Glossary

Reading Terms

Blending - Combining sounds rapidly, to accurately represent the word

Comprehension - Understanding what one is reading, the ultimate goal of all reading activity.

Decoding - When students decode a word, they translate how a word is spelled into the represented speech sounds. Decoding involves reading.

Encoding - When students translate the sounds of a word into the corresponding sequence of letters. Encoding is another term for spelling.

Fluency/Automaticity - Reading accurately, at adequate speed, with prosody, and without conscious effort to decode.

Grapheme - A grapheme is a written letter or letters that represent a single speech sound. An example of a single letter grapheme is the letter c in cat representing the sound /k/. A multiple letter grapheme is the letters ck in duck representing the sound /k/.

Letter-Sound Correspondence - The matching of an oral sound to its corresponding letter or group of letters.

Morpheme - The smallest meaningful unit of language. For instance, read has one morpheme. Readable has two morphemes, read+able. Unreadable has three morphemes, un+read+able.

Phoneme - A single speech sound; words are formed by combining phonemes. For instance: by has two phonemes/sounds, dog has three phonemes, ship also has three phonemes because sh makes one sound, crab has four phonemes because you can hear four sounds.

Phonemic Awareness (PA) - The ability to notice, think about, or manipulate the individual phonemes (sounds) in words. It is the ability to understand that sounds in spoken language work together to make words. This term is used to refer to the highest level of phonological awareness: awareness of individual phonemes in words. Watch a short PA exercise here:  https://youtu.be/UUqy9g2tG_g?si=yC6mHPyfCcv8DPHP

Print Awareness - Print awareness is basic knowledge about print and how it is typically organized on a page. For example: print conveys meaning, print is read left to right, print corresponds to speech, and words are separated by spaces.

Prosody - Expression while orally reading. Includes pitch, tone, volume, emphasis, and rhythm in oral reading.

Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) - Measures a student’s ability to quickly retrieve the name of a symbol, such as a series of familiar pictured items, colors, letters or numbers. RAN is seen as an indicator of dyslexia.

Segmenting - Separating a word into smaller units, such as syllables, onsets, rimes, or individual phonemes.

Teaching Terms

Background knowledge - A key predictor for reading comprehension, uses the information a student knows about a topic and aids in connecting new information the student is learning.

Academic Language - In contrast with social language, academic language is used in school lessons, texts, and tests.

Explicit, Direct, Systematic, Sequential Instruction - Each of these words has its unique meaning; however, when combined, they have come to be accepted as the Structured Literacy approach to teaching reading and writing.

Morphology - Knowledge about meaningful word parts, such as roots, prefixes, and suffixes.  E.g.: previewed = pre – view - ed

Multisensory / VAKT - An instructional teaching method incorporating systematic, cumulative, explicit, and sequential approaches while having students use multiple senses simultaneously— also known as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile (VAKT).

Orthographic memory - Readers map the sounds (phonemes) of words they already know to the letters in a word and permanently store the sounds for immediate word and meaning retrieval. This is required for fluent reading with prosody.

Orton-Gillingham Method - “The Orton-Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing, and spelling do not come easily to individuals, such as those with dyslexia.  It is most properly understood and practiced as an approach, not a method, program, or system.” https://www.ortonacademy.org/resources/what-is-the-orton-gillingham-approach/

Phonics - A method of teaching reading and writing that develops students’ phonemic awareness and ability to manipulate the sounds (phonemes) in words. Phonics teaches the correspondence between phonemes and the spelling patterns (graphemes) that represent them.

Phonological Awareness - A student’s ability to recognize the sound structure of spoken words. Three levels include identifying words that rhyme, segmenting and blending words, and, most complex and last to develop — manipulating individual phonemes within a word (phonemic awareness).

Scaffold - To scaffold, a teacher designs temporary supports into their instruction to help students succeed with a concept before being able to complete it independently.  For example, start with smaller or simpler skills and build progressively, or provide temporary visual aids.

Scope and Sequence - “A scope and sequence explains what content a curriculum is going to cover and when that content should be taught. A good scope and sequence is a vital component of evidence-based instructional materials, as it ensures that skills are taught explicitly to mastery and that instruction progresses systematically from less complex to more complex content” https://irrc.education.uiowa.edu/blog/2023/03/scope-and-sequence-what-it-and-how-do-educators-use-it-guide-instruction

Syntax - Ability to study and use grammar - the system and arrangement of words, phrases, and clauses that make up a sentence. The most basic syntax follows this formula: subject + verb + direct object. E.g.: Trees need sunlight.

Whole-word, whole-language teaching method - “A method of teaching reading in which reading is combined with listening, speaking, and writing practice, and literature is used to decode words in context.” https://www.dictionary.com/browse/whole-language