Found of Reading

1st level of Phonemic awareness

Hearing rhymes and alliteration.

2nd level of Phonemic Awareness

Compare and contrast sounds of words from rhyme and alliteration.

3rd level of Phonemic Awareness

Ability to blend and split syllables.

Automaticity

fluent processing of information that requires little effort or attention, as sign-word recognition.

Background Knowledge

The knoweldge and understandings of the world that sutdents have acquired through their everyday experiences.

Choral Reading

Two or more individuals reading aloud from the same text - helps with oral reading fluency

Closed Syllable

Syllable which ends in one of more consonants.

Consonant Blend

In a syllable, a sequence of two or more distinguishable consonant sounds before or after a vowel sound. (Examples: cl, bl, st, or, tr)

Consonant Digraph

Two consonants that represent one speech sound. (Examples: ch, sh, th)

Constructing Meaning

A process of making sense of text, by connecting one's own knowledge with the print readers "build" an understanding of what the text is about.

Context Cues

Information from the surrounding text that helps identify or gives meaning ot a specific word or phrase, ex. "yesterday I read the book." The words surrounding "read" helps us know how to pronounce it.

Conventions of Print

The understandings an individual has about the rules or accepted practices that govern the use of print, and the use of written language. Ex. reading left to right, top to bottom, words are made of letters, use of spaces between words, upper case letters, spelling patterns, etc.

Conventional Spelling

Spelling that is in the standard or correct form for written documents.

Cueing System

Any of the various sources of information that may aid identification of a word such as: graphophonics, semantic and syntactic information.

Cultural Load

Relationship between language and culture. Can help or hinder learning.

Cumulative/Pattern Story

A story that has many elements or language patterns repeated until the climax, a predictable text.

CvCe

Vowels are long or say their name. (Examples, late, gate, side)

Decoding

Analyzing text in order to identify and undertand individual words. Figuring out the written code.

Diphthong

A vowel sound produced when the tongue moves or glides from one vowel sound toward another vowel or semivowel sound in the same syllable. Examples: coin, house)

Echo Reading

Reading of a text where an adult or experienced reader reads a line of text, and the student repeats the line. Good technique for Emergent and Early Readers to build fluency and expression.

Emergent Reader

A reader who is developing an association of print with meaning. The early stages of learning ot read.

Fluency

The clear, easy, written or spoken expression of ideas. Can be described as having two parts, automaticity and accuracy.

Grammar Conventions

The rules, or accepted practices, that govern the use of grammar in written or spoken language.

Grapheme

A letter

Graphophonics (Phonics)

Referring to the relationship between the letters and the letter sounds of a language.

Guided Reading

A method by which an experienced reader provides structure and purpose, and models strategies in order to move beginning readers towards independence.

Homophone

Words that are spelled differently but pronounced the same.

Inference

Drawing meaning from a combination of clues in the text without explicit reference to the text. "The sky was dark and cloudy so I took my umbrella." We can infer that it might rain even though the text does not say that.

Informal Reading Inventory

Tests grade-level passages from which students real aloud. Grade level is determined in a variety of ways including: frequency, complexity, number of syllables, decoding)

Invented Speling

An attempt by beginning writers to spell a word when the standard spelling is unknown, using whatever knowledge of sounds or visual patterns the writer has.

Inversions

Reversal or "flipping" of letters either horizontally or vertically, ex. p-d, or d-b, m-w, u-n. Not unusual for Emergent writers or readers.

KWL Chart

(Know, Want to know, Learned). A Pre-reading or during reading activity to support understanding in which adult and child develop a chart organized in these 3 columns.

Language Experience Approach

A method of teaching reading by using the reader's own dictated language.

Language Structure

The organization of words (both spoken and written) into meaningful segments (phrases or sentences) using conventions of grammar and syntax.

Letter Recognition

The identification of individual letters by name and/or sound in a variety of contexts

Letter/Sound Association

Making a connection between individual letters and the sounds they represent (graphophonics).

Linguistic Approach

A reading approach based on highly regular spelling patterns. Such as: Nat the cat sat on the mat.

Miscue

Any substitution of a word in a text that a reader makes.

Miscue Analysis

An examination of reading errors or substitutions (miscues) as the basis for determining the strengths and weaknesses of students' reading skills.

Modeled Reading

An experienced readers' oral reading of a text to aid students in learning strategies, understanding intonation an dexpression, and hte use of punctuation, among other aspects of reading.

Morpheme

A meaningful linguistic unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful elements. An important part of structural analysis. (Example: cat, three sounds, one meaningful unit, thus one morpheme. cats, two morphemes, (s) counts as a meaningful element)

Onset

The consonant preceding the vowel of a syllable.

Open Syllable

Syllable which ends in a vowel sound rather than a consonant.

Phonemic Awareness

Awareness of the sound system of spoken language including individual sounds, rhyming, components of words, etc.

Phonics

The letter/sound relationships in language, and also the relationship of spelling patterns to sound patterns.

Phonics Approach

Teaching reading and spelling in a way tha tstresses the connection between letters and the sounds they represent, teaches the dissection of words into parts and blending the sounds together again. Phonics can be taught directly or can be incorporated in ongoing reading and writing.

Picture Cues

Use of images that accompany and reflect the content of a text to help readers figure out words and understand the meaning of text.

Picture Walk

A pre-reading strategy: an examination of the text looking at pictures to gain an understanding of hte story and to illicit story related language in advance.

