Literacy and Assessment Flashcards
Letter Recognition
the ability to name the letters in the alphabet and identify the characteristics of each letter
Letter recognition requires direct instruction that connects the letter shape to the letter name.
Embedded Phonics Approach
an approach to phonics instruction that involves implicitly teaching through reading or in context
A student learns to decode the word “snake” when reading a short story about a boy who goes hiking.
Early Reader (Stage of Reading Development)
Early readers begin understanding that reading from the printed page needs to make sense – both from the pictures and from the print
Running Record
A reading assessment administered as a student reads aloud and a teacher listens
Teachers may record miscues, note strategies used, observe fluency, and time for WPM to determine the next steps of action for a student’s reading instruction, including whether or not a student should move up a text level for guided reading.
Miscue - Pause
when the reader stops briefly either before or in the middle of a word
An English language learner pauses before pronouncing the word, “rural,” because “r” sounds are difficult for him.
Alphabetic Knowledge
The ability to recognize, name, and write letters.
Phonological Awareness
the understanding and ability to hear individual words, syllables, and sounds in spoken language apart from print
Phonemic Awareness / Sound Awareness
the ability to hear, identify, and re-create individual sounds in spoken words
A student can hear that”B” makes first sound in the word “blue”
Active Participants
students who pay attention with their whole bodies
Alphabetic Writing System
a writing system in which there is a symbol for each consonant and vowel
The English language uses an alphabetic writing system, but not all languages are represented in that way.
Alphabetic Principle
The understanding that there is a logical/systematic relationship between the sounds of spoken English and the letters and letter–patterns of written English.
Capitalization
the action of starting a word with a capital letter to signify a certain characteristic
The rules of capitalization differ in each language; for example, Spanish does not capitalize the days of the week, whereas English does.
Receptive Language
the ability to understand meaning from language
Alphabet
a set of basic written symbols, or letters, that represent the phonemes of a language
The English alphabet consists of 26 letters, each with one or more sounds.
Grapheme
A symbol, letter, or the combination of letters that represents a single sound.
“ph” makes a “f” sound
Summative Assessments
Assessment of learning. Given at specific points in time in order to determine what students know and don’t know. Summative assessments are generally formal.
State assessments, district benchmarks, semester or six weeks tests, and end of unit or chapter
Reading Fluency
The ability to read with appropriate speed, accuracy, and prosody
Directionality
the direction in which a language is read
The directionality of written English is from left to right.
Expressive Language
the ability to express meaning through language
Emergent Reader (Stage of Reading Development)
when children understand that written language has meaning and gives messages
Analogy-Based Phonics Approach
which students use knowledge of word patterns to decode new words
In an analogy-based phonics approach, to decode the unknown word “zap,” students would think of the word “map.”
Formative Assessments
Assessment for learning. Usually mid-instruction assessment with the purpose of assessing student progress and informing the teacher so instruction can be altered as needed.
graphic organizers, games
Miscue - Self-Correction
when the reader recognizes and corrects an error
A student notices that what he just read doesn’t make sense and goes back to correct his error.
Word Analysis
breaking down words into morphemes, or the smallest units of meaning
Word analysis can be useful as a decoding tool and can help to determine word meaning.
Syllabic Writing System
a writing system in which each character represents a syllable
Some languages, such as Japanese, use a syllabic writing system.
Curriculum-Based Assessments
testing the curriculum being taught
Positive Language Transfer
occurs when L1 knowledge facilitates the acquisition of L2
Positive language transfer occurs when students use what they know about sentence structure in their native language to help them understand sentence structure in the language they are acquiring.
Spelling-Based Phonics Approach
an approach to phonics instruction that involves spelling rules and phonemes
In a spelling-based phonics approach, students learn the sounds of each letter and put the sounds together to create a word.
Miscue - Repetition
when the reader repeats a word or group of words in the text
When reading, a student stumbles on his words and goes back to the beginning to restart the sentence.
Universal Screener
An assessment administered to all students to gather data and form groups, such as intervention groups
Phoneme
the smallest individual sounds in a word
The word “bit” has three phonemes – b – i – t.
