Matrix/VLP-SAT Glossary

The terms in this glossary are defined as they are used or referred to in the Verizon Life Span Literacy Matrix and as they are used in this Verizon Literacy Program Self-Assessment Tool. Sources for some of the definitions include:

Armbruster, B. B., Lehr, R., & Osborn, J. (2001). Put reading first: The research building blocks for literacy. Washington, DC: The Partnership for Reading: National Institute for Literacy, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and U.S. Department of Education.

Greene, F. & Monson, D. (eds.). (1995). The literacy dictionary: The vocabulary of reading and writing. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

McShane, S. (2006). Applying research in reading instruction to adults: First steps for teachers. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy.

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. (n.d.). Glossary of reading- related terms. Retrieved October 12, 2003, from http://www.sedl.org/reading/framework/glossary.html

Accuracy (in word identification) n. The ability to correctly identify words while reading.

Affix n. An attachment to the end or beginning of a base or root word. A generic term that describes prefixes and suffixes.

Alliteration n. The repetition of the initial sounds in neighboring words or stressed syllables, as "The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew / The furrow followed free" (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner").

Alphabet Knowledge n. A state of familiarity with the alphabet, which is the complete set of letters or other graphic symbols representing speech sounds used in writing a language or in phonetic transcription.

Alphabetic Principle n. Understanding that spoken words are decomposed into phonemes, and that the letters in written words represent the phonemes in spoken words when spoken words are represented in text.

Alphabetics Skills n. The skills related to using letters to represent the sounds of language (the sound-symbol relationship); includes both phonemic awareness and decoding.

Analogy n. A partial similarity; a general comparability or likeness; a vocabulary development game designed to elicit associations between a concept and students’ background knowledge.

Antonym n. A word opposite in meaning to another word, e.g., hot/cold.

Application v. To use or practice a method or strategy to help understand a reading selection.

Base Word n. A word to which affixes may be added to create related words; for example, teach in reteach or teaching.

Benchmarks n. Standards by which something can be measured or judged.

Blend 1. v. To combine the sounds represented by letters to pronounce a word; sound out; 2. n. The joining of the sounds represented by two or more letters with minimal change in those sounds; consonant cluster.

Blending v. The task of combining sounds rapidly to accurately represent the word.

Book Awareness n. An understanding of the nature of books and how they are organized, how to follow the words on a page, reading from left to right and top to bottom, and moving from front to back.

Choral (or Unison) Reading n. Group reading aloud. Note: Choral reading may be used with a group to develop oral fluency or to make a presentation to an audience. It may also be used by two people, one of whom usually is a better reader and serves as a model during the reading.

Clarification v. The process of making clear or easier to understand.

Comprehension n. The reconstruction of the intended meaning of a communication; accurately understanding what is written or said.

Comprehension Monitoring n. In the act of reading, the noting of one’s successes and failures in developing or attaining meaning, usually with reference to an emerging conception of the meaning of the text as a whole, and adjusting one’s reading processes accordingly.

Comprehension Skills n. Skills that may be useful for teaching students how to understand what they have read, e.g., finding main idea, recognizing sequence.

Comprehension Strategies n.  A systematic sequence of steps for understanding text, e.g., comprehension monitoring, question answering.

Computer-Assisted Instruction n An automated learning program presented step by step by a computer with responses from the evaluated and indicated as correct or not.

Computer-Based Activities n. Activities presented on a computer to provide instruction or remediation to help learners master specific skills or knowledge. Reading and writing activities using a computer; may include games, online discussions, assigned tasks, or use of instructional programs.

Computer-Based Programs n. Programs designed to use computers to deliver instructional lessons through tutorials, drill and practice, games, simulation, and modeling.

Content Area n. Refers to specific areas of study—usually refers to mathematics, science, social studies and language arts.

Content Learning n. Areas of study (literature, science, social studies, and mathematics) that have specialized vocabulary and unique patterns of organization.

Context n. The sounds, words, or phrases adjacent to a spoken or written language unit; linguistic environment; the social or cultural situation in which a spoken or written message occurs.