Prereading Strategies

Activities that take place just before reading, like reviewing a book cover or looking at the pictures, predicting, and formulating questions; these strategies provide students with valuable information about the text and prepare them for reading.

R Controlled Vowels

Vowels that change their sound when followed by the letter R (Examples: car, her, sir, for, fur)

Reversals

The result of reversing the order of letters in a word (tap/pat) or confusing similar letters such as d-b, or writing letters backwards. Not uncommon with Emergent readers and writers.

Rime

A vowel and any following consonants of a syllable.

Schwa

The midcentral vowel in an unaccented or unstressed syllable. (Examples, pizza, martha, tion)

Self Monitoring

Paying attention to one's own reading process while reading, and taking steps to reread or make corrections as needed to make sense of the text.

Semantics

The study of the meaning in language, the analysis of the meanings of words, phrases, sentences.

Shared Reading

When children are involved in reading a text with an adult in such a way that the adult models strategies and concepts such as predicting and noticing letter patterns. Helpful with very early readers in developing concepts about print such as "word" and directionality.

Sight Word

A word that is immediately recognized as a whole and does not require word analysis for identification.

Sounding Out

Using phonics to figure out words.

Story/Text Structure

A set of conventions tha tgovern different kinds of texts such as characters, plot, settings, or in an informational text, comparison and contrast.

Syllable

In phonology, a minimal unit of sequential speech sounds comprised of a vowel sound or a vowel-consonant combination.

Syntax

the pattern or structure of word order in sentences, clauses and phrases, the grammatical rules that govern language.

Trade Book

A book published and made available, for sale, to the general public.

Visual Information

Information that is accessed through visual means such as the size and shape of a word, format, pictures, diagrams, etc.

The Writing Process

A view of teaching writing as an ongoing process involving several steps such as planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing.

Word Analysis/Word Attack Strategies

The process of using strategies to figure out or decode unfamiliar words.

Word Families

A group of words that share a common feature or pattern, for example: stay, play, day, hay are all part of the ay family, and stick, stop, or stuff are part of the st family.

Literal comprehension

Reading comprehension strategy

Inferential comprehension

Reading comprehension strategy relating background knowledge to what is read or applying knowledge about text structure to aid comprehension.

engagement of schema

Reading comprehension strategy employing already acquired knowledge to build understanding

Word Identification strategies

Context cues, phonics, analysis of word structure, and identification of sight words.

Reading Comprehension strategies

Literal comprehension, inferential comprehension, self monitoring, and engagement of schema.

Phonemic Awareness

The ability to hear, identify,and manipulate the individual sounds, phonemes, in oral language.

The Big 5

the five most important areas of reading instruction; children should be exposed to them daily.
1. Phonemic Awareness
2. Phonics
3. Fluency
4. Vocabulary
5. Text Comprehension

Phoneme

the smallest distinctive sound unit; they signal a difference in meaning
i.e. /v/ and /b/ signify a difference between vote and boat

Grapheme

A written representation of a sound using one or more letters.

Phonics

The relationship between letters and sounds fundamental in beginning reading.

Syllable

Word part that contains a vowel or, in spoken language, a vowel sound

Onset

the initial consonant sound of a syllable
for example, the onset of bag is b-
the onset of swim is sw-

Rime

Part of the syllable that contains the vowel and all that follows it
for example, the rime of bag is -ag
the rime of swim is -im

Phoneme Isolation

recognizing individual sounds in a word
i.e. 1st sound in van is /v/

Phoneme Identity

recognizing the same sounds in different words
i.e. fun, fall, fix all have the same /f/ sound

Phoneme Categorization

recognizing the word in a set of three or four words that has the "odd" sound
i.e. out of bus, bun, rug, rug does not belong

Phoneme Blending

combining separately spoken phonemes of form a word
i.e. /b/ /i/ /g/ is big

Phoneme Segmentation

breaking a word into it's separate sounds
i.e. /g/ /r/ /a/ /b/ is grab

Phoneme Deletion

recognizing the word that remains when a phoneme is removed from another word
i.e. smile without /s/ is mile

Phoneme Addition

making a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word
i.e. adding /s/ to park to make spark

Phoneme Substitution

adding a phoneme to an existing word
i.e. bug...change /g/ to /n/ to make bun

Phoneme Manipulation

working with phonemes in words; includes working with onsets and rimes, deleting phonemes from words, adding phonemes to words, substituting one phoneme for another to make a new word, blending phonemes to make words, and segmenting words into phonemes.

The most effective way to teach phonemic awareness

Small group instruction; students benefit from listening to their classmates respond and receive feedback from the teacher

The Alphabetic Principle

Understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds.

Long Vowels

Say their name

Short Vowels

the vowel sounds in cat, bed, big, hop and cut.

Onsets and Rimes

Occur in a single syllable

Phonograms

rimes that have the same spelling
i.e. -at, -ool, -ull

Word Families

words that share the same phonogram
i.e. phonogram: -at
word family: bat, cat, mat, hat, sat

Diagraphs

combination of sounds that make a unique sound, unlike the sound made by any of the letters in the diagraph
i.e. ph in phone and sh in share, ph in diagraph

Diphthongs

Glided sounds made by such vowel combinations as oi in oil and oy in boy

Beginning, medial, final

refers to the locations of phonemes

Implicit (Indirect) Teaching of Phonemic Awareness

the use of books with rhymes and wordplay, songs, chants, and games

Explicit (Direct) Teaching of Phonemic Awareness

lessons with the stated objective of developing phonemic awareness