Foundational Reading Skills Vocab

Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound

Phonemic awareness

The ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words

Phonological awareness

A broad skill that features four levels of sound- word, syllable, onset-rime, & phoneme awareness

Syllable

A part of a word that contains one vowel sound

Root word

The basic part of a word that holds the meaning (base word)

Morpheme

the smallest part of a word that carries meaning.

• prefix, suffixes, & roots

Affix

a word added to the beginning of a root word (prefix) or to the end (suffix)

Inflectional ending

a group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning

High frequency word

a word that appears frequently in English texts

Sight word

a word that the reader recognizes immediately and does not have to decode

Phonological awareness

identify and manipulate sounds (hear individual letters, word parts, rhyming words, and syllables)

Letter knowledge

learn letter names and a key word for each letter

Letter/Sound Relationships

identify letter sounds and hear sounds in words

Spelling Patterns

learn common spelling patterns and make analogies between similar words

High frequency words

quickly recognize words that are commonly used in reading and writing

word meaning/ vocabulary

extend vocabulary by recognizing affixes and using them to infer the meaning of words

word structures

change letters, letter clusters, inflectional endings and larger word parts to make new words

word solving

take strategic action to problem-solve unknown words in reading and writing

Reading Fluency

ability to read with appropriate speed, accuracy, and prosody

Speed

the pace at which the reader reads the text

Accuracy

the reader’s ability to correctly pronounce words

Automaticity

the ability to read words effortlessly

Shared Reading

a reading strategy that allows a teacher to model strong reading skills, such as fluency or decoding, while students have a clear view of the text

Readers’ Theater

strategy in which a teacher directs students in a dramatic enactment of a play or book

• strategy used to improve prosody

Prosody

the reader's ability to convey expression, including using correct emphasis, punctuation, and tone, while reading aloud

Vocabulary / Vocabulary Development

the ability to effectively know and use words in their listening, speaking, reading, and writing

Choral Reading

a strategy in which students first listens to the teacher read a short passage aloud, and then the class and the teacher all read it aloud at the same time

Oral Language

system that relates sounds to meanings through communicating by word of mouth

Overgeneralization

the application of a grammar rule in a place where it doesn’t apply

• A student adds -s to make everything plural, even irregular plural nouns. "I brushed my tooths this morning."

Syllable Awareness / Syllabication / Syllable Segmentation

the ability to hear individual parts/syllables of words

Phoneme Blending

the ability to blend two sounds to make a word

• Blend together these sounds to make a word: /b/ /a/ /t/ to form bat.

Phoneme Manipulation

the ability to perform phoneme deletion, addition, and substitution.

Phoneme Substitution

the ability to substitute one phoneme for a different one

• replace the first sound in 'bug' with 'r' . Rug

Phoneme Deletion

the ability to recognize and understand a word or sound(s) that remain when a phoneme is removed.

• "What is bat without the /b/?" "at"

Phoneme Segmentation

the ability to break down a word into separate sounds, as they say and count each sound

• How many sounds are there in the word bug? /b/ /u/ /g/? There are three.

Rhyme Awareness / Rhyming

the ability first to hear words that rhyme and then to be able to produce a rhyme(s)

• “Blue” and “Flew” rhyme

Phoneme Isolation

the ability to hear and recognize the individual sounds in words

• What is the first sound you hear in dog? /d/

Vowel Digraph

two vowels that make a single vowel sound when together in a word, also known as "vowel teams"

• the "ai" in paint; the "ee" in need; the "oa" in boat

Morpheme

a combination of sounds that has meaning in speech or writing and cannot be divided into smaller grammatical parts; this includes prefixes and suffixes

• write, cat, laugh, box`

Consonant Blend

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

• In the word "blue," the letters b and l form the consonant blend, bl.

Consonant Digraph

two consonants that make a single consonant sound when together in a word

• In the word "wish," the letters s and h form the consonant digraph, sh.