Helpful Terms to Know
alphabetic principle
The understanding that written letters represent sounds. For example, the word big has three sounds and three letters.
literacy
Includes all the activities involved in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and appreciating both spoken and written language.
blending
Putting together individual sounds to make spoken words
phonological awareness
The understanding that spoken language is made up of individual and separate sounds. Phonological awareness activities can involve work with rhymes, words, sentences, syllables, and phonemes (individual sounds in words)
comprehension
The ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read
segmentation
Taking spoken words apart sound by sound.
fluency
sight words
The ability to read text accurately and quickly and with expression and comprehension
Words that a reader recognizes without having to sound them out. Some sight words are “irregular,” or have letter-sound relationships that are uncommon. Some examples of sight words are you, are, have, and said.