Important terms
A written symbol that represents a sound in a word
What is a Grapheme?
Two letters that represent a single sound (e.g. sh, ch)
What is a digraph?
The smallest unit of sound in a word
What is a phoneme?
Two vowels working together to represent one sound.
What is a vowel team?
The relationship between a letter (or letters) and the sound(s) they represent.
What is a Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence?
Two or more consonants together where each sound is still heard (e.g. bl, st)
What is a consonant blend?
The vowel sound in an unstressed syllable, often pronounced as /uh?
What is a schwa?
Vowels followed by "r" where the "r" changes the vowel sound (eg. ar, er, ir or, ur)
What is an R-controlled vowel?
A type of reading material that is carefully written so that most of the words can be sounded out using the phonics patterns students have already been taught.
What is decodable text?
a word that cannot be fully decoded using standard phonics rules and must be recognized “by heart.”
What is a heart word or irregular word?