Vocabulary
6+1 Trait Writing
The important aspects of writing, including ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation.
Academic Language
The language that teachers and students use for imparting information, acquiring new knowledge and skills, describing abstract ideas, and developing content area and conceptual understanding.
Acceleration
Progress through the curriculum at a faster rate.
Affixes
Bound morphemes that change the meaning or function of a root or stem to which they are attached, as the prefix ad- and the suffix -ing in adjoining.
Alphabetic Principle
The principle that there is a one-to-one correspondence between phonemes (or sounds) and graphemes (or letters); letters represent sounds.
Anecdotal Notes
Written observations taken by the teacher —usually on a clipboard—of literacy-related behaviors in an authentic literacy context.
Anticipation Guides
A prereading tool used to activate schemata and engage readers.
Asperger’s Syndrome
A mild form of autism.
Assessment
The process of gathering information about students’ abilities using a variety of means and tools, both formal and informal.
Assistive Technologies
Electronic devices, equipment, or products designed or modified specifically to improve the functional capabilities of individuals with severe communication disorders and other disabilities.
Augmentative Communication System
Any system or device designed to enhance the communication abilities of individuals who are nonverbal or have speech too difficult to understand.
Autism
A disability characterized by extreme withdrawal and underdeveloped communication or language skills.
Basic Words
Commonplace words that are the building blocks of everyday language.
Behavioral Disorder
A disability in which students are characterized by inappropriate school behavior.
Blogging
The online publication of commentary on specific topics of interest (e.g., political, social, and so forth).
Book Clubs
Another term for (see) literature circles.
Book Contract
An individual contract of literacy activities based upon a self-selected book.
Book Talk
Brief teaser that teacher presents to interest students in a particular book.
Clarifying Table
A graphic organizer used to help children understand the meaning of complex terms.
Cloze Test
An assessment device in which certain words are deleted from a passage by the teacher, with blanks left in their places for students to fill in by using the context of the sentence or paragraph.
Code Switching
The use of English for known words and the home language for words not yet acquired in English.
Compound Words
A word composed of two separate words that have meaning on their own, such as baseball and lipstick.
Comprehensible Input
New information that is modified to enable an English learner to make connections to already known information.
Comprehension Monitoring
The reader’s awareness of whether what is being read makes sense and, when it does not, his or her ability to make adjustments to improve comprehension.
Comprehension
The interpretation of print on a page into a meaningful message that is dependent on the reader’s decoding abilities, prior knowledge, cultural and social background, and monitoring strategies—the “essence of reading.”
Constructivist Model of Learning
A learning theory suggesting that students are active learners who organize and relate new information to their prior knowledge.
Content Area Literacy
Reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and visually representing with a focus on the bodies of knowledge in the academic curriculum; e.g., English, science, social studies, mathematics.
Conventions
Tools of writing, including grammar, spelling, paragraphing, capitalization, punctuation, and all the mechanics of the language that are often corrected in the editing process.
Criterion-Referenced Tests
A test for which scores are interpreted by comparing the test taker’s score to a specified performance level rather than to the scores of other students.
Critical Analysis
As a component of comprehension, the ability of readers to actively engage and to interpret text critically, uncovering intended meanings, discovering biases, and producing a cultural understanding of the text.
Cubing
A writing scaffold used for students to model how to organize a six-paragraph essay.
Curriculum-Based Assessment
The process of matching the curriculum to the content standards assessed in a testing program to ensure that teachers will cover the material assessed.
Derivational Relations Stage
A spelling stage characterized by the ability to recognize and spell bases and roots correctly. Correlates to an advanced stage of reading and writing.
Dialogue Journal
Journals that provide a means of two-way written communication between learners and their teachers, in which learners share their thoughts with teachers (including personal comments and descriptions of life experiences), and the teachers, in turn, write reactions to the learners’ messages. Also called interactive journals.
Differentiated Instruction
Instruction designed to meet the needs of all students by adjusting content, process, or product.
Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA)
A time-honored format for guiding students as they read selections, usually from basal reading programs.
Directive Context
Text that provides helpful clues for figuring out word meanings.
Discussion
Oral communication in an informal setting, involving an exploration of an issue or topic; problem solving by cooperative thinking.
Double Entry Journal
This journal uses a two-column format for entries of two types of student response to text.
Dyad Reading
A paired reading activity in which students alternately read aloud or listen and summarize what their partner has read.
