Your FREE CTCE Flashcards 2026 – 100+ Cards

The broad ability to hear and manipulate the sound structure of spoken language — words, syllables, onset-rime, and phonemes — entirely by ear, without print.

The narrowest level of phonological awareness: hearing, identifying, and manipulating individual phonemes; the strongest early predictor of reading success.

The smallest unit of sound in a spoken language that can change a word's meaning, such as /b/ in bat versus /c/ in cat.

A letter or group of letters that represents a single phoneme, such as 'sh' in ship or 'igh' in night.

The understanding that letters and letter patterns (graphemes) represent the sounds of spoken language (phonemes) in a systematic, predictable way.

Instruction in the systematic relationships between graphemes and phonemes so students can decode (read) and encode (spell) words.

Translating printed words into speech by applying letter-sound knowledge; the word-recognition side of reading.

The reverse of decoding — translating spoken sounds into written letters; spelling.

The initial consonant sound(s) of a syllable before the vowel, such as /str/ in 'strap'.

The vowel and any consonants that follow it within a syllable, such as /ap/ in 'strap'.

Combining individual spoken sounds into a word (/c/ /a/ /t/ → 'cat'); a core phonemic-awareness skill tied to decoding.

Breaking a spoken word into its individual sounds ('cat' → /c/ /a/ /t/); a core phonemic-awareness skill tied to spelling.

Removing a sound from a spoken word to make a new word (say 'smile' without /s/ → 'mile'); an advanced phonemic-awareness skill.

A unit of pronunciation containing one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants; the basis of the six syllable types.

A syllable ending in a consonant with a single short vowel (cat, napkin); the most common syllable type.

A syllable ending in a vowel, which is usually long (go, hi, pa-per).

A vowel-consonant-silent-e pattern where the final 'e' makes the preceding vowel long (cake, hope) — the 'magic e'.

A syllable where two vowels together spell one vowel sound (rain, boat, week) — digraphs and diphthongs.

A vowel followed by /r/ that makes a sound neither long nor short (car, bird, hurt) — the 'bossy r'.

A final stable syllable of a consonant plus -le (table, little, candle).

Two letters that together represent one phoneme (sh, ch, th, wh, ck).

Two or three consonants whose individual sounds are each heard (bl, str, mp) — unlike a digraph, which is one sound.

The smallest unit of meaning in a language — a root, prefix, or suffix (un-, happy, -ness).

The study of how morphemes combine to form words; supports decoding and the meaning of longer words.

A language's writing system — its spelling rules and conventions for representing spoken sounds in print.

Words a reader recognizes instantly without sounding them out, including high-frequency and irregularly spelled words.

The most common words in print (the, of, and, said); taught for instant recognition because they appear constantly.

Early understandings about how print works: it carries meaning, is read left-to-right and top-to-bottom, and has features like words, letters, and spaces.

Recognizing that print carries meaning and has specific functions — a foundational pre-reading concept.

Reading text with accuracy, an appropriate rate, and prosody (expression); the bridge between decoding and comprehension.

Fast, effortless, accurate word recognition that frees a reader's limited attention to focus on meaning.

The rhythm, stress, phrasing, and intonation of oral reading — reading 'with expression' that reflects comprehension.

Re-reading the same text several times with feedback to build fluency; a research-based fluency method.

Reading aloud with a teacher who provides modeling and feedback; an effective way to build fluency, per the National Reading Panel.

An explicit, systematic, cumulative approach that directly teaches language structure (phonology, sound-symbol, syllables, morphology, syntax, semantics).

Phonics taught in a planned, cumulative scope and sequence from simpler to more complex patterns — more effective than incidental phonics.

Teaching that simultaneously uses visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways (e.g., Orton-Gillingham) to reinforce learning.

Splitting a syllable into its onset and rime (/c/ + /at/); a phonological-awareness level between syllables and phonemes.

The matching of a letter or letter pattern to its sound; the core mechanic of phonics and the alphabetic principle.

In the Simple View / Reading Rope, the decoding side — phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition — that becomes increasingly automatic.

Reading comprehension is the product of decoding and language comprehension (RC = D × LC); if either factor is near zero, comprehension collapses.

Understanding spoken and written language through vocabulary, background knowledge, syntax, and verbal reasoning — one strand of the Simple View.

The active, constructive process of building meaning from text by integrating textual information with background knowledge — the goal of reading.

Knowledge of word meanings and strategies to learn new words; a major driver of reading comprehension.

Common, everyday conversational words most students already know (dog, run, happy).

High-utility academic words that recur across many texts (analyze, reluctant); the priority for explicit vocabulary instruction.

Low-frequency, domain-specific words (photosynthesis, isotope) best taught within a content area.

Information in surrounding text that helps a reader infer the meaning of an unfamiliar word — a key word-learning strategy.

What a reader already knows about a topic; it supports inference and is itself a comprehension strategy.

The view that readers comprehend by activating organized mental structures of prior knowledge and integrating new text into them.

A conclusion drawn by combining text clues with background knowledge — reading 'between the lines'.

Understanding information stated directly in the text — the 'right there' level of comprehension.