Context Clue n. Information from the immediate textual setting that helps identify the meaning of a word or word group, as by words, phrases, sentences, illustrations, syntax, typography, etc.

Context-Eliciting Question n. Who, What, Where, When, and Why questions asked by adults to children in order to prompt children to respond to the context of a story or experience.

Cooperative Learning n. Any pattern of classroom organization that allows students to work together to achieve their individual goals. Also collaborative learning.

Curriculum-based Assessment n. Assessments included in the student's curriculum materials to evaluate ongoing progress and achievement.

Core Reading Program n. The primary reading program for the school that is used by teachers as the basis for reading instruction to ensure students meet grade-level standards.

Decode v. Using knowledge of the conventions of spelling-sound relationships and knowledge about pronunciation of irregular words to derive a pronunciation of written words.

Decoding Skills n. Those conventions of spelling-sound relationships and knowledge about pronunciation of irregular words used to derive the pronunciation of written words.

Diagnostic Assessment n. Assessment designed to determine, prior to instruction, each student's strengths, weaknesses, knowledge and skills. Establishing these permits the instructor to provide appropriate instruction and adjust the curriculum to meet each learner’s unique needs.

Dialogic Reading n. The process of incorporating conversation as an oral technique in teaching reading skills. Dialogic Reading is based on the research of Grover Whitehurst, et al. (1994).

Digraphs n. A group of two consecutive letters whose phonetic value is a single sound (e.g., /ea/ in bread, /ng/ in sing).

Diphthongs n. A vowel sound produced when the tongue moves or glides from one vowel sound toward another vowel or semivowel sound in the same syllable, as /ī/in buy and the vowel sounds in bee, bay, boo, boy, and bough.

Direct Instruction 1. n. Explicit teaching of content and strategies through a structured approach. 2. n. A prescribed program of reading instruction that follows identified content and strategies. (Also referred to as Direct/Explicit Instruction.)

Direct Vocabulary Instruction n, Planned instruction to pre-teach new, important, and difficult words to ensure the quantity and quality of exposure to word that students will encounter in their reading.

Dynamic Assessment n. Refers to an assess-teach-assess procedure. That is, if a child performs poorly on an assessment, you might provide some instruction in the content being assessed and then reassess. If the child does better the second time, the assessment suggests that the child has not been exposed to the things from which he might have learned the content. 

Early Literacy n. Development of the association of print with meaning that begins early in a child's life and continues until the child reaches the stage of conventional reading and writing; the domain of skills and abilities of young children prior to development of conventional literacy.

Early Writing n. Children progress through various stages as they learn to write conventionally, the typical behaviors exhibited are scribbles and drawings, letter-like symbols, letter-strings, and invented spelling.

Explicit, Structured Curriculum n. A reading instructional program (usually based on phonics instruction) that includes direct teaching of all necessary concepts and skills, according to a prescribed sequence, one step at a time, progressing gradually to more difficult material, and including systematic practice and review.

Figurative Language n. Language that departs from its literal meaning and that is enriched by word images and figures of speech (e.g., as strong as an ox, my head is spinning, the road was a ribbon of moonlight.

First-Sound Isolation n. The ability to recognize the initial sound in a word or syllable. See Phoneme Isolation.

Fluency n. The ability to read text accurately, quickly, effortlessly and with expression.

Genre n. A category of artistic, musical, or literacy composition characterized by a particular style, form or content.

Grammar n. The system of rules by which words are formed and put together to make sentences within languages.

Graphic Organizer n. A diagram or chart that visually represents the relationships among ideas and information in a text. Some kinds of graphic organizers are called maps or webs.

Guided Practice n. Opportunities for students to try out various reading strategies with support from the teacher.

Guided Reading n. Reading instruction in which the teacher supports readers in using and developing effective strategies for processing new texts at increasingly challenging levels of difficulty; leads to successful and independent use of reading strategies.

Guided, Repeated Oral Reading n. A research-based practice for developing reading fluency; involves repeated oral reading of selections of text, with modeling, guidance, or other assistance provided.

