Primary 6

Study Guide
SA1 Term

Name:…………………..………………………………
[BLANK PAGE]
Genre

Historical Fiction: Reading/Writing Workshop

• Takes place in a real setting from history and may refer to U2W4: “Cusi’s Secret”
real people from the past.
Literature Anthology
• May include foreign words that reflect the setting. U2W4: “A Single Shard”
• Usually includes dialogue.
• May include flashbacks to earlier times in the characters’
pasts.

Lyrical Poetry: Reading/Writing Workshop

• Expresses the speaker’s thoughts or personal feelings. U2W5: “Lifelong Friends”
• Has a musical quality but does not always rhyme.
Literature Anthology
U2W5: “Maestro”

Sonnet: Reading/Writing Workshop

• Has fourteen lines and a pattern to its end rhymes. U2W5: “Ozymandias”
• Uses pairs of stressed and unstressed syllables. Literature Anthology
U2W5: “Majestic”

Biography: Reading/Writing Workshop

• The true story of a person’s life written by another U3W4: “Marian Anderson: Struggles and
person. Triumphs”
• May be about someone in the past, or someone who is Literature Anthology
alive today. U3W4: “Major Taylor”
• The author of a biography writes in the third person,
using pronouns such as he or she.
• May suppose what the subject thought or said.
• Often focuses on a certain time period or important
aspect of a subject’s life.
• May use suspense to describe an event in a subject’s life.

Informational and Persuasive Article: Reading/Writing Workshop

• Provides facts and information about a topic. U3W5: “Is Your City Green?”
• Often includes photographs to illustrate the text. Literature Anthology
• May use graphs to show relationships among data. U3W5: “Stewards of the Environment”
• May include sidebars to provide information from
differing points of view.

Unit 2 Unit 3

• Week 4 – Influences • Week 4 – Milestones

• Week 5 – Past and Present • Week 5 – A Greener Future
Text Features / Literary Element:
Dialogue: Dialogue lets characters speak from themselves.

Flashback: Flashbacks are events that happened before the current plot events.

Fictionalised Elements: Supposing what the subject thought brings her to life.

Using suspense helps the reader understand how the subject experienced a
Suspense:
challenging event.

Flowcharts: Flowcharts are diagrams that show the steps in a process.

A sidebar provides extra information beside the text. A sidebar may make a
Sidebars:
claim and provide reasons and evidence to support it.
Comprehension Skill
Point of View
To identify point of view, the reader needs to decide who is telling the story. Pronouns are an important
clue.

• When the narrator is a character in the story, the story has a first-person point of view.
• When the narrator is not a character in the story, the story has a third-person point of view.

Story: “Cusi’s Secret”

Details Point of View

“Cusi’s Secret” is told from a third-
The story is not told by one of the
person point of view.
characters.

The narrator uses third-person

pronouns “she” and “her” to tell
Cusi’s thoughts and actions.

Theme
The theme of a poem is the overall idea, or message Poem: “Lifelong Friends”
about life, that the poet or author wants the reader
Detail
to understand.
The print shop had an air of gloom.

Detail

My master was a man I feared.

Detail

When I’m forlorn, I contemplate,

The many books I helped create.

Theme

Challenging work can be fulfilling.

Main Idea and Key Details
The main idea is the most important point an author Story: “Is Your City Green?”
makes about a topic. When the main idea is not stated
Main Idea
directly, you can use key supporting details to identify
it. Many choices reduce fuel use for
transportation in the green city.
Detail
Most people in the green city prefer to use
mass transit.
Detail
Private vehicles are hybrid fuel-electric or
electric.
Detail
Vehicles burn renewable fuels.

Cause and Effect

To explain how and why things happen, authors sometimes organize texts by causes and effects.

• A cause is an event or action that makes something happen.

• An effect is what happens.

Authors usually state the cause first and then describe the effect. A biography often explains how
certain events in a person’s lifetime had an effect on later events.

Story: “Marian Anderson: Struggles and Triumphs”

Cause Effect

Marian was a talented singer as a She sang in a church and

child. elsewhere in Philadelphia.

Cause Effect

Marian experienced discrimination Fewer people asked her to sing

from U.S. critics and audiences. concerts.

