STAAR Reading Vocabulary

This text structure shows similarities and differences between things, people, concepts, or ideas.

• cause & effect

• compare & contrast

• problem/solution

• chronological order

The message or lesson the author wants the reader to understand.

• main idea

• conflict

• theme

• resolution

The words that are spoken by characters in a story or actors in a play.

• dialogue

• flashback

• imagery

• foreshadowing

A group of lines in a poem

• paragraph

• sentence

• lyrics

• stanza

Instructions that tell actors what to do in a play.

• dialogue

• props

• stage directions

• scenes

It was so cold, even the polar bears were wearing jackets.

• idiom

• hyperbole

• alliteration

• simile

I saw five fish fly past.

• onomatopoeia

• metaphor

• simile

• alliteration

the high point in a story; an important change takes place

• falling action

• climax/turning point

• resolution

• rising action

Ideas that help support the main idea

• theme

• summary

• conflict

• details

The story of a person's entire life written by that person.

• biography

• autobiography

• memoir

• realistic fiction