6 + 1 TRAITS OF WRITING
(For more info. visit:www.nwrel.org/assessment/definitions.phpodelay=0&d=1)
- IDEAS: A clear point, message, theme or story line, backed by important, carefully chosen details and supportive information.
- SENTENCE FLUENCY: The rhythm and flow of the language, the sound of word patterns, the way in which the writing plays to the ear, not just to the eye. How does it sound when read aloud? The rhythm and sound of the writing as it is read aloud. Sentences vary in length and style, and are so well crafted that the writer moves through the piece with ease.
- ORGANIZATION: How a piece of writing is structured and ordered. Organizational structure can be based on comparison-contrast, deductive logic, point-by-point analysis, development of a central theme, chronological history of an event, or any of a dozen other identifiable patterns.
- WORD CHOICE: Language, phrasing, and the knack for choosing the "just right" word to get the message across.
- VOICE: is the writer coming through the words, the sense that a real person is speaking to us and cares about the message. When the writer is engaged personally with the topic, he/she imparts a personal tone and flavor to the piece that is unmistakably his/hers alone. The fingerprints of the writer on the page--the writer's own special, personal style coming through in the words, combined with concern for the informational needs and interests of the audience.
- PRESENTATION: both visual and verbal elements. It is the way we "exhibit" our message on paper.
- CONVENTIONS: mechanical correctness of the piece-spelling, grammar and usage, paragraphing (indenting at the appropriate spots), use of capitals, and punctuation.
A
ACCURACY: ability to recognize words correctly
AUTOMATICITY: fluent processing of information that requires little effort or attention; With practice and good instruction, students become automatic at word recognition, that is, retrieving words from memory, and are able to focus attention on constructing meaning from the text, rather than decoding.
B
BLEND: a consonant sequence before or after a vowel within a syllable, such ascl,br, orst
C
CLOSE READING: "It’s a careful and purposeful rereading of a text. It’s an encounter with the text where students really focus on what the author had to say, what the author’s purpose was, what the words mean, and what the structure of the text tells us... In a close reading, we have to have students reread the text. We give them questions; text dependent questions that require that they go back into the text and search for answers. These aren’t simply recall questions, just the facts of the text, but rather questions that allow students to think about the text, and the author’s purpose, the structure, and the flow of the text. Close reading requires that students actually think and understand what they are reading" -- Dr. Douglas Fisher
http://www.mhecommoncoretoolbox.com/close-reading-and-the-ccss-part-1.html
COMPREHENSION STRATEGY INSTRUCTION: the explicit teaching of techniques that is particularly effective for comprehending text. Some strategies include direct explanation(the teacher explains to students why the strategy helps comprehension and when to apply the strategy),modeling(the teacher models, or demonstrates, how to apply the strategy, usually by "thinking aloud" while reading the text that the students are using),guided practice(the teacher guides and assists students as they learn how and when to apply the strategy) and application (the teacher helps students practice the strategy until they can apply it independently). Most of our instruction is through direct explanation, modeling, and guided practice.
CONTEXT CLUES: sources of information outside of words that readers may use to predict the identities and meanings of unknown words. Context clues may be drawn from the immediate sentence containing the word, from text already read, from pictures accompanying the text, or from definitions, restatements, examples, or descriptions in the text.
D
DECODING: ability to translate a word from print to speech; act of figuring out a new word by sounding it out
DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills): This assessment tool is used to quickly identify students that are struggling in the areas of Initial Sound Fluency, Letter Naming Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation, Nonsense Word Fluency, and Oral Reading Fluency. Currently it is being used at the Kindergarten and First Grade Levels. By the end of the 2010 school year, the Second and Third Grades will be added.
- Letter Naming Fluency: Student is given 1 minute to correctly identify as many random upper and lowercase letters as possible. If the student struggles for 3 seconds, the correct letter is given, marked incorrect and moved on to the next letter.
- Initial Sound Fluency: Student is given 4 sets of pictures in which they must correctly identify the beginning sound. They are timed and this time is figured into a formula to achieve a score.