Electronic Portfolios
A compilation of work stored digitally; gives students the option of storing a great deal of information electronically, including items such as work samples, photos, art, and even oral reading samples; sound, music, and video clips can also be included to enhance the portfolio. Electronic portfolios also give students the ability to connect sections of a portfolio through hyperlinks, allowing access to a variety of artifacts that might show how specific goals have been met.
Engagement
A process involving a complex set of ongoing activities that occur in the classroom.
Enrichment
Strategies designed to deepen appreciation for reading selections.
Etymology
The study of the history of words.
Evaluation
Making a judgment about assessment data or assigning a score or grade to assessment data.
Expository Text
A text written in a precise, factual writing style.
Fluency
Achieving speed and accuracy in recognizing words and comprehending text, and coordinating the two.
Formative Assessment
Classroom-based measures intended to provide feedback to learners on areas needing improvement.
Four-by-Four Model
A “sheltered English” (see below) instructional model that addresses four developmental levels of language proficiency (beginning, early intermediate, intermediate, early advanced) and four literacy skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening) through the use of content themes.
Frustration Level
A level of reading difficulty at which a reader is unable to cope; when reading is on the frustration level, the reader recognizes approximately 90 percent or fewer of the words encountered and comprehends 50 percent or fewer.
General-Utility Words
More complex words that are used often by proficient readers and speakers but tend not to be specific to any particular subject.
Goldilocks Strategy
Students examine a book to determine if it is “too easy,” “too hard,” or “just right” for them to read.
Graphic Novels
Book-length comic books.
Guided Reading
A teacher-mediated instructional method designed to help readers improve skills, comprehension, recall, and appreciation of text.
Herringbone Strategy
A graphic organizer used with expository text to show who, what, when, where, why, and the main idea for a passage.
Independent Level
A level of reading difficulty low enough that the reader can progress without noticeable obstructions; the reader can recognize approximately 98 percent of the words and comprehend at least 90 percent of what is read.
Individualized Education Programs
A written educational plan specifying a special student’s annual goals, current levels of educational achievement, and short-term instructional objectives; prepared by a team that includes the student’s parents, teachers, and often the student.
Informal Reading Inventory (IRI)
An informal assessment instrument designed to help the teacher determine a student’s independent, instructional, frustration, and reading capacity levels.
Informal Speaking
Oral language of a nonacademic, conversational nature.
Information Literate
Knowing how to locate, acquire, and use information.
Informational Writing
Often called “expository writing,” allows students to explain ideas, objects, and processes to a reader in an understandable way while at the same time improving the writer’s own knowledge and understanding of the topic. Writing purpose may be discipline specific.
Instructional Level
A level of difficulty low enough that the reader can be instructed by the teacher during the process; in order for the material to be at this level, the reader should be able to read approximately 95 percent of the words in a passage and comprehend at least 75 percent.
Interactive Oral Reading
A method for teaching vocabulary in which adults read aloud to learners, stopping on occasion to discuss individual words.
Interest and Attitude Inventories
An informal assessment device that allows teachers to discover how their students feel about reading and about themselves as readers.
Interview
An oral language activity consisting of asking another person a specific set of questions.
Language Disorders
Communication disorders that involve poor speech or language performance due to various factors, including voice quality, speech fluency, and sound production.
Learning Disability
A condition in which a person with average or above intelligence is substantially delayed in academic achievement because of a processing disorder, not because of an environmental, an economic, or a cultural disadvantage.
Letter Name/Alphabetic Stage
Spelling characterized by literally matching letters to sounds in a linear sound-by-sound fashion.
Listening Vocabulary
The words a person is able to understand aurally; also known as receptive vocabulary.
Literacy Scaffold
A temporary writing structure.
Literacy
The competence to carry out the complex reading and writing tasks in a functionally useful way necessary to the world of work and life outside the school.
Literature Circles
Small, student-led book discussion groups that meet regularly in the classroom to read and discuss self-selected books
Low-Utility Words
Less frequently encountered words that are usually found in particular content areas.
Meaning Vocabulary
That body of words the meaning of which one understands and can use.
Media Literacy
The skill of thinking critically about what one sees, hears, and reads when presented through a wide variety of media.
Miscues
An unexpected reading response (deviation from text).
