Glossary of Selected Terms

Adapted from the English Language Arts/English Language Development (ELA/ELD) Framework’s Appendix Resources and Glossary

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | I | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | U | W

A

• Alphabetic Principle: In alphabetic writing systems, graphemes represent phonemes; in other words, printed letters and letter combinations represent individual sounds of spoken language.
  
• Automaticity: The ability to recognize a word (or series of words) in text effortlessly and rapidly.

B

• Base Word: A free morpheme (one that can stand alone in word formation), usually of Anglo-Saxon origin, to which affixes can be added.
  
• Blending: To combine individual units of sound (e.g., syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes) into a single word or utterance.

C

• Cognates: Words in two or more different languages that are the same or similar in sound and/or spelling and that have similar or identical meanings.
  
• Context: The environment in which language is used, including disciplinary area, topic, audience, text type, and mode of communication.
  
• Cross-linguistic transfer: The application of first language skills and knowledge to similar domains in the second language.
  
• Culturally responsive teaching: The use of cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them. Culturally and linguistically responsive instruction validates and affirms the home language and culture of students

D

• Decodable text: Reading materials designed to prompt beginning readers to apply their increasing knowledge of phonics and practice full alphabetic decoding to identify words. In decodable texts, 75-80 percent of the words consist solely of previously taught spelling-sound correspondences and the remaining 20-25 percent of the words are previously taught high-frequency irregularly spelled words and story or content words. (Note: In kindergarten and early grade one, some words are temporarily irregular because the spelling-sound correspondences have not yet been taught) What is considered decodable text expands in accordance with new learning.
  
• Decoding: A series of strategies used selectively by readers to recognize and read written words. The reader locates cues (e.g., letter-sound correspondences) in a word that reveals enough about it to help in pronouncing it and attaching meaning to it.
  
• Direct Instruction: The straightforward, systematic presentation of information by the teacher. Direct instruction generally involves the teacher stating the lesson objectives and its importance, providing input and connecting previously learned concepts, and checking for understanding. It also involves students practicing the new learning under the teacher’s guidance, while the teacher provides feedback, and, if necessary, reteaches the concept or skill. Additionally, it includes students demonstrating independent practice and mastery of the objective.

E

• Encoding: Transferring oral language into written language. Encoding is a process by which students segment sounds of a word (phonemes), translate each phoneme into its corresponding orthography symbol (letter or letters), and then spell the word. Accurate encoding requires knowledge of predictable sound-symbol correspondences and phonic generalizations (spelling rules).
  
• English learner/English language learner: A child who does not speak English or whose native language is not English and who is not currently able to perform ordinary classroom work in English, also known as Limited English Proficiency or LEP child. (Education Code [EC] Section 306)
  
• Explicit instruction: The intentional design and delivery of information by the teacher to the students. It begins with (1) the teacher’s modeling or demonstration of the skill or strategy; (2) a structured and substantial opportunity for students to practice and apply newly taught skills and knowledge under the teacher’s direction and guidance; and (3) an opportunity for feedback.
  
• Expository text: A traditional form of written composition that has as its primary purpose the communication of details, facts, and discipline- or content-specific information.

F

• Fluency: The apparently effortless written or spoken expression of ideas; reading fluency consists of accuracy, appropriate rate, and prosody (that is expression, which includes rhythm, phrasing, and intonation); freedom from word-identification problems that might hinder comprehension in silent reading or the expression of ideas in oral reading.
  
• Formative assessment: A deliberate process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides actionable feedback that is used to adjust ongoing teaching and learning strategies to improve students’ attainment of curricular learning targets/goals. (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium)

G

• Gradual release of responsibility: The gradual release of responsibility model of instruction requires a progression from teacher modeling that shifts from the teacher assuming all the responsibility for performing a task to where the students assume responsibility. (Duke and Pearson, 2002)
  
• Grapheme: The smallest part of written language that represents a phoneme in the spelling of a word. A grapheme may be just one letter or a series of letters.
  
• Graphic organizer: A visual representation of facts and concepts from a text and their relationships within an organized frame.

I

• Informational text: Text that has as its primary purpose the communication of technical information about a specific topic, event, experience, or circumstance. Informational text is typically found in the content areas.
  
• Integrated English language development: English language development instruction provided throughout the day and across the disciplines. Teachers with English learners use the English language development standards in addition to their focal English language arts/literacy and other content standards to support the linguistic and academic progress of English learners.
  

L

• Learning center or station: A location within a classroom in which students are presented with instructional materials, specific directions, clearly defined objectives, and opportunities for self-evaluation.

M

• Morpheme: A linguistic unit of relatively stable meaning that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts; the smallest meaningful part of a word.
  
• Multimodal learning: Multimodal learning is teaching a concept through visual, auditory, reading, writing, and kinaesthetic methods. It is meant to improve the quality of teaching by matching content delivery with the best mode of learning from the student.
  
• Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS): A framework to provide all students with the best opportunities to succeed academically and behaviorally in school.

N

• Nouns and noun phrases: They represent people, places, things, or ideas. A noun phrase includes a noun plus its modifiers, including articles and adjectives.

O

• Onset and rime: Intersyllabic units. The onset is the portion of the syllable that precedes the vowel. The rime is the portion of the syllable that contains the vowel sound and consonants that follow. Although not all syllables or words have an onset, all do have a rime.
  
• Orthography: The written system of a language, including correct spelling, according to established usage.

P

• Pedagogy: The science and art of teaching.
  
• Phonemes: The smallest units of speech that distinguish one utterance or word from another in a given language.
  
• Phonemic awareness: The ability to detect and manipulate the smallest units of sound (i.e., phoneme) in a spoken word.
  