- Phoneme Segmentation Fluency: Student is orally given a word and is asked to identify all the sounds they hear. The student is given 1 minute to complete this task.
- Nonsense Word Fluency: Student is asked to either correctly identify a nonsense word as a whole or to identify the individual sounds in the word. EX. dop CORRECT ANSWER: "dop" or "d-o-p"
- Oral Reading Fluency: Student is asked to read as many words as they can from a passage in 1 minute. A formula is used to identify the Words per Minute (WPM). A reading rate chart is used to identify whether the student is reading at the correct rate for his grade level and time of year.
DIGRAPH: group of two successive letters whose phonetic value is a single sound i.e./ea/ in bread; /ch/ in chat; /ng/ in song
DIPTHONG: two letters blended together that stand for one vowel sound i.e./oy/ in boy; /ow/ in cow
E
EMERGENT LITERACY: defined by Slavin (2006) as "Knowledge and skills relating to reading that children usually develop from experience with books and other print media before the beginning of formal reading instruction in school."
F
FLUENCY (ORAL READING): ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with proper expression and comprehension. Because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding words, they can focus their attention on what the text means.
G
GET YOUR MOUTH READY: when child gets to an unknown word, say the sound the beginning letter(s) before the vowel makes
GRAPHEME: a letter or letter combination that spells a single phoneme. In English, a grapheme may be one, two, three, or four letters, such ase,ei,igh, oreigh.
GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS: summarize and illustrate concepts and interrelationships among concepts in a text, using diagrams or other pictorial devices. Graphic organizers are often known as maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames, or clusters.
L
LITERACY: includes reading, writing, and the creative and analytical acts involved in producing and comprehending texts.
M
MISCUE: initiated by Ken Goodman to describe an observed response in the reading process that does not match the expected response; uses the term "miscue", rather than "error" or "mistake" to avoid value implications
MISCUE ANALYSIS: was originally developed by Ken Goodman; teacher listens to a single and complete oral reading experience followed by a retelly; diagnostic tool that helps teachers observe the reading behaviors of their students
MONITORING COMPREHENSION: Readers who monitor their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not. Students are able to use appropriate "fix-up" strategies to resolve problems in comprehension.
MORPHEME: the smallest meaningful unit of language; can be one syllable (book) or more than one syllable (seventeen); can be a whole word or part of a word such as a prefix or suffix i.e.ungrateful contains 2 morphemes un grate ful
O
ONSET: the initial consonant sound of a syllable i.e. the onset ofbigisb-; oftwinistw-.
P
PHONEMES: smallest units of sound that change the meanings of spoken words i.e. if you change the first phoneme in bat from /b/ to /p/, the word bat becomes pat; most words have more than one phoneme i.e.if has 2 phonemes /i/ and /f/
PHONEMIC AWARENESS: ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words; being able to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words
PHONEMIC AWARENESS INVENTORY: assesses phonemic awareness skills such as:
- WORD DISCRIMINATION (SOUND THE SAME?): In this activity, children are asked if 2 words are the same or different.(Teacher:cap, cat;Children:different)
- RHYME: In this activity, children are asked if 2 words rhyme. Then they're asked to give a word that rhymes with a given word. (Teacher: mad;Children:sad)
- COUNTING SYLLABLES: In this activity, children are asked to give the number of syllables in a given word. (Teacher: television;Children: tel-e-vi-sion--4)
- APPROXIMATION: In this activity, children are asked to identify the location of a given sound.(Teacher: Where do you hear the /m/ in these words? milk, hammer, some;Children: beg., mid., end)
- PHONEME ADDITION: In this activity, children make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word.(Teacher:What word do you have if you add /s/ to the beginning of park?Children:spark.)
- PHONEME BLENDING / ORAL BLENDING: In this activity, children learn to listen to a sequence of separately spoken phonemes, and then combine the phonemes to form a word.(Teacher:What word is /b/ /i/ /g/?Children:/b/ /i/ /g/ is big.)