Morphology
The aspects of language structure related to the ways words are formed from prefixes, roots, and suffixes (e.g., “re-heat-ing”) and are related to each other.
Narrative Text
Text that contains the structural features of a story.
Nondirective Contexts
Text that does not provide helpful context clues for determining a word’s meaning.
Norm-Referenced Tests
A test designed to yield results interpretable in terms of the average results of a sample population.
Novel Study
The in-depth reading and interpretation of a novel or a group of related novels or stories.
Onset
All the sounds of a word that come before the first vowel.
Oral Reports
A presentation (often using multimedia) of information for an audience of classmates.
Peer Revising
A process in which a writer has a peer provide constructive feedback to ensure that a piece communicates its intent effectively; the writer may in turn act as peer editor for the other student. Feedback may follow the PQP (praise, question, polish) format.
Percentile Scores
Raw scores that are converted to percentiles so that comparisons can be made. Percentiles range from 1 to 99, with 1 being the lowest.
Performance Descriptors
The criteria that help communicate to teachers and students the standards that will be used to evaluate students’ work.
Phonemic Awareness
The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words.
Phonics
Instruction in the association of speech sounds with printed symbols.
Polysemantic
Words that can have different meanings depending on the context in which they are used.
Portfolios
Place to collect evidence of a student’s literacy development. It may include artifacts collected by the student, the teacher, or both.
Portmanteau Word
Word created from a combination of two existing words (e.g., motel = motor + hotel).
Problem-Based Learning
Organizes curriculum and instruction around authentic real-world problems with a focus on solving these problems as if the students were working in the area being studied.
Process-Oriented Assessment
A teacher’s direct observations of students’ reading and writing abilities for the purpose of noting which specific behaviors or strategies students use.
Productive Questioning
Involves the use of students’ responses to carefully crafted questions in guiding the development of conceptual thinking.
Professional Teaching Standards
Standards related to how well the teacher performs.
Project-Based Learning
Provides an alternative learning environment in which students work collaboratively to explore real-world issues in depth and to create a project that represents their learning.
Question-Answer Relationships (QAR)
A strategy in which students become aware of their own comprehension processes, particularly the importance of the knowledge they bring to text and their role as active seekers rather than passive receivers of information through reading.
Quick Write
An activity in which students rapidly write down ideas about a topic.
Readers Theater
A form of drama in which participants read aloud from scripts adapted from stories and convey ideas and emotions through vocal expression. This oral interpretation strategy helps students see that reading is an active process of constructing meaning. Unlike a play, there is no costuming, movement, stage sets, or memorizing of lines.
Reading Capacity Level
The highest level of material that students can understand when the passage is read to them.
Reading Vocabulary
The words a person is able to understand in written form; part of receptive vocabulary.
Reading
The construction of meaning from coded messages through symbol decoding, vocabulary awareness, comprehension, and reflection.
Realia
Concrete pictures and other items used to show the meaning of words and concepts.
Reciprocal Teaching
A technique to develop comprehension and metacognition in which the teacher and students take turns predicting, generating questions, summarizing, and clarifying ideas in a passage.
Response Guide
A set of suggestions designed to help peer editors provide helpful feedback to student writers.
Retelling
The process of teachers analyzing students’ retellings of text to gauge their level of comprehension and use of language. In examining the retellings, teachers look for the number of events recalled, how students interpret the message, and how students use details or make inferences to substantiate ideas.
Rime
The first vowel in a word and all the sounds that follow.
Role Playing
A form of dramatic play that involves having students act the part of another student or a fictional character.
Roots
Base words.
ROW
Read, organize, write: a strategy used to help students write summaries.
Running Records
A procedure for analyzing students’ oral reading and noting their strengths and weaknesses when using various reading strategies.
Scaffolding
A support mechanism by which students are able to accomplish more difficult tasks than they could without assistance.
Scanning
Processing text quickly, looking for some specific information—such as reading the blurb on the back of a book to decide if you want to read it, or when scanning a web page before clicking on a link to another page.
Schema
A preexisting knowledge structure developed about a thing, a place, or an idea; a framework of expectations based on previous knowledge.
Schema
A preexisting knowledge structure developed about a thing, a place, or an idea; a framework of expectations based on previous knowledge.
Scoring Rubric
A tool describing the levels of performance a student must demonstrate related to a particular achievement goal, whether it is written or oral.
