MTEL FoR Universal Primer 190425

Orthographic Mapping

Storing words by linking sounds to spelling.

Phonemic Awareness

Hearing and working with individual sounds.

Phonological Awareness

Recognizing larger sound structures like syllables and rhymes.

Alphabetic Principle

Knowing letters represent sounds.

Morphological Awareness

Understanding word parts like roots and affixes.

Allomorphs of -ed

-ed sounds: /t/, /d/, or /ɪd/.

Prosody

Reading with expression and phrasing.

Syllable Types

Closed, open, VCe, vowel team, r-controlled, C-le.

Decodable Text

Text that matches known phonics rules.

Running Record

Tool for assessing oral reading.

Sight Word

A word read instantly on sight.

Derivational Morphology

How affixes change meaning or grammar.

Criterion-Referenced Test

Measures skill mastery.

Norm-Referenced Test

Compares student to a peer group.

Inferential Comprehension

Reading between the lines.

Evaluative Comprehension

Judging a text’s quality or argument.

Text Structure

How a text is organized.

Sound Wall

Visual tool for phoneme-grapheme links.

Onset and Rime

First sound(s) and vowel + rest.

Decoding

Sounding out written words.

Encoding

Spelling spoken words.

Explicit Instruction

Direct, clear teaching of a skill.

Systematic Instruction

Follows a planned sequence.

Zone of Proximal Development

Skills a student can do with help.

Background Knowledge

What a student already knows.

Cloze Reading

Fill-in-the-blank comprehension task.

Fluency

Reading smoothly and accurately.

Automaticity

Effortless word recognition.

Segmenting

Breaking a word into sounds.

Blending

Combining sounds into a word.

Graphic Organizer

Visual aid to structure ideas.

Word Sort

Sorting words by features or patterns.

Scaffolding

Support to help student learn.

Metacognition

Thinking about one’s thinking.

Choral Reading

Group reading aloud together.

Echo Reading

Teacher reads, student repeats.

Reader's Theater

Script reading for fluency. Improves prosody.

R-controlled Vowel

Vowel followed by 'r' changes sound.

Word Family

Words with the same rime.

Digraph

Two letters, one sound.

Blend

Two+ sounds said together.

Silent E

VCe pattern makes vowel long.

Vowel Team

Two vowels make one sound.

Prefix

Beginning of word, adds meaning.

Suffix

Ending of word, changes function.

Fluent but slow reader

Use repeated and echo reading.

Reader drops suffixes

Teach suffix meaning and sound.

Recalls details, not main idea

Model summarizing and use organizers.

Can't infer feelings

Teach inference with context clues.

Reads without prosody

Model and practice expression.

Misreads multisyllabic words

Teach syllable types and chunking.

Guesses unfamiliar words

Practice decoding and word analysis.

Struggles with comprehension

Teach monitoring and visualization.

Swaps short vowels

Use minimal pairs and sorts.

Reads fine, but no understanding

Model think-alouds, retelling.

Struggles with vowel teams

Teach vowel patterns explicitly.

EL struggles with decoding

Teach contrastive phonics and sounds.

Misses digraphs and blends

Sort and build with anchor charts.

Can decode but not fluent

Build automaticity with rereading.

Reads 'sed' for 'said'

Orthographic mapping and irregular word drills.

Skips or adds sounds

Elkonin boxes and phoneme work.

Can't summarize

Use sentence frames and story maps.

Struggles with academic words

Teach roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

Overcorrects while reading

Build fluency with phrase practice.

Confuses look-alike words

Focus on visual word features.

EL has strong speaking, weak reading

Phonics + oral language bridge work.

Low vocab, low comprehension

Teach Tier 2 words in context.

Decodes but can't spell

Connect encoding with phonics rules.

Struggles with text structure

Teach compare, cause/effect explicitly.

Lacks decoding of long words

Teach morphological chunking.

Term

Definition

Elkonin Boxes

Used to segment words into phonemes.

Morpheme Mapping

Breaks words into roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

Syllable Sorts

Categorizes words by syllable types.

Minimal Pairs

Used to teach differences between similar sounds. Words differing by one sound.

Word Chains

Teaches phoneme manipulation by changing one sound at a time.

Text Structure Organizers

Visual tools for understanding nonfiction organization.

Signal Word Charts

Teaches cues for text structures like cause/effect or compare.

Think-Aloud Modeling

Demonstrates comprehension processes verbally.

Progress Monitoring Probes

Tracks student progress in specific skills.

Orthographic Mapping Activities

Links phonemes to graphemes for memory storage.

Word Ladders

Change one letter at a time to build decoding and spelling skills.

Concept of Word

Match speech to print using finger-point reading or poems.

Frayer Model

Deepen vocabulary with definition, traits, examples, non-examples.

Closed Word Sort

Sort words into teacher-given categories (e.g., vowel teams).

Open Word Sort

Sort words by patterns the student discovers (e.g., endings).

Language Experience Approach

Turn student speech into readable text; builds print awareness.

Reciprocal Teaching

Students take turns using predict, question, clarify, summarize.

Think-Pair-Share

Think alone, talk with a partner, then share aloud; builds comprehension.

Interactive Read-Aloud

Teacher reads and models comprehension with stopping points.

Guided Reading

Small group instruction with leveled texts and strategy support.