Homonyms n. Words that sound the same, but are spelled differently, e.g., hear and here.

Homophone n. A word with different origin and meaning but the same pronunciation as another word, whether or not spelled alike, as hare and hair, or scale (of a fish) and scale (a ladder).

Independent Learning Centers n. Places in a classroom for students to work in small groups, pairs or individually while the teacher is conducting small group instruction.

Indirect Approach (for teaching vocabulary) n. Teaching or learning new vocabulary by hearing and seeing words used in many different contexts; for example, through conversations with others, through being read to, and through reading extensively on one’s own.

Indirect Vocabulary Instruction n. See Indirect Approach (for teaching vocabulary).

Individualized Education Program n. A written statement, or education plan, for each child with a disability that is developed, reviewed and revised in accordance with the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) n. A plan that documents and guides the early intervention process for children with disabilities and their families in accordance with Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It contains information about the services needed to aid in a child’s development and enhance the family’s capacity to facilitate the child’s development. Families and service workers plan, implement and evaluate services tailored to the family's unique concerns, priorities and resources.

Inflection n. The process or result of changing the form of a word to express a syntactic function without changing the word’s grammatical class, as run to ran or run to runs.

Informal Reading Inventory n. Survey designed to help determine a student’s reading instructional needs.

Invented Spelling n. The attempt by a child, based on some knowledge of the spelling system, to spell a word whose spelling is not already known. It is based on the child's emerging awareness of conventional spelling patterns.

Job-Embedded v. Grounded in daily work activities.

Language Delay n. An achievement in expressive or receptive language that is below expected norms for chronological age or grade level.

Learning Standards n Statements that represent what learners should know, understand and be able to do as a result of attending school or an educational program.

Letter Identification n. The ability to name or recognize letters of the alphabet.

Letter-Sound Correspondence n. The relationship between a letter and its sound.

Letter-Sound Instruction n. See Phonics.

Main Idea n. The central thought or message of a piece of text.

Miscue Analysis n. A formal examination of the use of miscues as the basis for determining the strengths and weaknesses in the background experiences and language skills of students as they read.

Modeling n. The act of serving as an example for a reading behavior or reading strategy.

Monitored Oral Reading n. Commonly called “repeated reading” this approach to improving fluency involves the student reading passages aloud several times and receiving guidance and feedback from the teacher.

Morpheme n. The smallest meaningful unit of speech. A morpheme can be a free form (as in pin) or a bound form (-s in pins), that contains no smaller meaningful parts. The morpheme is a subcomponent of vocabulary; many words only have one morpheme, but some, such as compound words or words with affixes, have more than one.

Multiple-Strategies Instruction n. A method that teaches students how to use strategies flexibly as needed in order to assist their comprehension. A well-known example is called 'reciprocal teaching,' in which the teacher and students work together so that the students learn four comprehension strategies: asking questions about the text, summarizing parts of the text, clarifying confusing words or sentences, and predicting what might occur next in the text.

Narrative Talk n. Practice in which an adult (most likely a parent) narrates his/her activities to a child in a stream-of-consciousness fashion (e.g., "Now I am going to stir the soup. I better get a wooden spoon out of the drawer first. Let's see. Yes, the spoons are here in this drawer by the sink...").

Onset n. That part of a syllable preceding the vowel such as str in strip.

Open-Ended Question n. A type of question used to explore a person's understanding of what is read or heard and intended to produce a free response rather than a directed one; a question that encourages divergent rather than convergent thinking; a question that cannot be answered yes or no.

Oral Language n. Spoken communication as opposed to written communication.

Oral Reading n. The process of reading aloud to communicate to another or to an audience; the act of oral interpretation, as giving a dramatic reading.

Oral Vocabulary n. The words that one uses in speaking or recognizes in listening.

Outcomes Measurement n. The documentation of learning—over time—that may be attributed to instruction; the assessment of learners' skills and knowledge after a period of instruction.

Paired Reading n. A method for improving reading achievement where a less-skilled and more-skilled reader read a text together. The less-skilled reader takes over reading sections when he feels confident.

