- Phonological awareness
- The oral/auditory ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds of spoken language — rhymes, syllables, onsets, rimes, and phonemes. No print involved.
- Phonemic awareness
- The narrowest level of phonological awareness: hearing and manipulating the individual phonemes in spoken words (blending, segmenting).
- Phoneme
- The smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another (the /b/ vs. /p/ in bat vs. pat).
- Grapheme
- A letter or letter group that represents one phoneme (the 'sh' in ship is one grapheme).
- Grapheme-phoneme correspondence
- The link between a written letter (or letters) and the sound it represents — the core of phonics.
- Alphabetic principle
- The understanding that letters and letter patterns systematically represent the sounds of spoken language.
- Phonics
- Instruction in the systematic relationship between letters and sounds so students can decode written words.
- Synthetic phonics
- Converting letters to sounds and blending them together to read a whole word (part-to-whole).
- Analytic phonics
- Identifying sound-letter patterns within whole, already-known words (whole-to-part).
- Systematic phonics
- Phonics taught in a planned, logical scope and sequence from simpler to more complex patterns.
- Explicit instruction
- Skills taught directly and clearly by the teacher, not left for students to discover.
- Decodable text
- Text with a high proportion of words matching the phonics patterns students have already been taught.
- Structured literacy
- An explicit, systematic, cumulative approach to reading grounded in the science of reading; very effective for dyslexia.
- Science of reading
- The body of research from many fields on how reading develops and how it is best taught.
- Orthographic mapping
- Storing written words in long-term memory by linking spelling to pronunciation and meaning — how sight words form.
- Sight word
- A word recognized instantly and automatically, built through orthographic mapping, not shape memorization.
- High-frequency words
- The most common words in print (the, said, of); many are taught for instant recognition.
- Decoding
- Translating printed letters into sounds and blending them to read words.
- Encoding
- Translating sounds into letters to spell words — the reverse of decoding.
- Phoneme isolation
- Identifying a single sound in a word (the first sound in map is /m/).
- Phoneme blending
- Pushing individual sounds together into a word: /s/ /u/ /n/ → sun.
- Phoneme segmentation
- Pulling a word apart into its individual sounds: ship → /sh/ /i/ /p/. Develops last.
- Phoneme deletion
- Saying a word with a sound removed: cat without /k/ → at.
- Phoneme substitution
- Replacing one sound with another: change /c/ in cat to /h/ → hat.
- Onset and rime
- The onset is the opening sound(s) of a syllable; the rime is the vowel and what follows: /c/ + /at/.
- Rhyme awareness
- Recognizing words that share an ending sound (cat/hat) — one of the earliest phonological skills.
- Syllable
- A word part with one vowel sound; counting syllables is an early phonological skill (but-ter-fly = 3).
- Closed syllable
- A syllable ending in a consonant, with a short vowel sound (cat, napkin).
- Open syllable
- A syllable ending in a vowel, with a long vowel sound (go, he, ti-ger).
- Vowel-consonant-e (VCe)
- A syllable where a silent final e makes the vowel long (cake, time) — the 'magic e'.
- Vowel team syllable
- Two vowels working together to make one sound (rain, boat, meet).
- R-controlled syllable
- A vowel followed by r, which changes the vowel sound (car, bird) — the 'bossy r'.
- Consonant-le syllable
- A final stable syllable of consonant + l + e (ta-ble, lit-tle).
- Syllabication
- Dividing a word into syllables to make its vowel sounds predictable and aid decoding.
- Chunking
- Reading multisyllabic words by breaking them into smaller, manageable units (tr + ain).
- Morpheme
- The smallest unit of meaning in a word — a prefix, root, or suffix (un + happy + ness = 3 morphemes).
- Morphemic analysis
- Using prefixes, roots, and suffixes to decode and find the meaning of longer words.
- Prefix
- A morpheme added to the front of a base word that changes its meaning (un-, re-, pre-).
- Suffix
- A morpheme added to the end of a base word (-ing, -ed, -tion, -ful).
- Root word
- The base part of a word that carries its core meaning, to which affixes attach.
- Inflectional ending
- A suffix that changes tense, number, or degree without changing the word's part of speech (-s, -ed, -ing).
- Derivational suffix
- A suffix that changes a word's meaning or part of speech (-tion, -ly, -ness).
- Concepts of print
- Early understandings about how print works: directionality, that print carries meaning, word/letter concepts.
