Phonics and Fluency

digraph

two letters that make one sound

Vowel digraphs

two vowels that make a single vowel sound. (ee, ea, ai)

Consonant Digraphs

Two consonants that make a single consonant sound when together in a word (sh, wh, ph)

consonant blends

Consonant blends are two or more consonants that blend together when decoded, but each retains its own sound.

Diphthongs

One vowel sound made by the combination of two vowel sounds; words with diphthongs require a glide between the two sounds (au, aw, oy)

Inflectional Endings

A suffix added to a word that changes its grammatical function, but does not change its meaning (-ed, -er, -est, -ing, -s)

Pre-Alphabetic Stage

no working knowledge of the alphabetic system

These students require direct instruction on letter/sound relationships and are likely to need practice with foundational reading skills, such as phonemic awareness, print concepts, etc.

Partial-Alphabetic Stage

some working knowledge of the alphabetic system.

Similar to the pre-alphabetic stage, these students will also benefit from predictable, repetitive text, specifically the types of books that repeat the same sentence or phrases but do have one or two-word variations from page to page.

Full-Alphabetic Stage

full working knowledge of the alphabetic system

These students should be reading books with simple, recognizable syllable patterns to reinforce their decoding skills.

Consolidated-Alphabetic Stage

Students in this stage read by using memorized letter chunks, affixes, and syllables to read words.

These students should be reading books that contain longer, multi-syllable words. Their improved ability to use structural analysis will help with these more complex words.

Automatic Stage

Students at this stage are largely no longer consciously breaking down or decoding most words.

Closed syllable

syllable that has a short vowel sound spelled with one vowel letter and ends in one or more consonants, most common

ex. hot, help, ad-mit, bas-ket

Open syllable

syllable spelled with a single vowel letter that ends with its long vowel sound

ex. me, a-gent, ro-bot, re-act

Vowel-Consonant-e (VCe)

syllable with a long vowel sound made from one vowel + one consonant + silent e

ex. name, mice, com-plete, trom-bone

Vowel Team (Digraphs and Diphthongs)

syllable with a long, short, or unique vowel sound that uses 2-4 letters to spell the vowel sound

ex. south, taught, aw-ful, team-mate

Final Stable

syllable made with a consonant + l + silent e

ex. bu-gle, can-dle, cir-cle, tram-ple

R-Controlled

syllable with a vowel followed by the letter r; the r changes the way the vowel is pronounced

ex. tir, gui-tar, mo-ther, or-ange

Reading fluency measured by

Accuracy, Prosody, Speed

Prosody

the reader's ability to convey expression (expression, emphasis, punctuation, tone)

teaching accuracy

Supervised Oral Reading, Audio- and Video-Assisted Reading, Partner and Small Group Reading

teaching prosody

Teacher-Modeled Reading, Readers' Theater, Choral Reading

teaching rate/speed

Rereading Familiar Text, Independent Reading, Timed Repeated Reading

morphemic analysis/structural analysis/word analysis

uses meaningful word parts, known as morphemes, as clues to determine a word's meaning.