• Phonics: A system of teaching reading and spelling that stresses the systematic relationship between symbols and sounds and the application of this knowledge to decoding words.
  
• Phonological awareness: A broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language, including syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes.
  
• Primary language: The first language a child learns to speak (EC Section 52163 [4] [g]). Primary language is a language other than the English that is the language the student first learned or the language that is spoken in the student’s home.
  
• Print concepts: Insights about the ways in which print works. Basic concepts about print include identification of a book’s front and back covers and title page; directionality; spacing; recognition of letters and words; connection between spoken and written language; understanding of the function of capitalization and punctuation; sequencing, and locating skills.
  
• Print-rich environment: An environment in which students are provided many opportunities to interact with print and an abundance and variety of printed materials are available and accessible. Students have many opportunities to read and be read to.
  
• Project based learning: An extended process of inquiry in response to a complex question, problem, or challenge. Projects are carefully planned, managed, and assessed to help students learn key academic content, practice 21st century skills (such as collaboration, communication, and critical thinking), and create high-quality, authentic products and presentations.
  
• Prosody: The defining feature of expressive reading and combines all the variables of timing, phrasing, emphasis, and intonation that speakers use to help convey aspects of meaning and to make their speech lively.

R

• Reading comprehension: The ability to apprehend meaning from print and understand text. At a literacy level, comprehension is the understanding of what an author has explicitly stated or the specific details provided in a text. At a higher-order level, comprehension involves reflective and purposeful understanding and inference making that is thought-intensive, analytic, and interpretive.
  
• Response to Intervention (RtI) (aka RtI²): Response to intervention, or response to intervention and instruction, integrates assessment and intervention within a multi-tiered prevention system to maximize student achievement and reduce behavior problems.
  
• Root word: A morpheme, usually of Latin origin in English, that cannot stand alone but that is used to form a family of words with related meanings. (Moats, 2000)

S

• Scaffolding: Temporary guidance or assistance provided to a student by a teacher, another adult, or a more capable peer, enabling the student to perform a task they would otherwise not be able to do alone, with the goal of fostering the student’s capacity to perform the task on his or her own later on.
  
• Self-monitoring: A metacognitive behavior by which students actively attend to their understanding of text. Self-monitoring includes the conscious effort to use decoding and comprehension strategies when students are aware they are experiencing difficulty.
  
• Sight vocabulary/sight words: Words that are read automatically on sight because they are familiar to the reader. They may be words that are taught as wholes because they are irregularly spelled or because the spelling-sound correspondences have not yet been taught. The term also may refer to regularly-spelled words that have been decoded enough times that they are now recognized with little conscious effort.
  
• Standard English: The most widely accepted and understood form of expression in English in the United States; used in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to refer to formal English writing and speaking; the particular focus of Language Standards 1 (L1) and 2 (L2).
  
• Structured/guided practice: A phrase of instruction that occurs after the teacher explicitly models, demonstrates, or introduces a skill or strategy. In this phase, students practice newly learned skills or strategies under teacher supervision and receive feedback on performance.
  
• Summative assessment: Measures of students’ progress toward and attainment of the knowledge and skills required to be college- and career-ready. Accurately describes both student achievement and growth of student learning as part of program evaluation and school, district, and state accountability systems. Assessments should be valid, reliable, and fair. (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium)
  
• Syllabication: The division of words into syllables, the minimal units of sequential speech sounds composed of a vowel sound or a vowel-consonant combination.
  
• Syllable: A unit of speech consisting of one uninterrupted vowel sound which may or may not be flanked by one or more consonants; uttered with a single impulse of the voice.
  
• Syntax: The study of the rules and patterns of the formation of grammatical sentences and phrases.
  
• Systematic instruction: The strategic design and delivery of instruction that examines the nature of the objective to be learned and selects and sequences the essential skills, examples, and strategies necessary to achieve the objective by (1) allocating sufficient time to essential skills; (2) scheduling information to minimize confusion on the part of the learner; (3) introducing information in manageable and sequential units; (4) identifying prerequisite skills and building on prior knowledge of the learner; (5) reviewing previously taught skills; (6) strategically integrating old knowledge with new knowledge; and (7) progressing from skills in easier, manageable contexts to more complex contexts

U

• Universal Design for Learning (UDL): A set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn.

W

• Word analysis: Refers to the process used to decode words, progressing from decoding of individual letter-sound correspondences, letter combinations, phonics analysis and rules, and syllabication rules to analyzing structural elements (including prefixes, suffixes, and roots). Advanced word-analysis skills include strategies for identifying multisyllabic words.
  
• Word recognition: The identification and subsequent translation of the printed word into its corresponding sound, leading to accessing the word’s meaning.
  
• Writing as a process (or process writing): The process used to create, develop, and complete a piece of writing. Depending on the purpose and audience for a particular piece of writing, students are taught to use the stages of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
  
• Writing types and purposes (text types): Three major types of writing are identified in the CCSS:
  • Argument/Opinion¹: A reasoned, logical way of demonstrating that the writer’s position, belief, or conclusion is valid. Students make claims about the word or meaning of a literary word or words and defend their interpretations or judgments with evidence from text. In grades K-5, the term opinion refers to this developing form of argument.
  • Informational/Expository: This writing conveys information accurately and serves one or more closely related purposes: to increase reader’s knowledge of a subject, to help readers better understand a procedure or process, or to provide readers with an enhanced comprehension of a concept.
  • Narrative: The writing conveys experience, either real or imaginary, and uses time as its structure. It can be used for many purposes, such as to inform, instruct, persuade, and entertain.