Cause Effect

DAR booked white performers, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

even though they said that no resigned from the DAR in protest.
dates were available for Marian.
Literary Elements
Rhyme scheme and Meter
The stanzas, or groups of lines in a poem, often contain sound patterns.

Rhyme scheme is a sound pattern in poetry, where rhyming words are placed at the end of lines.

When I was but a lad of ten, 1 The last words in each

I joined the world of working men,
Apprentice was the name I took,
I learned the way to print a book.
2 pair of lines rhyme. If I
3 used letters to
4 represent this pattern,
each stanza has a
rhyme scheme of
AABB.

Meter is a sound pattern in poetry, where a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables are used in
lines.

The print shop had an air of gloom,
And sunlight seemed to shun the room,
My master was a man I feared,
He raged at me and pulled his beard.
1 Each line has four pairs
2 of syllables. The first
3 syllable in each pair is
4 unstressed, and the
second is stressed.
Vocabulary Strategy
Personification
Personification means attributing human characteristics to something that is not human. Personification is
a form of figurative language that is useful because it can make written descriptions more vivid, and helps
us to see ordinary things in a new way.

The print shop had an air of gloom,

And sunlight seemed to shun the room,

My master was a man I feared,

He raged at me and pulled his beard.

In the line “And sunlight seemed to shun the room”, the poet gives a human characteristic to the light. This
personification of sunlight gives me a mental image of sunlight purposely avoiding the room, the way a
person might.

Greek and Latin Suffixes

Suffixes are word parts added to the end of a word that changes the word’s meaning. Suffixes that come
from ancient Greek and Latin, are common in many English words. Knowing the meanings of common
suffixes can help you figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Suffix Origin Meaning Examples

-ion
-tion Latin the state of education ⟶ the state of educating
-sion
-ism Greek the state of realism ⟶ the state of being real
-ize Greek to make memorize ⟶ to make memories
-ous Latin full of mysterious ⟶ full of mystery
-ment Latin act of; state of measurement ⟶ act of measuring something
-nomy Greek law astronomy ⟶ the laws of the stars
Synonyms
Words that have the same or similar meanings are synonyms. As you read, you may come across a word
you don’t know. Sometimes an author will use a synonym, or another word or phrase that has the same or
a similar meaning to the unfamiliar word, as a context clue.

dire: grim reversing: turning around burdened: loaded down

explore: discover depart: leave howling: barking
stumbled: tripped emerged: appeared massive: large/big
perform: to act/ sing alarm: fear despair: hopelessness
abandon: quit quench: satisfy interfere: interrupt
survival: life spurred: encouraged accustomed: get used to
guardian: protector proclaimed: announced

Antonyms
Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings. Looking for antonyms can help you figure out the
meaning of unfamiliar words.

conserved: overharvested dwindling: increasing destroying: restoring

modern: outdated alien: native strong: weak
carefree: serious generous: selfish apart: together
tense: relaxed enemy: friend friend: enemy
energetic: lazy old: young clean: filthy
sickly: healthy large: small sink: float
nervous: relaxed happy: sad

Paragraph Clues
If you find an unfamiliar word in a story, the reader can look for clues in nearby sentences to determine
the meaning of an unfamiliar word or phrase.

When possible, use several clues to help explain the meaning of the unknown word.

Story: “Marian Anderson: Struggles and Triumphs”

“The Philadelphia Choral Society even awarded her $500 to take singing
lessons. With such advantages, she was shocked by her first experience of
racism.

I’m not sure what the word “advantages” means in the sentence above. I see that in the previous sentence
she was awarded $500. Receiving awards is valuable and helpful, so “advantages” must mean “valuable
help”. When I replace “advantages” with “valuable help”, the sentence still makes sense.
Grammar
Possessive Nouns
A possessive noun names who or what owns or has something.

Add ‘s to a singular noun to make it possessive. Add just an apostrophe (‘) to most plural nouns ending in -s
to make them possessive. Other plural nouns add ‘s.

The teachers’ cars were parked in the school’s lot.

Appositives
An appositive is a word or group of words that identifies or tells more about another nearby noun. Use
commas to set off most appositives from the rest of the sentence. You can use an appositive to combine
two sentences into one.

Sid Phillips, last year’s winner, spoke about the contest.

This year’s winner is Jada, a poet from Guam.

Ginny, my oldest cousin, knows Jada.

