raise the spirits of; make very proud, happy.

Now the dictionary version for this word wasn't too confusing, but I took the time to find the dictionary, look up the word, read the definition, only to find that making a context clue was the faster and smarter option. I make a logical guess and then move on to finish the story.

Check out this website where I got the sentence above from in my example.
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/palmasola/ccinfer.htm

It explains context clues, why they are used, and a quiz

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

Context Clues Definition For Kids

Answer 5

It is also a tool used to help children during end of year tests, when they will not be able to use a dictionary. Using the above example of "elated", that could very easily be a question on an end of grade test. I have seen several tests where the question would be similar to "what is the meaning of elated in the following sentence: .....". Since dictionaries are not allowed during tests, the child would have to use context clues to answer the question. This method can even help in later years, on tests such as the SAT where you have to fill in the word that best fits a sentence.

Learning from context clues is also a good way to widen vocabulary, because children remember the context instead of just memorizing a word and its definition.

Answer 6

They are taught to use clues from the text because in real life when you are either doing an exam or in business. You will get to use them.
Here is a way to use them:
He measured the circumference of the circle.
The context clue is "of the circle", it means that you know circumfrerence is related with circle.
If you have kids, read more and teach them use what they read before to guess the meanings of these words.

Answer 7

I'm guessing that sometimes you have to be able to "read into things" or "between the lines", learning context clues can benefit a person in more aspects than reading, especially if a dictionary isn't readily available. It's like when you read the sentence, "I read that book yesterday", "yesterday" is a clue that makes you know that the verb is past tense and should be "red" instead of "reed". I'm confusing myself so I guess I'm probably confusing you too, sorry!

Answer 8

Dear Klepto, God did all the work in your working theories. He did not guess! His Creation goes beyond all understanding, and yet, He gave us the abilities to understand what we can, and the free will to do so. To reach out and explore. Yes, we have come far, but we have even further to go. The closer we get to the Creator the more we will understand. I don't believe that science and creation were ever meant to be dueling rivals. I believe that they are parts of the same tapestry. A bigger picture. What was the Big Bang Theory? Merely science? What we know as an event that is explorable and measurable. No! To fully understand it we must extend ourselves beyond "an event". In the beginning there was void, then God created the Light. Void- space? Light- Big Bang? Perhaps, perhaps not. Ask yourself "Who lit the fuse"?

Answer 9

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