Context Clues Task Cards

About this resource

Looking for context clues task cards that a second, third or fourth grader can actually use? This set has 32 numbered cards. Each card is a one or two sentence story with one underlined word and three choices, and only one meaning fits the sentence. Eight cards print on a page, edge to edge, so you cut a few straight lines and laminate. Students answer on a recording sheet: write the word, write the clue that helped, check A, B or C. Print it, or type into it.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (25 pages)

• 32 context clues task cards spread over four card sheets, 8 cards each, each 3.7 by 2.4 inches. One underlined word, three multiple-choice meanings and a small picture of something in the story on every card (the picture never gives the answer away). Invented sentences, no brands.
• Four kinds of clues are mixed: 9 cards where the sentence says it another way, 3 that name an opposite, 3 that give examples and 17 that tell what is happening in the story.
• 3 supports marked by a small shape on each card: 10 circle cards that point straight at the clue, 12 square cards that are the standard task, 10 triangle cards that need a little more thinking.
• 2 recording sheets (16 cards each): the word, the clue that helped, and A B C check boxes
• 1 clue detective poster: 4 steps (read, find, look, check) and 4 kinds of clues, each with an example
• 1 Clue Hunt page: pick 4 cards, write the clue words, and say the meaning in your own words
• 1 Write Your Own page: a bank of 6 new words, a sentence with a clue, and a trade with a partner
• 9 student pages in 5 kinds of student page, each (except the cards) with a "My name" line and one short instruction with a picture
• 2 answer key pages: the right letter and meaning, the clue words and the kind of clue for all 32 cards
• Teacher Notes with a five-day way to use the set, and ways to use the cards in a center, a small group or a Scoot game
• 1 tracker, 1 whole-class progress grid, 1 team note, 1 family page
• 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (17 starters in 6 groups), 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here and a how-to-read-a-card page

The Answers

The right answer is A on 11 cards, B on 11 cards and C on 10 cards, and it is never the same letter three cards in a row. Every wrong choice is clearly wrong once you read the sentence. The key shows the clue words that give the meaning away, so you can check a child's thinking and not only the letter.

How A Student Uses It

1. Read the clue detective poster together.

2. Take a card. Read the sentence. Find the underlined word.

3. Look for clue words near it, then pick A, B or C.

4. Write the word and the clue on the recording sheet. Check with the key.

Built For The Student Holding The Page

Big type, a "My name" line, one short instruction with a small picture cue, a scalloped border and a clue detective with a magnifying glass. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult: the keys and the tracker are on separate teacher pages. The file prints clean in black and white.

Invented Examples

Every name and sentence in the file is made up for practice and says so. No real child, brand or place appears. The tracker is a working paper with a blank line for your own standard.

Type In, Or Print

The name line, every word line, clue line and check box on the recording sheets and the Clue Hunt and Write Your Own pages are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. The same goes for the tracker, the class grid, the team note and the family page. The 32 cards are meant to be printed and cut. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Second, third and fourth grade teachers, special education and resource rooms working on vocabulary and reading comprehension, co-taught classes, tutors, and substitutes who need a set that is ready to hand out.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A context clues card set with the record-keeping around it. It is not a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file.

If You Want More

More vocabulary practice for the same students: Context Clues Vocabulary in Context Progress Monitoring Probes, Multiple Meaning Words Homographs Progress Monitoring Probes and Antonyms and Opposites Picture Cards.