Terms Flashcards
Phoneme
The smallest part of spoken language that makes a difference in the meaning of words.
Phoneme Example
/K/ in kit, scat, skit, cat
Grapheme
The smallest part of written language that represents a phoneme in the spelling of a word.
A way of writing down a phoneme.
Grapheme Example
/n/ /igh/ /t/
Phonics
The connection between phonemes and graphemes.
Phonemic Awareness
The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.
This is an auditory skill (“lights out”) and does NOT involve a connection to written language
Syllable
A word part that contains a vowel, or, in spoken language, a vowel sound.
Onset and Rime
Parts of spoken language that are smaller than syllables but larger than phonemes.
Used to help children learn about word families.
Onset
The initial phonological unit of any word.
Rime
The part of the syllable that contains the vowel and all that follows it.
Onset and Rime Example
STEP
ST = onset
EP = rime
Alphabetic Principle
Speech sounds that are represented by letters and letter pairs
Alphabetic Principle Example
A child understands that the letter “m” makes the /mmm/ sound.
Environmental Print
Print found authentically in our environment.
Environmental Print Examples
Traffic signs, labels on foods, etc.
Emergent Literacy
A child’s knowledge or reading and writing skills before they learn how to read and write words.
Emergent Literacy Examples
Oral language, having books read to you, scribbling, etc.
Book Handling Skills
A child’s knowledge of how a book “works”
Book Handling Skills Examples
How to hold a book, tracking from left to right, front and back cover, etc.
Morpheme
Any unit in a word that carries meaning
Sometimes can not stand alone.
Morpheme Example
RATTLESNAKES
“Rattle”
“Snake”
“-s”
Base Word
Usually a simple word from which you can build a family of words around it
Base Word Example
JUMP
“Jumps”
“Jumping”
“Jumped”
Root Word
Refers to the origin of the word and has no prefix or suffix.
Prefix
A morpheme added to the beginning of the word
Suffix
A morpheme added to the end of the word
Affix
Prefixes and suffixes
Homograph
Two or more words spelled the same but have different meanings and origins.
May also be pronounced differently.
Homograph Example
“Lead”
- To guide the way for others
- The metal
Homonym
Two or more words that have the same pronunciations but different meanings, origins, or spellings.
Homonym Example
“to”, “two”, “too”
Homophone
Two or more words with the same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings
Homophone Example
“new” and “knew”
Oral Vocabulary
The vocabulary one can use appropriately in speech and can understand when heard aloud
Written Vocabulary
The words one can understanding in written form
Semantic Mapping
A strategy that visually displays the relationship among words and helps to categorize them
Assessment of emergent literacy print concepts
- Book orientation knowledge
- Understanding of principles involving the directional arrangement of print on the page
- The knowledge that print, not pictures, contains the story
- Understanding the important reading terminology such as “word”, “letter”, “beginning of sentence” and “top of page”
- Understanding of simple punctuation marks
Synthetic Phonics
- Part-to-whole in which the students learns the sounds represented by letters and letter combinations, blends these sounds to pronounce words, and finally identifies which phonics generalizations apply
- Development of phonemic awareness from the outset- the reader learns 44 phonemes and their related graphemes.
