Resources

Alphabetic Principle – The assumption underlying alphabetic language systems that each sound has a corresponding graphic representation (or letter).

Antonyms – Words that means the opposite (hot, cold)

Applying - The fifth stage of the reading process, in which readers go beyond the text to use what they have learned in another literacy experience, often by making a project or reading another book.

Blend – To combine the sounds represented by letters to pronounce a word.

Bound Morpheme – A morpheme that is not a word and cannot stand alone (e.g., -s, tri-)

Closed Syllable – A syllable ending in a consonant sound (e.g. bake, truck)

Consonant Diagraph – Two adjacent consonants that represent a sound and not represented by either consonant alone (e.g. th-thin, ch-chin, sh-wash, ph-telephone).

Context Clues – Information from the words or sentences surrounding a word that helps to clarify the word’s meaning.

Decoding – Using word-identification strategies to pronounce and attach meaning to an unfamiliar word.

Diphthong – A sound produced when the tongue glides from one sound to another; it is represented by two vowels ( e.g. oy (boy); ou (house); ow (cow)

Drafting – The second stage of the writing process, in which writers pour out ideas in a rough draft.

Editing – The fourth stage of the writing process, in which writers proofread to identify and correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammatical errors.

Elkonin boxes – A strategy for segmenting sounds in a word that involves drawing a box to represent each sound in a word

Exploring – The fourth stage of the reading process in which readers reread the text, study vocabulary words, and learn strategies and skills.

Expository Text – Nonfiction Writing

Fluency – Reading smoothly, quickly, and with expression

Free Morpheme – A morpheme that can stand alone as a word (e.g. book, cycle)

Genre – A category of literature such as folklore, science fiction, biography, or historical fiction.

Grapheme – A written representation of a sound using one or more letters.

High Frequency Word – A common English word, usually a word among the 100 or 300 most common words.

Homographic homophones – Words that sound alike and are spelled alike but have different meanings (e.g. baseball bat and the animal bat)

Homographs – Words that are spelled alike but are pronounced differently (e.g. present and to present)

Homonyms – Words that sound alike but are spelled differently (e.g. sea-see; their-there-they’re)

Hyperbole – A stylistic device involving obvious exaggerations.

Imagery – The use of words and figurative language to create an impression

Inflectional Endings – Suffixes that express plurality or possession when added to a noun (e.g. girls, girl’s), tense when added to a verb (e.g. walked, walking), or comparison when added to an adjective (e.g. happier, happiest)

Interactive Writing – A writing activity in which students and the teacher write a text together, with the students taking turns to domost of the writing themselves.

Invented Spelling – Students’ attempts to spell words that reflect their developing knowledge about the spelling system.

Long Vowels – The vowel sounds that are also names of the alphabet letters: /ā/ as in make, /ē/ as in feet, /ī/ as in ice, /ō/ as in coat, /ū/ as in mule.

Metaphor – A comparison expressed directly, without using like or as.

Mood – The tone of a story or poem.

Morpheme – The smallest meaningful part of a word sometimes it is a word (e.g. cup or hope), and sometimes it is not a whole word ( e.g. –ly, bi-).

Narrative – A story

Onset – The part of a syllable (or one-syllable word) that come before the vowel (e.g. str in string).

Open Syllable – A syllable ending in a vowel sound (e.g. sea).

Orthography - The spelling system

Personification -  Figurative language in which objects and animals are represented as having human qualities.

Phoneme – A sound; it is represented in print with slashes (e.g. /s/ and /th/).

Phoneme-grapheme Correspondence - The relationship between a sound and the letter that represents it.

Phonemic Awareness – The ability to manipulate the sounds in words orally.

Phonics – Instruction about phoneme-grapheme correspondences and spelling rules.

Phonology – The sound system of language.

Polysyllabic – Words containing more than one syllable.

Prediction – A strategy in which students predict what they think will happen in a story and then read to verify their guesses.

Prefix - A syllable added to the beginning of a word to change the word’s meaning (e.g. re- in reread).

Prereading – The first stage of the reading process, in which readers activate background knowledge, set purposes, and make plans for reading.

Prewriting – The first stage of the writing process, in which writers gather and organize ideas for writing.

Proofreading – Reading a composition to identify and correct spelling and other mechanical errors.

Publishing – The fifth stage of writing process, in which writers make the final copy of their writing and share it with an audience.

Responding – The third stage of the reading process, in which readers respond to the text, often through grand conversations and by writing in reading logs.

Revising – The third stage of the writing process in which writers clarify meaning in the writing.

Rhyming – Words with the same rime sound (e.g. white, bright)

Rime – The part of a syllable (or one-syllable word) that begins with the vowel (e.g. ing in string).

Segment – To pronounce a word slowly, saying each sound distinctly.

Short Vowels – The vowel sounds represented by a /ă/ as in cat, /ĕ/ as in bed, /ĭ/ as in big, /ŏ/ as in pot and /ŭ/ as in cut.

Simile – A comparison expressed using like or as.

Suffix – A syllable added to the end of a word to change the word’s meaning (e.g., -y in hairy, -ful in careful)

Syllable – The written representation of an uninterrupted segment of speech that includes a vowel sound (e.g. get, a –bout, but-ter-fly, con-sti-tu-tion).

Symbol – The author’s use of an object to represent something else.

Synonyms – Words that mean nearly the same thing (e.g., road-street)

Vowel – A voiced speech sound made without friction or stoppage of the airflow as it passes through the vocal tract.

Vowel Digraph – Two or more adjacent vowels in a syllable that represent a single sound (e.g., bread, eight, pain, saw).

Word Families – Groups of words that rhyme (e.g., ball, call, hall, mall and tall)

Writing Process – The process in which students use prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing to develop and refine a composition.