- Directionality
- The convention of reading left to right and top to bottom in English print.
- Emergent literacy
- The reading and writing knowledge a child develops before formal instruction (book handling, letter naming).
- Fluency
- Reading text accurately, at an appropriate rate, and with proper expression (prosody).
- Automaticity
- Recognizing words instantly and effortlessly, freeing attention for comprehension.
- Prosody
- Expression in oral reading — phrasing, intonation, and stress that mirror natural speech.
- Reading rate
- How quickly a reader reads, often measured in words correct per minute (WCPM).
- Repeated reading
- Re-reading the same passage several times to build fluency, speed, and accuracy.
- Echo reading
- The teacher reads a line aloud and the student immediately reads it back, modeling fluency.
- Choral reading
- A group reads a text aloud together, modeling fluent, expressive reading.
- Paired reading
- Two students read together for peer support and modeling of fluency.
- Audio-assisted reading
- Reading along with a fluent audio recording to model pacing and expression.
- Ehri's phases
- The phases by which words become sight words: pre-alphabetic, partial, full, and consolidated alphabetic.
- Dyslexia
- A specific learning difficulty in accurate, fluent word recognition and spelling, despite adequate instruction.
- Word wall
- A classroom display of high-frequency words and key vocabulary for visual reference and reinforcement.
- Onset-rime blending
- Combining an onset and rime to read a word (/m/ + /ap/ → map).
- Digraph
- Two letters making one sound (sh, ch, th, ck).
- Blend (consonant blend)
- Two or three consonants together where each sound is heard (st, bl, str).
- Diphthong
- A vowel sound that glides from one to another within one syllable (oi in coin, ou in cloud).
- Schwa
- The unstressed, neutral vowel sound (uh) common in many syllables (the a in about).
- Reading comprehension
- Constructing meaning from text — the ultimate goal of reading.
- Simple View of Reading
- Reading comprehension = decoding × language comprehension; if either is zero, comprehension is zero.
- Scarborough's Reading Rope
- A model weaving word recognition and language comprehension strands into skilled reading.
- Language comprehension
- Understanding the meaning of spoken/written language — vocabulary, background knowledge, syntax, reasoning.
- Word recognition
- Identifying printed words accurately and automatically — phonological awareness, decoding, sight recognition.
- Vocabulary
- Knowledge of word meanings; one of the strongest drivers of reading comprehension.
- Academic (Tier 2) vocabulary
- High-utility words used across subjects (analyze, contrast); the highest-yield words to teach.
- Tier 1 words
- Everyday conversational words that rarely need teaching (dog, run, happy).
- Tier 3 words
- Low-frequency, domain-specific terms taught within a content area (photosynthesis, isotope).
- Direct vocabulary instruction
- Explicitly teaching word meanings with definitions, examples, and uses.
- Incidental word learning
- Acquiring vocabulary through wide reading and rich oral language exposure.
- Context clues
- Hints in surrounding text (definitions, examples, contrasts) used to infer an unfamiliar word's meaning.
- Semantic mapping
- A graphic organizer that associates a word with related words and meanings.
- Receptive vocabulary
- Words a person understands when listening or reading.
- Expressive vocabulary
- Words a person uses when speaking or writing.
- Main idea
- The central point a passage conveys — what the whole text is mostly about.
- Supporting detail
- A fact, example, or reason that explains, proves, or develops the main idea.
- Summarizing
- Capturing the main idea and key details of a text concisely in one's own words.
- Inference
- A logical conclusion drawn from text evidence plus reasoning — implied but not stated.
- Literal comprehension
- Understanding what a text states directly — facts you can point to on the page.
- Inferential comprehension
- Reading between the lines to draw conclusions the text implies, using evidence.
- Evaluative comprehension
- Judging or critiquing a text — its quality, credibility, or the strength of its argument.
- Implicit detail
- Information not stated outright but inferred by the reader from context and clues.
- Theme
- The central message or underlying idea of a literary work — what it says about life.
- Topic vs. theme
- A topic is the subject (one word: courage); a theme is a full statement about life.
- Plot
- The sequence of events in a story: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.
- Setting
- The time and place in which a story occurs.
- Character
- A person or being in a story who drives the action.
- Dynamic character
- A character who undergoes significant change or growth through the story.
- Static character
- A character who stays essentially the same throughout the story.
- Round character
- A complex, multi-dimensional character with a range of traits.
- Flat character
- A character defined by a single trait, with little development.