Passive Participants
students who let their minds wander elsewhere
Formal Assessments
a usually post-instruction assessment with the purpose of assessing student knowledge, retention, and application. Often involve the use of a standardized rubric or scoring guide based on several criteria.
chapter tests, semester tests
Norm-Referenced Tests
Tests that compare an individual’s performance/achievement to a group called the “norm group.”
An IQ test
Exit Slips
A short formative assessment given by a teacher after completing a lesson to determine the degree to which students have learned the material taught in the lesson.
Miscue - Omission
when the reader skips over a word or group of words in the text
A reader who struggles with eye tracking skills omits an entire line when reading a text aloud.
Miscue
an incorrect guess of a word when reading
Suzy read “The snow was extra.” instead of “The snow was exciting.”
Automaticity
the ability to read words effortlessly
Early Fluent / Fluent / Proficient Reader (Stage of Reading Development)
readers recognize many words and can apply phonics and word analysis skills to figure out unfamiliar words
Diagnostic Assessment
assessment used to “diagnose” a specific difficulty a student is having
If a student is struggling to read a grade level passage, the teacher could perform a diagnostic assessment to determine what is causing the student’s difficulty.
Language Interference
differences between a learner’s native language and the language being learned, which can cause confusion in the acquisition of the new language
When a learner applies knowledge from one language incorrectly to another language resulting in word, syntax or pronunciation errors.
Portfolio
A collection of student’s work and achievements that is used to assess past accomplishments and future potential; can include finished work in a variety of media and can contain materials from several courses over time
Miscue - Insertion
when the reader adds a word or group of words to the text
An enthusastic reader adds the word “very” into a dialogue when reading.
Miscue - Substitution
when the reader replaces the word in the text with a different word
A reader reads, “She completed from A, B and C” instead of, “She completed form A, B and C”
Performance-Based Assessment
A kind of assessment that requires students to show mastery of specific skills by demonstrating, producing, or performing something
designing and performing experiments, building models, writing poems or shorts stories, and developing portfolios
Entry-Level Assessment
an assessment that occurs at the beginning of instruction, which is used to determine students’ current skill levels and allows the teacher to adjust instruction accordingly
A teacher provides an entry-level asssesment when starting a new unit to determine how much she needs to review some foundational skills before moving on to more advanced skills.
Diagnostic Assessment / Pre-Assessment
Assessment administered before instruction to determine students’ strengths and weaknesses
Punctuation
marks, such as period, comma, and parentheses, used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify meaning.
period
Ongoing Curriculum Based Assessment
a type of assessment used to track student progress throughout instruction
Ongoing curriculum-based assessments can be used to assess the effectiveness of an instructional plan
Informal Assessments
More flexible than formal assessments and can be adjusted to fit the situation and particular needs of the student being tested
observations during a lesson
Progress Monitoring
periodic assessments to monitor student growth and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction
The teacher prepared a progress monitoring assessment to see how much each student had improved and learn if his new instructional approach was effective.
Criterion-Referenced Tests
Tests in which a standard has been set for the test taker to achieve in order to pass the test.
A multiple choice or short answer test on the content of a unit of study in which a 70% is needed to pass.
Synthetic Phonics Approach
an accelerated approach to phonics instruction that explicitly teaches how to convert letters into sounds (phonemes) and then blend the sounds to form words.
A teacher first teaches the sounds of each letter and then focuses on how to blend the sounds together to pronounce whole words
Analytic Phonics Approach
a common approach to phonics instruction in which students are taught to recognize whole words by sight and then to break down words into smaller units of sound
The analytic phonics method teaches students about spelling and letter patterns and their sounds. For example, if the student knows “man” and “ran”, then the word “tan” should be easy to read.
Logographic Writing System
a writing system in which characters represent words or phrases
Some languages, such as Chinese, use a logographic writing system.
Decoding
In reading out loud, being able to sound out words by breaking them into simple forms. In reading for comprehension, the understanding of how to read each letter or letter pattern in a word to determine the word’s meaning
Print Concepts
The general rules governing text
text is read from left to right and top to bottom
