The earliest stage of oral language development in which a single word is used to represent an idea.

A written symbol for a phoneme (unit of sound). Examples include f for /f/or ph for /f/ and oy for /oi/ as in boy.

Learners in their beginning stages of writing. They are often young children engaged in experimentations with the written language, through scribbling for example, to convey a written message.

A form of spelling which assists the development of phonological awareness and is appropriate to the stages of spelling development (precommunicative, semi-phonetic, phonetic, and transitional). It is also referred to as invented or temporary spelling.

Assessment tools which measure the development of the strategies and subskills emphasized in a reading series or text based on grade-level.

A structural tool in which a reader determines meaning through textual clues and predicting words which could make sense in the sentence.

The act of describing what one has read, which can provide insight into the reader’s ability to engage with, understand, interpret, and draw conclusions from the text.

An examination of the number of errors that a reader makes without considering the type of error or impact on meaning.

In IRIs, an examination into the type of signals that a reader mistakenly makes to discover a pattern as well as to ascertain whether the mistaken cues impact the meaning of the text.

Evaluation methods which use technology to measure increasingly complex tasks and a wide variety of skills.