- Point of view
- The perspective from which a story is told (first person, third-person limited, omniscient).
- Conflict
- The central struggle that drives a plot (character vs. self, others, nature, or society).
- Figurative language
- Language meaning beyond the literal — metaphor, simile, personification, idiom.
- Simile
- A comparison of two unlike things using 'like' or 'as' (as bright as the sun).
- Metaphor
- A direct comparison stating one thing is another (her smile was sunshine).
- Personification
- Giving human qualities to non-human things (the wind whispered).
- Idiom
- A phrase whose meaning differs from its literal words (break a leg).
- Foreshadowing
- Hints or clues an author gives about events that will happen later.
- Irony
- A contrast between expectation and reality, often for humor or emphasis.
- Motif
- A recurring element, image, or idea that reinforces a story's theme.
- Mood
- The feeling or atmosphere a text creates in the reader.
- Tone
- The author's attitude toward the subject, conveyed through word choice.
- Text structure
- How an informational text is organized (cause/effect, compare/contrast, sequence, etc.).
- Cause and effect
- A text structure showing why something happens and what results (because, so, therefore).
- Compare and contrast
- A text structure showing similarities and differences (similarly, unlike, however).
- Problem and solution
- A text structure stating a problem and offering a fix.
- Sequence / chronological
- A text structure presenting steps or events in order (first, next, finally).
- Description
- A text structure listing features, qualities, or examples of a topic.
- Text features
- Print supports like headings, captions, bold words, diagrams, and tables of contents.
- Informational (expository) text
- Nonfiction text written to inform or explain, organized by text structures.
- Literary (narrative) text
- Text that tells a story, built from literary elements like plot and character.
- Graphic organizer
- A visual tool (Venn diagram, story map, flowchart) that maps a text's structure.
- Venn diagram
- Overlapping circles used to compare and contrast two or more things.
- Activating prior knowledge
- Connecting a text to what the reader already knows before reading to aid comprehension.
- Monitoring comprehension
- Noticing when meaning breaks down and using fix-up strategies (re-read, clarify).
- Reciprocal teaching
- A strategy where students take turns predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing.
- Predicting
- Forming a reasonable guess about what comes next, then reading to confirm or revise.
- Questioning
- Asking questions before, during, and after reading to set a purpose and check understanding.
- Persuasive writing
- Writing that aims to convince using emotional appeals, logic, and credibility.
- Free verse
- Poetry without a strict rhyme scheme or regular meter.
- Alliteration
- Repetition of the same initial consonant sound across words (Peter Piper picked).
- Genre
- A category of text (folktale, biography, poetry, science article) with shared features.
- Screening assessment
- A quick, broad check given to all students to flag who may be at risk.
- Diagnostic assessment
- An in-depth assessment that pinpoints a student's specific skill strengths and gaps.
- Progress monitoring
- Frequent, brief measurement tracking whether an intervention is improving a skill over time.
- Formative assessment
- Ongoing, low-stakes assessment used to adjust instruction while learning is happening.
- Summative assessment
- An end-of-unit or end-of-year measure of overall achievement.
- Outcome assessment
- A measure of whether students reached a benchmark or standard.
- Norm-referenced test
- A test that compares a student's performance to a representative peer group.
- Criterion-referenced test
- A test that measures performance against a fixed standard, not against peers.
- Running record
- Coding a student's oral reading errors to find an accuracy rate and cueing patterns.
- Miscue analysis
- Examining the types of oral-reading errors to infer what cues a reader relies on.
- Accuracy rate
- The percentage of words a student reads correctly in a passage.
- Informal reading inventory (IRI)
- A set of leveled passages used to find a student's independent, instructional, and frustration levels.
- Independent level
- Text a student reads with high accuracy and comprehension, with no help.
- Instructional level
- Text a student reads successfully with some teacher support — ideal for instruction.
- Frustration level
- Text too hard for a student, with low accuracy and comprehension.
- DIBELS
- A set of brief measures of early literacy skills used for screening and progress monitoring.
- Validity
- The degree to which an assessment measures what it is intended to measure.
- Reliability
- The degree to which an assessment yields consistent results.
- RTI (Response to Intervention)
- A tiered framework that screens all students and intensifies support based on data.
- MTSS
- Multi-Tiered System of Supports — a broader tiered framework for academic and behavioral needs.
- Tier 1 instruction
- High-quality core instruction provided to all students in the general classroom.
