The assumption underlying alphabetical language systems that each sound has a corresponding graphic representation (or letter)

Words with opposite meanings

An activity in which children replace words that have been deleted from the text.

A new word formed with two or more words that has its own meaning; it can be spelled as one word, joined with a hyphen, or spelled as separate words

The process of constructing meaning using both the author's text and the reader's background knowledge for a specific purpose

Assesses young students' concepts of written language, book orientation, directionality of print, and letter and word concepts.

Two or three adjacent consonants that represent a single, distinguishable sound (eg., bl-, dr-, sm-)

Two adjacent consonants that represent a sound not represented by either consonant alone (eg., th-, ch-, sh-)

A sound produced when the tongue glides from one sound to another; it's represented by two vowels

The teacher or another reader reads a sentence and a group of children reread or "echo" what was read

Reading and writing smoothly, quickly, and with expression

Informal assessment procedures that teachers use during the learning process

The level of reading material that's too difficult for a child to read successfully

A category of literature, such as folklore, science fiction, biography, or historical fiction; or a writing form

An instructional approach in which children work in small groups to read as independently as possible a text selected and introduced by the teacher.

Words that are spelled alike, but are pronounced differently (eg., a present and to present)

Words that sound that same but are spelled differently (eg., their, they're, there)

Expressions that mean something different from the literal meanings of the individual words (eg., "piece of cake")

The level of reading material that a child can read independently with high comprehension and accuracy.

The level of reading material that a child can read with teacher support and instruction.

A method of estimating the difficulty level of a text

Conventions of writing, including spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar

Children's awareness of their own thought and learning process

The smallest meaningful part of a word; sometimes it's a word (eg., cup), and sometimes it's not a whole word (eg., -ly).

The part of a syllable that comes before the vowel (eg., str- in string)

A sound; it's represented in print with slashes (eg., /s/ and /th/)

The ability to manipulate the sounds in words orally

Predictable relationships between phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters)

A rime used for word-family decoding and spelling activities

The ability to identify and manipulate phonemes, onsets and rimes, and syllables; it includes phonemic awareness

The sound system of language

a syllable added to the beginning of a word to change the word's meaning (eg., re- in reread).

The ability to orally read sentences expressively, with appropriate phrasing and intonation

The part of a syllable that begins with the vowel (eg., -ing in string).

A cognitive structure or mental file

The teacher reads a book aloud, often a big book, as a group of children follow along in the text.

A figure of speech that compares two things using like or as. For example, "as snug as a bug in a rug).

A syllable added to the end of a word to change the word's meaning (eg., -y in hairy).

Formal assessment procedures used after learning to judge the children's achievement and the effectiveness of instruction.

Words that mean nearly the same thing

A voiced speech sound made without friction or stoppage of the airflow as it passes through the vocal tract (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y and w)

two or more adjacent vowels in a syllable that represent a single sound (eg., ea, ei, ain, aw).

The process in which children use prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing to develop and refine a composition.

The distance between the child's actual development level and his/her potential level that can be reached with teacher scaffolding