Parallel Talk n. Practice in which an adult (most likely a parent) verbally directs comments to his/her child regarding the child's current activities (e.g., "You are trying to reach your toes, aren't you?" “Look at the big, brown bear you are holding!""I see you smiling at mommy.").

Partner Reading n. Paired students take turns reading aloud to each other. This can be done by pairing a more fluent reader with a less fluent reader, or by pairing together children who read at the same level.

Pausing Indices n. A procedure used to assess reading fluency that is based on a four-point scale; level one represents readers who read word by word, while level four represents those who pause only at the boundaries of meaningful phrases and clauses.

Phoneme n. A minimal sound unit of speech that, when contrasted with another phoneme, affects the meaning of words in a language, as /b/ in book contrasts with /t/ in took, /k/ in cook, and /h/ in hook.

Phoneme Addition n. Forming a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word; if you add /s/ to park you get spark.

Phonemic Awareness Skills n. Skills that are used to understand and manipulate phonemes (e.g., rhyming, blending, segmentation).

Phoneme Blending n. Listening to a sequence of separately spoken phonemes and combining these phonemes to form a word, which can then be written and read; /b/ /i/ /g/ is the word big.

Phoneme Categorization n. The ability to recognize the word in a set of three or four words that has the "odd" sound; for example, rug does not belong in the sequence bus, bun, and rug because it does not begin with /b/.

Phoneme Deletion n. The recognition of the word that remains when a phoneme is removed from another word; smile without the /s/ is mile.

Phoneme Identity n. The recognition of the same sounds in different words; the first sounds, /f/, is the same in fix, fall, and fun.

Phoneme Isolation n. The recognition of individual sounds in a word; the first sound in van is /v/.

Phoneme Manipulation n. When children or adults work with phonemes in words. There are many types of phoneme manipulation, including blending, segmenting, deleting, adding, and substituting phonemes.

Phoneme Segmentation n. Breaking a word into its separate sounds, saying each sound as you tap out or count it, and then writing and reading the word; for example, there are four sounds in grab, /g/ /r/ /a/ /b/.

Phoneme Substitution n. Substituting one phoneme for another to make a new word; by changing the /g/ in bug to /n/ you get the word bun.

Phonemic Analysis n. Tasks that require the learner to break apart phonemes to analyze words and word parts as in phoneme segmentation, phoneme isolation, phoneme identity and phoneme categorization.

Phonemic Awareness n. The awareness of the sounds (phonemes) that make up spoken words.

Phonic Elements n. Initial consonants, consonant digraphs, consonant blends, vowels, vowel digraphs, and other letter combinations that are studied as a part of phonics.

Phonics n. A way of teaching reading and spelling that stresses symbol-sound relationships, used especially in beginning instruction.

Phonics Rules n. Generalizations of sound-symbol relationships  that may help students decode words.

Phonogram n. A vowel plus a final consonant sound as ed in red, bed, fed.

Phonological Awareness n. A broad term that includes awareness of phonemes, rhymes, words, syllables, and onsets and rimes.

Pragmatic adj. The use of language that reflects understanding of accepted social and cultural interactions as the basis of practical day-to-day situations.

Predict v. To determine a possible outcome before reading a selection.

Prediction n.  A statement made foretelling a possible outcome before reading a selection.

Pre-reading Activities n. Activities done immediately before reading a selection that are designed to help a reader understand what he is going to read,  such as identifying the purpose for reading.

Pre-reading Skills n. Activities designed to develop needed attitudes and skills before formal instruction in reading.

Print Awareness n. A learner's growing recognition of conventions and characteristics of a written language. This includes such features as the recognition of directionality in reading text, that print in the form of words corresponds to speech, that white space marks the boundaries of printed words, etc.

Print Concepts n. A part of print awareness that refers to an understanding of how print works and how it looks; for example, when children are exposed to a variety of print, they learn that English print reads from left to right and top to bottom, that books have a front and a back, and that words have white spaces between them.

