Emergent Literacy
What is the alphabetic principle?
Understanding that letters represent the sounds of spoken language.
What is a consonant digraph?
Two letters that make a new sound (e.g., sh, ch).
What is a morpheme?
The smallest unit of meaning in a word.
What is prosody?
Reading with expression and phrasing to convey meaning.
What are Tier 1, 2, and 3 vocabulary words?
Tier 1 = everyday words; Tier 2 = academic; Tier 3 = content-specific.
What’s an example of environmental print?
What’s an example of environmental print?
What is encoding?
Spelling a word based on the sounds you hear.
What’s the difference between a root word and a base word?
: Root = origin from another language; base = a stand-alone English word.
What is a fluency bridge?
The link between decoding skills and comprehension.
What is a semantic map?
A graphic organizer that shows relationships between words.
What is a strategy to teach directionality?
Pointing to words while reading left to right.
What is a vowel team?
Two or more letters that represent one vowel sound (e.g., “ea” in “team”).
What is an inflectional ending?
A suffix like -s or -ed that changes tense or number without changing the word class.
What is assisted reading?
Reading aloud with a skilled partner or audio model.
What is word consciousness?
An awareness and interest in words and their meanings.
What is phonemic awareness?
The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in words.
What is syllable type “r-controlled”?
: A syllable where the vowel is followed by an “r,” changing the sound (e.g., “car”).
What is the difference between derivational and inflectional suffixes?
Derivational changes the part of speech; inflectional changes tense or number.
What is reader’s theater?
Practicing and performing a script to improve fluency.
What is apposition?
A phrase that defines a word right next to it (e.g., “a tuba, a large horn”).
What is the phonological awareness continuum?
The progression from word → syllable → onset-rime → phoneme.
What are the six syllable types?
Closed, open, silent e, vowel team, r-controlled, consonant-le.
What is orthographic knowledge?
: Understanding spelling patterns and rules in written language.
What is frustration reading level?
When text is too hard—less than 90% word accuracy.
What is etymology?
The study of word origins and historical meanings.