Reading between the lines to understand what the author implies but does not state directly.

The critical level — judging and reacting to a text by assessing the author's purpose, bias, or argument.

How an author organizes ideas — cause-effect, compare-contrast, problem-solution, sequence, description; knowing it aids comprehension.

Story-structured text organized by setting, characters, plot, problem, and resolution (literary text).

Informational text that explains or informs, organized by structures like cause-effect or compare-contrast.

The metacognitive habit of noticing when meaning breaks down and using a fix-up strategy (reread, ask, look back).

Condensing a text to its main ideas and key details; a research-based comprehension strategy.

Generating and answering questions about a text; Question-Answer Relationships teach where answers come from (in the text vs. in your head).

Forming mental images while reading to deepen understanding and retention — a comprehension strategy.

Using text clues and prior knowledge to anticipate what comes next, then confirming or revising while reading.

Calling up what a reader already knows about a topic before reading to support comprehension.

A visual tool (web, Venn diagram, story map) that helps students organize information and see text structure.

The rules governing how words combine into phrases and sentences; syntactic awareness helps readers parse meaning.

Sensitivity to the grammatical structure of sentences, which helps readers anticipate words and comprehend.

Meaning-based information a reader uses to make sense of text — does this word make sense here?

Using roots and affixes to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word — a vocabulary strategy (e.g., 'unhappiness').

An awareness of and interest in words and their meanings that motivates vocabulary growth.

A structured comprehension routine in which students take turns leading predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing.

A brief, first-pass measure given to all students to flag who may be at risk; it identifies, it does not diagnose.

An in-depth measure given to flagged students to pinpoint the specific skill deficit so instruction can target it.

Ongoing assessment used to guide instruction while learning is happening — assessment FOR learning.

Assessment that evaluates learning after it has occurred against a standard — assessment OF learning.

Frequent, brief assessment (often curriculum-based measurement) that tracks growth and checks whether instruction is working.

Brief, standardized measures of progress in basic skills, given frequently to graph growth toward a goal.

A coded record of a student's oral reading used to set a reading level and analyze miscue patterns.

A deviation from the printed text during oral reading — a substitution, omission, insertion, or self-correction — analyzed for cueing systems.

Examining a reader's errors to see whether they over-rely on graphophonic, syntactic, or semantic cues.

An individually administered assessment that establishes a student's independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels.

Text a student reads with about 95–100% accuracy and strong comprehension — easy enough to read alone.

Text a student reads with about 90–94% accuracy — challenging but manageable with teacher support; the level for instruction.

Text a student reads below about 90% accuracy with poor comprehension — too hard for productive reading.

The percentage of words read correctly in a passage, used to set a student's reading level on a running record.

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills — a widely used set of brief measures for screening and progress monitoring.

Tailoring content, process, and product to students' varied readiness, interests, and needs, usually through flexible grouping.

Grouping students by current need based on data and regrouping as needs change — not fixed ability tracks.

A framework of increasingly intensive instruction — strong core (Tier 1), targeted (Tier 2), and intensive (Tier 3) intervention.

High-quality, research-based reading instruction provided to all students in the general classroom.

Targeted, small-group instruction for students who need more than core to catch up.

Intensive, often individualized instruction for students with significant, persistent skill gaps.

Vygotsky's gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can do with guidance; the target zone for instruction.

Temporary instructional support gradually removed as a student gains proficiency, moving them through the ZPD.

The 'I do, we do, you do' instructional model that shifts work from teacher modeling to independent student practice.

Text matched to a student's reading level so instruction targets the right challenge — neither too easy nor frustrating.

A test that compares a student's performance to a representative norm group (e.g., percentile rank).

A test that measures performance against a fixed standard or criterion, not against other students.

The degree to which an assessment measures what it claims to measure.

The degree to which an assessment produces consistent, repeatable results.

A brief, informal written observation of a student's reading behavior used as formative assessment evidence.

Subarea IV of the Foundations of Reading test — the open-response assignments that apply the science of reading to assessment data.

A written task scored against a rubric (typically 1–4) that asks the candidate to analyze data and prescribe research-based instruction.

The exhibit an open-response prompt provides — often a running record, assessment data, or a student work sample to analyze.

The first step of a strong open response: naming the specific reading skill a student needs, based on the provided data.

Pointing to the exact data or miscues in the exhibit that justify the identified need — vague claims lose points.

An instructional method supported by reading research (e.g., explicit phonics, repeated reading) prescribed in an open response to target a need.

The 1–4 scoring guide trained scorers use to judge each open-response assignment for purpose, evidence, and application.

Teaching skills directly and clearly through modeling, guided practice, and feedback rather than expecting students to infer them.

Following a planned, cumulative scope and sequence that builds from simpler to more complex skills so gaps do not accumulate.

A reader's habit of asking 'Does that make sense?' and self-correcting when meaning breaks down — a frequent open-response target.

The principle, central to Subareas III–IV, that assessment evidence should determine what and how a teacher teaches next.

Explaining why a prescribed strategy works by tying it to the reading-development principle it supports — what elevates an open response.