Print-Referencing Practices n. Adult-child shared reading practice in which the adult verbally (e.g., question asking) or nonverbally (e.g., pointing to words or letters) explicitly directs the child's attention to the print in the book.

Prosody n. The pitch, loudness, tempo, and rhythm patterns of spoken language.

Question Answering n. A reading strategy in which teachers guide and monitor students' comprehension by asking students questions about what they have read.

Question Generation n. A reading strategy in which students generate questions during reading to help them make inferences about what they are reading in order to gain greater understanding of the text.

Rate of Reading n. An individual's reading speed.

Rating Scales n. An instrument, sometimes in graphic form, for identifying selected aspects of students’ reading skills.

Reader's Theater n. A performance of literature, as a story, play, poetry, etc., read aloud expressively by one or more persons, rather than acted.

Reading Comprehension Strategies – principles, rules, or processes that readers use to understand text. Eight specific strategies have been identified by the research: comprehension monitoring, graphic organizers, story structure, question answering, question generating, summarization, multiple strategies instruction and cooperative learning.

Reading Disability n. A condition characterized by reading achievement that is significantly below expectancy for both an individual’s reading potential and for chronological age or grade level.

Reading Inventory n. An individually administered oral test designed to help determine a learner's reading instructional needs.

Reading Vocabulary n. The number of different words recognized and understood in reading.

Reading Work Samples n. Student work in reading that might include a completed timeline, graphic organizer, or a poem written in response to a book.

Recast v. To remodel or refashion, as in a child's verbal utterances or expressions.

Receptive Vocabulary n. Refers to the words a person understands upon hearing them in speech or when reading. It is distinguished from expressive vocabulary, which refers to those words understood and used by an individual in speaking and writing.

Relating Words to their Attributes v. Making connections between words and their
features or characteristics.

Research-based Reading Instruction n. The teaching of reading is based on findings from research studies in the field of reading.

Rhyme 1. n. Identical or very similar recurring final sounds in words within or, more often, at the ends of lines of verse. 2. v. To write, speak or sing words or lines of verse with such recurring sounds.

Rime n. That part of a word or syllable that includes the vowel and any following consonant such as im in swim (sw is the onset).

Root n. The basic part of a word that usually carries a main component of meaning and that cannot be further analyzed without loss of identity; in a complex word, the meaningful base form after all affixes are removed. Note: A root may be independent, or free, as read in unreadable, or may be dependent, or bound, as -liter- (from the Greek for letter) in illiterate.

Root Word n. A word from another language that is the origin of an English word; about sixty percent of all English words have Latin or Greek origins.

Running Record n. A cumulative account of selected behavior, as of that of a student noted by a teacher over time.

Scaffold v. To gradually withdraw adult support, as through instruction, modeling, questioning, feedback, etc., for a child's performance across successive engagements, thus transferring more autonomy to the child.

Screening Assessment n. A process used to determine the possible existence of a problem for which further assessment is indicated. 

Segment v. To separate words into distinct parts, such as syllables, prefixes, onsets, rimes or phonemes.

Semantic adj. Pertaining to the study of meaning in language, as in the analysis of the meanings of words, phrases, sentences, discourse, and whole texts.

Semantic Organizer n. Graphic organizers that look somewhat like a spider web in which lines connect a central concept to a variety of related ideas and events.

Sequence n. The following of one thing after another; a progression; events or actions that happen or are done in a particular order.

Shared Reading n. A reading strategy where the adult involves a child or small group of children in reading a book, introduces conventions of print and new vocabulary, and encourages predictions, rhyming, discussion of pictures, and other interactive experiences.

Sight Word n. A word that is immediately recognized as a whole and does not require word analysis for identification. Note: Words that are phonically irregular or are important to learn before students have the skills to decode them are often taught as sight words.

Signal Words n. Signal words give hints about what is about to happen in what is being read. Understanding them is a key to comprehension.

Sound-Symbol Relationship n. The relationship between the use of letters in a language and the corresponding sounds they represent; may also be referred to as Letter-Sound Correspondence.

