Reading Glossary
General reading terms used in MNPS for grades K-12.
Terms
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- phoneme blending
- - the process whereby the student listens to the teacher pronounce a series of isolated sounds. The student listens to the sounds and puts them together to make a word (e.g., The teacher says, c/a/t; the student says, cat.).
- denotation
- the explicit or direct meaning of a word or expression as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with or suggested by it; dictionary definition.
- scan
- - to examine or read something quickly but selectively for a purpose.
- TEL
- Tennessee Electronic Library - an online index equivalent to a Reader's Guide of Periodical Literature
- phonemic awareness
- the awareness that language is composed of small sounds.
- appeal to reason
- an author's ability to persuade the reader through an appeal to rational thinking.
- SQ3R
- a reading to learn strategy that includes the following process: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review.
- plagiarism
- - the theft and use of ideas or writings from an existing source presented as one's own.
- skim
- to glance rapidly; to get an overview of the text.
- text
- printed communications in their varied forms; oral communications, including conversation and speeches; visual communication such as film, video, and computer displays.
- affix
- a bound morpheme (prefix, suffix, or combining form) that changes the meaning or function of the word to which it is attached. For example, "pre-," "-tion," and "-logy."
- contextual analysis
- - search for the meaning of an unknown word through an examination of its context.
- appeal to authority
- - the author's ability to give credence to an argument by using an individual or other source as an expert.
- syntax
- the way words are put together in a sentence.
- connotation
- the ideas and feelings associated with the word as opposed to its dictionary definition. For example, the word mother in addition to its basic meaning (a female parent) has connotations of love, warmth, and security.
- etymology
- - the study of the history and development of the structures and meanings of words; derivation.
- reading to learn
- - the use of reading skills to acquire knowledge, broaden understandings, and develop appreciations.
- phoneme isolation
- the process whereby the teacher says a word slowly. The student is asked to identify the sounds heard within the word (e.g., The teacher says, cat; the student says c/a/t.).
- copyright
- the right granted by law to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to the exclusive publication, production, sale or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic piece of work. In the US this right extends for 28 years.
- homophone
- a word with different origin or meaning but the same pronunciation as another word, whether or not it is spelled alike, as "hare" and "hair" or "scale" (of fish) and "scale" (a ladder).
- inflectional ending
- suffixes that change the number, case, or gender when added to nouns; the tense when added to verbs; and the form when added to adjectives or adverbs.
- self-monitoring
- when a reader uses information from any source to check his/her own reading. This is not a conscious process, but an internal system that tells the reader whether the reading makes sense.
- structural analysis
- the identification of word meaning elements to help understand the meaning of a word as a whole, such as "re-" and "read" in the word reread.
- word chunking
- in contrast to sounding out words by looking at individual letters, word chunking includes using a combination of letter-sound information that goes together such as letter clusters "gr" + "and" = grand, "st" + "and" = stand. This type of visual processing aids in quick recognition of word parts and enhances comprehension.
- phoneme
- the smallest unit of speech that distinguishes one utterance or word from another in a given language. The "m" of mat and the "b" of bat are two English phonemes.
- digraphs
- two letters that represent one speech sound, such as "ch" for /ch/ in chin or "ea" for /e/ in bread.
- fluency
- - the process of automatically, accurately, and rapidly recognizing words; reading smoothly without hesitation and with comprehension.
- morpheme
- - (word part) the smallest unit of meaning in language (e.g., under).
- SIRS
- Social Issues Resource Series - original periodical reprints on a variety of social issues, either in notebooks, CD-ROM, or online services.
- mood
- the emotional state of mind expressed by an author in his/her work; atmosphere.
- homograph
- a word with the same spelling as another word, whether or not it is pronounced alike as: bow (and arrow) vs. bow (of a ship) or pen (a writing instrument) vs. pen (an enclosure).
- tone
- the writer's implied attitude toward the subject matter or audience of a text that readers may infer from the text's language, imagery, and structure. (as compared to mood - the effect created by the writer's use of literary devices).
- context clue
- - information from the immediate textual setting that helps identify a word or word group, as by words, phrases, sentences, illustrations, syntax, etc.
- header
- a text feature that includes headlines, heading, etc.
- phonics
- a way of teaching reading and spelling that stresses sound-symbol relationships.
- diphthong
- is made up of two vowels blended together to make one sound. For example, cloud, boy, oil, cow, new.