Glossary
Adequate Yearly Progress, Small Learning Communities, Explicit Instruction—do you know what these phrases mean? Find these and other commonly used terms related to reading, literacy, and reading instruction in our glossary.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Academic English
The English language ability required for academic achievement in context-reduced situations, such as classroom lectures and textbook reading assignments. This is sometimes referred to as Cognitive/Academic Language Proficiency (CALP).
Accommodation
Techniques and materials that allow individuals with LD to complete school or work tasks with greater ease and effectiveness. Examples include spellcheckers, tape recorders, and expanded time for completing assignments.
Accuracy
The ability to recognize words correctly.
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
An individual state's measure of yearly progress toward achieving state academic standards. "Adequate Yearly Progress" is the minimum level of improvement that states, school districts and schools must achieve each year.
Affix
Part of word that is "fixed to" either the beginnings of words (prefixes) or the endings of words (suffixes). The word disrespectful has two affixes, a prefix (dis-) and a suffix (-ful).
Age Equivalent Score
In a norm-referenced assessment, individual student's scores are reported relative to those of the norming population. This can be done in a variety of ways, but one way is to report the average age of people who received the same score as the individual child. Thus, an individual child's score is described as being the same as students that are younger, the same age, or older than that student (e.g. a 9 year old student my receive the same score that an average 13 year old student does, suggesting that this student is quite advanced).
Alphabetic Principle
The basic idea that written language is a code in which letters represent the sounds in spoken words.
Analogical Problem Solving
A problem solving approach that involves remembering a similar (or analogous) problem that was solved previously and applying the solution to the current problem.
Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Developmentally inappropriate behavior, including poor attention skills, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. A person can be predominantly inattentive (often referred to as ADD), predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, or a combination of these two.
Authentic Assessment
Authentic assessment presents students with real-world challenges that require them to apply their relevant skills and knowledge. Authentic assessments are typically criterion-referenced rather than norm-referenced; such evaluation identifies strengths and weaknesses, but does not compare or rank students. Students are asked to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, or competencies in whatever way they find appropriate.
Automaticity
Automaticity is a general term that refers to any skilled and complex behavior that can be performed rather easily with little attention, effort, or conscious awareness. These skills become automatic after extended periods of training. With practice and good instruction, students become automatic at word recognition, that is, retrieving words from memory, and are able to focus attention on constructing meaning from the text, rather than decoding.
Base Words
Words from which many other words are formed. For example, many words can be formed from the base word migrate: migration, migrant, immigration, immigrant, migrating, migratory.
Bilingual Education
An educational program in which two languages are used to provide content matter instruction. Bilingual education programs vary in their length of time, and in the amount each language is used.
Blend
A consonant sequence before or after a vowel within a syllable, such as cl, br, or st; it is the written language equivalent of consonant cluster.
Cloze Passage
A cloze passage is a reading comprehension exercise in which words have been omitted in a systematic fashion. Students fill in the blanks, and their responses are counted correct if they are exact matches for the missing words. Cloze exercises assess comprehension and background knowledge, and they are also excellent indicators of whether the reading level and language level of the text are appropriate for a given student.
Cognates
Words in different languages related to the same root, e.g. education (English) and educación (Spanish).
Comprehension
The reason for reading: understanding what is read by reading actively (making sense from text) and with purpose (for learning, understanding, or enjoyment).
Comprehension Strategies
Techiniques to teach reading comprehension, including summarization, prediction, and inferring word meanings from context.
Comprehension Strategy Instruction
The explicit teaching of techniques that are particularly effective for comprehending text. The steps of explicit instruction include direct explanation, teacher modeling ("think aloud"), guided practice, and application. Some strategies include direct explanation (the teacher explains to students why the strategy helps comprehension and when to apply the strategy), modeling (the teacher models, or demonstrates, how to apply the strategy, usually by "thinking aloud" while reading the text that the students are using), guided practice (the teacher guides and assists students as they learn how and when to apply the strategy) and application (the teacher helps students practice the strategy until they can apply it independently).
Connected Instruction
A way of teaching systematically in which the teacher continually shows and discusses with the students the relationship between what has been learned, what is being learned, and what will be learned.