Self-Regulated Learning
A learning process that requires awareness and application of learning strategies and extensive reflection and self-awareness; students who are self-regulated understand their strengths and weaknesses as learner. Closely related to comprehension monitoring.
Semantic Feature Analysis
An instructional activity in which students select a group of related words and then create a chart to classify them according to distinguishing characteristics.
Sentence Fluency
The careful crafting of sentences so that paragraphs flow smoothly and effortlessly.
Service Learning
Curriculum projects that involve and enhance the surrounding community.
Showcase Portfolio
A collection of artifacts taken from the working portfolio that demonstrates excellence in achievement.
SIOP Model
SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) is a “sheltered English” instructional model that delineates both language and content lesson objectives linked to subject area and curriculum standards.
Skimming
Reading that is done rapidly, but purposefully, to get a general idea what a selection is about. Readers engaged in skimming will be expected to get the main idea of the selection as well as a few supporting details.
Speech Disorders
Disabilities characterized by deficits in speech, receptive language, and/or expressive language.
SQ3R—Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review
A study strategy that asks readers first to survey the material and form questions based on that survey, then to read, restate in their own words, and review or rehearse what was read to help their comprehension and memory of the material.
Standard Deviation
A number describing the variability in scores as indicated by their distance from the mean, or average.
Standard Error of Measurement
A number representing the error associated with a test.
Standardized Testing
The use of norm-referenced tests to measure reading and writing skills as well as their subskills.
Standards-Based Performance Assessment
Assessment tasks designed to show what has been learned as it relates to a particular content standard.
Stanine Scores
Scores that have been converted into nine equally spaced groups, with 1 being the lowest.
Strategic Reader Model
A view of reading instruction that focuses on teaching readers a wide variety of strategies to use before, during, and after reading.
Structural Analysis
Examination of words for meaningful parts (affixes, contractions, endings, compound words).
Summative Assessment
A compilation of summary data provided at the end of a program, units of study, or other intervals to report progress.
Syllables and Affixes Stage
Spelling stage characterized by considering the conventions of preserving pattern-to-sound relationships at the place where syllables meet.
T-Chart
A two-column list used to compare the information in the column heads.
T-Chart
A two-column list used to compare the information in the column heads.
Text-Based Collaborative Learning
A process in which students work with a partner or small group to clarify expository text.
Think Sheet
A written format used to help students with behavioral disorders devise better choices for ways to behave.
Think-Aloud
A strategy in which the teacher models aloud for students the thinking processes used when reading or writing.
Tiered Activities
Activities that are modified to meet the differentiated needs of learners.
Time/Order Chart
Sequencing to show chronological order.
Time-Out
Removing a student who is acting disruptively from the immediate vicinity of instruction for a specified period of time, or until she can return and behave appropriately.
Topic and Details Map
Charts showing relationships of details to main topic.
Transactional Model
A perspective of early reading instruction from cognitive psychology and psycholinguistic learning that views students as bringing a rich prior knowledge background to literacy learning.
Transfer Words
Words containing elements that are also found in many other words.
Transitional Reader
A reader who is aware of letter pattern units, or word families, and frequently occurring rimes.
Transmission Model
A perspective of early reading instruction from behavioral psychology that views children as empty vessels into which knowledge is poured.
Venn Diagram
A set of overlapping circles used to graphically illustrate the similarities and differences of two concepts, ideas, stories, or other items.
Viewing
The interpretation and analysis of visual media.
Visual Literacy
The ability to interpret the meaning of visual images as well as to construct effective visuals in order to convey ideas to others.
Visually Representing
The process of communicating through visual images such as photographs, drawings, video presentations, cartoons, and other image types.
Vocabulary
The words that a person knows and uses.
Voice
The writer’s personality emerging through words.
Web Quest
An inquiry-based and student-centered technique that challenges students to explore the Internet for information related to a particular topic or problem.
Word Choice
The element of writing that involves using fresh and colorful language to make certain passages memorable and worthy of reading aloud.
Word Consciousness
Students’ awareness of new words and their desire to learn them and then to use them when speaking and writing.
Word Study
Analyzing words to discover the regularities, patterns, and rules of English orthography needed to read and spell.
Working Portfolio
A collection of completed work samples or works in progress that may be chosen for placement in a showcase portfolio.
Writing Folder
A folder where students keep rough drafts in various stages of the writing process and other daily compositions or reports, topics for future writing, and notes from minilessons.