- Tier 2 intervention
- Targeted small-group support for students not responding to Tier 1.
- Tier 3 intervention
- Intensive, individualized intervention for students with the greatest needs.
- Differentiation
- Adjusting instruction, grouping, and texts to meet individual students' needs.
- Flexible grouping
- Grouping students by current need and regrouping as data change.
- Scaffolding
- Temporary supports that help a student perform a task, removed as competence grows.
- Gradual release of responsibility
- Moving from teacher modeling (I do) to guided practice (we do) to independent work (you do).
- Guided reading
- Small-group instruction with leveled text matched to students' reading levels.
- Read-aloud
- The teacher reads a text aloud while students listen, modeling fluency and building comprehension.
- Interactive read-aloud
- A read-aloud with planned stops for discussion and student engagement.
- Shared reading
- Teacher and students read a visible text together, with the teacher leading.
- Balanced literacy
- An approach combining multiple methods; effective only when explicit phonics is included.
- Explicit, systematic instruction
- The evidence-based default: skills taught directly in a planned sequence.
- Intervention
- Intensified, targeted instruction addressing a specific assessed skill gap.
- Data-driven instruction
- Using assessment results to plan, group, and adjust teaching.
- Cloze procedure
- An assessment where students supply missing words, gauging comprehension and prediction.
- Anecdotal records
- Brief observational notes a teacher keeps about a student's reading behavior.
- Benchmark assessment
- A periodic check of progress toward grade-level standards.
- Phonics inventory
- A diagnostic that identifies which letter-sound patterns a student knows.
- Reader's theater
- Students rehearse and perform a script to build fluency and expression.
- Integration of Knowledge & Understanding
- Subarea IV: two open-response written assignments applying reading knowledge to scenarios.
- Open-response (constructed-response)
- A test item requiring a written analysis rather than choosing an answer.
- Written assignment (Subarea IV)
- An organized written analysis of a classroom scenario or student data, scored on a rubric.
- Foundational-skills assignment (0010)
- The written assignment analyzing a need in phonics, phonemic awareness, word analysis, or fluency.
- Comprehension assignment (0011)
- The written assignment analyzing a need in vocabulary or literary/informational comprehension.
- Purpose (scoring criterion)
- Whether a written response actually addresses the assignment's task.
- Support (scoring criterion)
- Whether a response uses specific, relevant evidence and a concrete strategy.
- Rationale (scoring criterion)
- Whether a response justifies its recommendation with sound reading theory.
- Open-response template
- Gap → evidence-based strategy → why it works (tied to the science of reading).
- Identifying the reading need
- Pinpointing the specific skill gap a scenario reveals before recommending instruction.
- Evidence-based strategy
- An instructional approach supported by reading research, matched to a specific need.
- Synthesis
- Combining information from multiple sources into a coherent understanding or argument.
- Multimodal literacy
- Integrating information across text, data, images, and other formats to build meaning.
- Evaluating source credibility
- Judging a source by the author's expertise, credentials, bias, and evidence.
- Author's credentials
- The expertise and affiliations that bear on whether a source is trustworthy.
- Considering bias and context
- Weighing each source's perspective and situation to interpret it fairly.
- Contextualization
- Placing information within its broader historical, cultural, or situational context.
- Interdisciplinary integration
- Combining principles from different disciplines to address a complex problem.
- Consistency across sources
- Whether data align across sources — a key check when integrating information.
- Justifying with theory
- Explaining why a strategy works by tying it to reading research and models.
- Big Five of reading (NRP)
- The National Reading Panel's five pillars: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
- National Reading Panel
- A federal panel whose 2000 report identified the evidence-based components of effective reading instruction.
- Systematic vs. incidental phonics
- Systematic phonics follows a planned sequence; incidental teaches sounds only as they happen to come up — systematic is more effective.
- Letter-sound knowledge
- Knowing which sound(s) each letter represents — a prerequisite for decoding.
- Blending
- Combining individual sounds into a whole word; essential for decoding.
- Segmenting
- Separating a word into its individual sounds; essential for spelling.
- Onset
- The consonant sound(s) before the vowel in a syllable (the /spr/ in sprint).
- Rime
- The vowel and any following consonants in a syllable (the /int/ in sprint).
- Phonics generalization
- A spelling-sound rule that holds most of the time (e.g., a silent e makes the vowel long).
