In this series, we are discussing the A-Z of literacy terms, concepts & strategies. In part 1, we tackled letters A-D, and in part 2, we will discuss letters E-O.

Click here to read all of the articles in this 4-part series.

Echo Reading A reading strategy during which an adult reads a section of the text with fluency first; then the child copies the adult.

Emergent Reader A student who knows the basics, like letters and their sounds and is poised to start the early stages of reading.

Explicit Questions Questions that are straight from the text, the reader can go back and find the answer word-for-word.

Fiction A story that is made up and is not based in reality.

Fluency Is comprised of the reading rate (automaticity), word accuracy, and prosody. Reading with fluency has a positive impact on comprehension!

Handwriting The formation of letters while writing by hand.

Inflected Endings Word endings that are placed at the end of base words such as: -s, -es, -ed, or -ing.

Intonation Using the sound of your voice to convey meaning. For example, your voice inflects up a bit at the end of asking a question {a part of prosody}.

Letter Recognition The capacity to call out a letter that is shown or pick out a letter in a group of letters.

Literacy Coach A reading professional who provides professional development, support, and mentorship to classroom teachers so that they can be well versed in evidence-based practices that can be used to help students become literate. In certain duty configurations, the literacy coach may be called upon to screen students for reading disabilities, assess student’s present level of literacy, or perform interventions on students who are experiencing reading difficulties.

Literacy The capacity to read and write.

Long vowel A vowel that produces the sound of its letter name. We usually teach long vowels after short vowels because, even though it is much easier to hear the vowel sounds, the spelling patterns are less expectable than short vowel patterns.

Miscues Errors that kids experience while reading.

Multi-Sensory Teaching Using a combination of the five senses to teach a concept. This helps learning become meaningful for a specific student. This makes it easier for the learner to interact with the text and literacy in powerful ways.

Non-Fiction A story that is factual and based in reality.

Nonsense Words (pseudo-words) A word that appears to be an actual word in English, but is not. You can use nonsense words to find if the child can apply the “rules” of phonics without giving the child the scaffold of a real word.

Onset The initial part of a word before the vowel.

Well, that’s it for this article. In the next installment of this series, we will tackle letters P-R.