They went to Bickham, a summer camp, together.

Linking Verbs
Some verbs do not express action. A linking verb links the subject with a word in the predicate. This word
can be a predicate noun, which renames or identifies the subject, or a predicate adjective, which
describes the subject. Some common linking verbs are be, seem, feel, appear, become, smell, stay, and
taste.

Luke is a fine cook. His soups taste delicious.

My father is a student in a cooking class.

His food smells strange.

He was nervous about adding too much salt.

This meal seemed difficult even for a master chef.

Irregular Verbs
The past tense or past participles of irregular verbs do not add -ed.

Present Tense Past Tense Past Participle (with have)

be (am/are/is) was/were been
bring brought brought
buy bought bought
catch caught caught
come came come
do did done
draw drew drawn
drink drank drunk
eat ate eaten
give gave given
go went gone
grow grew grown
hide hid hidden
read (/rēd/) read (/rĕd/) read (/rĕd/)
ride rode ridden
run ran run
say said said
see saw seen
sell sold sold
sit sat sat
take took taken
teach taught taught
tell told told
think thought thought
write wrote written
Writing Skills
Unit 2, Week 4

Unit 2, Week 5
Unit 3, Week 4

Unit 3, Week 5
Vocabulary
Unit 2, Week 4
an advantage or gift; something that helps a One benefit of going to bed early is
benefit
person feeling rested the next day.

deftly in a skillful, nimble, clever way She deftly changed the flat tire.

The mean girls laughed with derision

derision ridicule; contempt
at the other team.

eaves the overhanding, lower edges of a roof We stood under the eaves to keep dry.

The carpenter’s expertise could be

expertise mastery of a skill or craft
seen in the fine detailing.
Sticking out your tongue shows
impudence the state of being rude, bold, or disrespectful
impudence.
My grandmother’s scrapbooks
legacy something handed down from the past
preserve a legacy of family memories.
beauty of form; a balanced grouping of parts
symmetry The design showed perfect symmetry.
on either side of a line or around a center

Unit 2, Week 5
to honor or maintain the memory of; The town put up a statue to
commemorate
celebrate commemorate its first mayor.
to think about or consider carefully for a Tonight, our family will contemplate
contemplate
period of time where to go on vacation.
The boy felt forlorn because he did not
forlorn lonely and sad, as if forsaken or forgotten
know anyone at his new school.
having a lofty, imposing, or grand aspect or The ancient trees were a majestic
majestic
style sight.
has a songlike quality and expresses the
lyric poetry
speaker’s thoughts and feelings
pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
meter
in a poem
pattern of rhymes at the end of lines in a
rhyme scheme
poem
14-line poem that expresses a single,
sonnet
complete thought
Unit 3, Week 4
adept very skilled, proficient, expert He is adept at drawing animals.

a class of people with higher social standing

The castle used to belong to the
aristocracy than others due to privileges of birth, wealth,
aristocracy.
power, or achievement
characteristic of or involving a group or The family made a collective decision
collective
gathering to get a dog.
a steady and continuous course of action, Despite struggling at first, Ty showed
perseverance
especially in spite of difficulty perseverance and succeeded.
The race was too close to know who
prevail to succeed over time; to win
would prevail.
The prominent doctor has many
prominent easily noticeable; standing out in some way
patients.
people who observe or watch something but
spectators The spectators watched the parade.
do not take part
a leader who leaves a path for others to Neil Armstrong, the first person to
trailblazer follow into new or unfamiliar territory or walk on the moon, is a trailblazer who
endeavors is admired by many people.

Unit 3, Week 5
people who support or speak in favor of a Advocates for safe neighborhoods
advocates
cause fought to save their local firehouses.
It is commonplace to see cars on a city
commonplace ordinary and unremarkable
street.
Whom will she designate as class
designate mark or point out; select
president?
We hoped our initial effort to raise
initial coming at the beginning; first
money for charity would be a success.
material that slows or prevents the transfer
insulation Insulation helps to keep houses warm.
of heat, cold, sound, or electricity
The invasive weeds ruined the flower
invasive tending to spread and take over areas
garden.
My sister has an irrational fear of
irrational not logical or sensible
insects.
Often, the optimal time for fishing is
optimal best, most satisfactory
early in the morning.