- Irregular (heart) words
- High-frequency words with parts that don't follow regular phonics (said, of); mapped with the tricky part flagged.
- Word family
- A group of words sharing a common rime (cat, hat, mat, sat).
- Multisyllabic word reading
- Decoding longer words by dividing them into syllables and using known patterns.
- Spelling stages
- Predictable phases of spelling development from emergent to derivational, paralleling decoding.
- Words correct per minute (WCPM)
- A common oral-reading fluency measure: words read correctly in one minute.
- Letter naming fluency
- How quickly and accurately a child names letters — an early screening measure.
- Print concepts
- Understanding how books and print work: front/back, left-to-right, words made of letters.
- Modeling (think-aloud)
- Demonstrating a skill or strategy aloud so students can see the thinking involved.
- Background knowledge
- What a reader already knows about a topic; a strong driver of comprehension.
- Schema
- A reader's organized prior knowledge that new information is connected to.
- Syntax
- The rules for arranging words into phrases and sentences; supports comprehension.
- Semantics
- The study of word and sentence meaning.
- Morphology
- The study of word structure (morphemes); aids both decoding and vocabulary.
- Connotation vs. denotation
- Denotation is a word's literal definition; connotation is its emotional/associated meaning.
- Author's purpose
- The reason a text was written: to inform, persuade, entertain, or explain.
- Fact vs. opinion
- A fact can be proven; an opinion is a belief or judgment that cannot be proven.
- Drawing conclusions
- Combining text evidence and reasoning to reach a supported judgment.
- Story grammar
- The predictable parts of a narrative: setting, characters, problem, events, resolution.
- Story map
- A graphic organizer charting a story's setting, characters, problem, and solution.
- Main idea vs. detail
- The main idea is the overall point; details are the evidence that develops it.
- Cliffhanger
- A suspenseful, unresolved ending that leaves the reader wanting more.
- Hyperbole
- Deliberate exaggeration for effect (I've told you a million times).
- Symbolism
- Using an object or image to represent a larger idea.
- Flashback
- An interruption that depicts events from an earlier time.
- Nonlinear text
- A text whose events are not presented in chronological order.
- Climax
- The turning point of greatest tension in a story's plot.
- Resolution
- The part of a story where the central conflict is settled.
- Epilogue
- A concluding section providing additional information after a story's main events.
- Visualizing
- Forming mental images while reading to deepen comprehension.
- Close reading
- Careful, repeated reading of a short text to analyze meaning and craft.
- Comprehension strategy
- A teachable mental process (predict, question, infer, summarize, monitor) that builds understanding.
- Curriculum-based measurement (CBM)
- Brief, standardized measures of a skill given frequently to track progress.
- Screening vs. diagnostic
- Screening flags who is at risk; diagnostic pinpoints exactly what the problem is.
- Progress vs. outcome
- Progress monitoring tracks growth during intervention; outcome measures final achievement.
- Rubric
- A scoring guide listing criteria and performance levels for an open-ended task.
- Portfolio assessment
- Evaluating a collection of a student's work gathered over time.
- Observation / kidwatching
- Systematically watching and recording a student's reading behaviors.
- Reliability vs. validity
- Reliability is consistency of results; validity is measuring what you intend to measure.
- Universal screening
- Assessing all students early to identify those who may need extra support.
- Leveled text
- Text matched to a difficulty level so students read at their instructional level.
- Pre-reading activity
- Instruction before reading (building background, setting purpose) that aids comprehension.
- Word recognition assessment
- A measure of how accurately and quickly a student identifies printed words.
- Comprehension assessment
- A measure of how well a student understands what they read (retelling, questions).
- Retelling
- Having a student recount a text to assess comprehension and sequencing.
- Explicit modeling
- Directly demonstrating a skill before guided and independent practice.
- Corrective feedback
- Specific, timely feedback that helps a student fix an error and improve.
- Home-school connection
- Engaging families to support a child's reading development at home.
- Constructed-response rubric
- The scoring guide for OAE written assignments: purpose, support, and rationale.
- Gap-strategy-rationale
- The structure of a strong OAE written response: name the need, give the strategy, justify it.
- Citing scenario evidence
- Referencing specific details from the prompt's data or student work in your response.
- Analyzing student work
- Examining a writing/reading sample to identify a specific instructional need.
- Source corroboration
- Checking whether multiple sources agree before drawing a conclusion.
- Value-based analysis
- Examining the ethical or values dimension of an issue across sources.
