"School Words" To Know

"School Words" To Know sections include: (click to view the section)

Learning

Language Development

Reading

Writing

Assessment/Testing

Learning

Curriculum - an overall plan or design of schools for instruction; the total program of study offered by a school

Early intervention - programs for children with special needs in early childhood education intended to prevent potential problems in literacy development

Gifted - demonstrating exceptional ability

Learning Centers/Workstations - spaces in the classroom filled with materials for independent student activity focusing on current topics of study

Learning Disabled - demonstrating significant difficulty reading, writing, listening, speaking, and/or computing math

Mainstreaming - placing children with special needs in regular classroom settings for part or all of the day to provide social and instructional support

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Language Development

Morning Message - a daily message about topics of interest to children in which the teacher demonstrates how to write.

Response Groups - groups of children talking to each other about books they are reading and pieces they are writing

Thinkaloud - a strategy in which children talk about what they have read or written about a story or the teacher talks out loud to demonstrate her thinking as she reads, writes, or problem solves.

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Reading

Ability grouping - the placement of students according to similar levels of intelligence or achievement in some skill or subject, either within or among classrooms or schools

Background or prior knowledge - knowledge based upon previous experiences which impacts how a child reads and interprets information and stories

Basal Reading Program - a collection of student texts and workbooks, teacher's manuals, and supplemental materials for reading and sometimes writing instruction, used in elementary schools in some districts

Big Book - an enlarged version of a beginning reading book, usually illustrated and with very large type, generally used by a group of students to read together and learn about concepts of print and various reading strategies

Board Book - a book printed on heavyweight cardboard and sturdily bound, as the first books offered to infants

Concepts about Print - includes knowing the front of the book, that print contains a message, directionality (left to right), return sweep, word by word matching, punctuation, concept of letter, word, capitalization, first, last.

Decoding - analyzing or breaking apart a word to pronounce it and determine it's meaning.

Dyslexia -an inability or partial inability to read

Easy reader - a trade book with a limited vocabulary and a storyline interesting to children who are ready to read

Fluency - the clear, easy, written or spoken expression

Genre - category used to classify books i.e. picture books, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. . .

Guided reading - skills and strategies practiced in small groups where teachers can choose books appropriate for the child, introduce the book as a means of supporting the child, and see how well students are applying newly taught concepts and skills

High-frequency word - a word that appears many more times than most other words in spoken or written language i. e. the, is, I, a. . .

Independent Reading - a period of time where children or the teacher select easy material to read for enjoyment and practice without teacher assistance

Reading Recovery - an early intervention program developed by Dr. Marie Clay designed to assist the lowest achieving children in first grade who are having difficulty learning to read and write. During this relatively short-term intervention, children work one to one with a trained teacher for 30 minutes a day. Children make faster than average progress so that they can catch up with their peers and continue to work on their own within an average group setting in the regular classroom. www.readingrecovery.org

Reading Workshop - a period of time for children to practice reading skills and strategies either independently or with the teacher or with a literature group, work on reading/writing pieces, conference with the teacher to get individual instruction on how we read

Running Records - an assessment that involves the close observation and recording of a child's oral reading behavior. Running records inform the teacher so your child will be reading easy material independently and instructional material when working with the teacher in a group setting

Shared Reading - a teacher's explicit model or instruction on how to read. This is done usually with the entire class using "big books" or can be done in smaller groups with regular sized texts.

Sight or high frequency words - words that should be immediately recognized as a whole without any word analysis or sounding out. These are the words which appear more frequently than others such as I, and, like, said, have.

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Writing

Drafts - ideas written in a rough form, often edited later for publication

Edit - to prepare writing for publication or presentation (to revise or correct)

Invented Spelling - a child's attempts to spell a word based on the sounds he hears

Literature Circles - discussion groups used to encourage critical discussions about literature and the writer's craft.

Response Journal - written conversations in which students exchange ideas, including responses to books with classmates and teachers

Writing Workshop - a period of time for children to practice writing skills, work on writing pieces, conference with the teacher to get individual instruction on the writing process

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Assessment/Testing

Achievement Test - a test of knowledge of or proficiency in something learned or taught; especially, a test of the effects of specific instruction.

Actual development level - an estimate of mental ability based on performance: "the level of a child's mental functions that has been established as a result of certain already completed developmental cycles.

Age Norm - normal or average performance for a given chronological age.

Assessment - the act of gathering data in order to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of student learning (observation, testing, interviews...)

Authentic Assessment - assessment based on activities that represent and reflect the actual learning and instruction in the classroom

Diagnostic Test - a test designed to analyze strengths and weaknesses in content-oriented skills.

Evaluation - judgment of performance as process or product of change over time

Standards - achievement goals that are defined at a state or national level and identify what students should know at the end of each grade level

Standardized Tests - an assessment measure, commercially prepared and norm-referenced, that reports results in terms of grade level scores and percentile ranks

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