Special Education Teachers/Staff n. Specially trained teachers who work with children and youth who have a variety of disabilities, which can include specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, multiple disabilities, hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments, visual impairments, autism, combined deafness and blindness, traumatic brain injury, and other health impairments.

Standardization n. The process, act, or result of establishing criteria for the evaluation of something; specifically, in educational testing, the building of tests to meet established criteria with respect to validity, reliability, curriculum relevancy, etc.

Standardized Tests n. Tests administered under fixed or standard conditions in order to control for factors beyond the learners’ skills or knowledge that might affect test performance.

Story Structure n. An understanding of the general organization, structure, and features of stories that improves students’ comprehension and memory.

Structural Analysis n. A strategy for identifying and defining words that involves attention to word parts, including prefixes, suffixes and root words.

Student-Adult Reading n. The student reads one-on-one with an adult. The adult reads the text first, providing the students with a model of fluent reading. Then the student reads the same passage to the adult with the adult providing assistance and encouragement. The student rereads the passage until the reading is quite fluent. This should take approximately three to four readings.

Summarization n. A synthesis of the important ideas in a text; requires students to determine what is important in what they are reading, to condense this information, and to put it into their own words.

Supporting Details n. Support the topic sentence of a text passage or provide more detail about the topic sentence. Supporting details could be facts, personal experiences, examples, descriptions or arguments for or against something.

Synonyms n. Words that have a similar meaning, e.g., buy, purchase; baby, infant.

Syllable n. A minimal unit of sequential speech sounds comprised of a vowel sound or a vowel-consonant combination. In most languages, vowels play a central role in syllable formation since, by definition, a syllable always contains a vowel or vowel-like speech sound.

Syllable Awareness n. An awareness of syllables, the minimal units of sequential speech sounds comprised of a vowel sound or a vowel-consonant combination, and their function.

Syntactic adj. Referring to the study of how sentences are formed and of the grammatical rules that govern their formation; the pattern or structure of word order in sentences, clauses, and phrases.

Syntax n. The study of how sentences are formed and of the grammatical rules that govern their formation.

Systematic Phonics Instruction n. Also referred to as explicit, systematic phonics, a program or way of instructions that includes precise directions for teaching a carefully selected set of letter-sound relationships that have been organized in a logical sequence.

Tape-Assisted Reading n. Students read along in their books as they hear a fluent reader read the book on an audiotape. For the first reading, the student should follow along with the tape, pointing to each word in her or his book as the reader reads it. Next, the student should try to read aloud along with the tape. Reading along with the tape should continue until the student is able to read the book independently, without the support of the tape.

Technology-Assisted Instruction n. Instruction delivered through the use of electronic or digital products and/or systems.

Text n. The entirety of a linguistic communication, as a conversation and its substantial context; a segment of spoken or written language available for description or analysis; written or printed matter on a page or in a book, in contrast to illustrations.

Text Comprehension n. An active, intentional process in which the reader engages with the text to both extract and construct meaning from written language.

Timed Oral Reading n. Noting the number of minutes and seconds that oral reading of a selection takes.

Timed Reading n. Noting the number of minutes and seconds that reading takes.

Valid Assessment n. Assessment that measures what it is intended to measure. Validity refers to the interpretation and use of test scores. If a test score accurately represents the abilities it is intended to measure, programs and teachers can feel confident about decisions based on the score.

Verbalization n. Expressing oneself in words; making an utterance.

Verbal Reciprocity n. Engaged conversation between an adult and child in which both are active participants and encourage the verbal response of the other.

Vocabulary n. All the words of a language; the words understood by individuals; a list of words, as in a dictionary or glossary.

Word Analysis n. A general, imprecise label applied to word identification or decoding.

Word Attack n. Another term for word identification or decoding.

Word Identification n. The process of determining the pronunciation and some degree of meaning of an unknown word; also referred to as word recognition. Note: Word-identification skills commonly taught are phonic analysis, structural analysis, context clues, configuration clues, dictionary skills, and sometimes picture clues.

Word Reading n. The ability to recognize and read words individually in printed or written form.

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