- PHONEME CATEGORIZATION: In this activity, children recognize the word in a set of three or four words that has the "odd" sound.(Teacher:Which word doesn't belong? bun, bus, rug.Children:Rug does not belong. It doesn't begin with a /b/.)
- PHONEME DELETION: In this activity, children learn to recognize the word/word part that remains when a phoneme is removed from another word.(Teacher:What is cab without the /b/?Children:cab without the /b/ is ca.---Teacher:What is cab without the /c/?Children:cab without the /c/ is ab.)
- PHONEME IDENTITY: In this activity, children learn to recognize the same sounds in different words.(Teacher:What sound is the same in fix, fall, and fun?Children:The first sound, /f/, is the same.)
- PHONEME ISOLATION: In this activity, children learn to recognize and identify individual sounds in a word.(Teacher:What is the first sound in van?Children:The first sound in van is /v/.)
- PHONEME SEGMENTATION: In this activity, children break a word into its separate sounds, saying each sound as they tap out or count it.(Teacher:How many sounds are in grab?Children:/g/ /r/ /a/ /b/. Four sounds.)
- PHONEME SUBSTITUTION: In this activity, children substitute one phoneme for another to make a new word.(Teacher:The word is bug. Change /g/ to /n/.What's the new word?Children:bun.)
PHONICS: being able to connect the letters of written language with the sounds of spoken language
PICTURE WALK: the process of looking at the pictures in the book before the book is actually read; this step is important for aiding comprehension by beginning readers
PREDICTION: the ability to make a guess about what the reader thinks the story will be about or will happen next; important part in the comprehension process
R
READING COMPREHENSION TERMS (For more information click on the Reading Strategies icon on the sidebar, then choose "Comprehension".)
- MAKING CONNECTIONS: ability to connect what is being read to something that was already read (Textto Text connection), something in their own life (Text to Self Connection), or to something going on in the world around them (Text to World Connection)
- VISUALIZE: ability to put a picture in one's mind while reading, using the 5 senses
- INFER: ability to use prior knowledge and information from what is read to make predictions, seek answers to questions, draw conclusions, and create interpretations that deepen understanding of the text
- PREDICT: the ability to make a guess about what the reader thinks the story will be about or will happen next; important part in the comprehension process
- SYNTHESIZE: ability to track thinking as it evolves during reading, to get the overall meaning
- QUESTION: ability to generate questions before, during, and after reading to clarify meaning, make predictions, and focus attention on what's important
- DETERMINE IMPORTANT IDEAS: ability to identify key ideas or themes while reading, and to distinguish between important and unimportant information
RESPONSE to INTERVENTION (RTI): The process refers to a multi-step approach to providing services and interventions to students with learning/behavioral problems at increasing levels of intensity. The progress students make at each level of intervention is closely monitored through data collection. The results of this monitoring are used to make decisions about the need for further research-based instruction and/or interventions in general education, in special education or both.
- Tier 1 Intervention: Students are identified using DIBELS, DRA 2, DIAL, state or district-wide testing, reading searies, theme tests, and direct teacher observation. Supplementary instruction is delievered individually or in small groups in the classroom.
- Tier 2 Intervention: Students not making adequate progress in the general education classroom in Tier 1 are provided with more specifically designed services. Within our district, these services will be provided by Title 1/AIS staff.
- Tier 3 Intervention: Students receive individualized, intensive interventions that target the student's skill weaknesses through special education.
RIME: is the part of a syllable that contains the vowel and all that follows it (the rime ofbagis-ag; ofswimis-im).
RUNNING RECORD: a method of assessing a child's reading level by examining both accuracy and the types of errors made; lets teacher know whether material currently being read is too easy or too difficult for the child; lets teacher know the areas where a child's reading can improve--for example, if a child frequently makes word substitutions that begin with the same letter as the printed word, the teacher will know to focus on getting the child to look beyond the first letter of a word
WHAT A RUNNING RECORD MAY LOOK LIKE:
- The child reads the selected book or passage aloud.
- The teacher has a copy of the words, typed out on a different piece of paper or uses a blank sheet of paper and consults the text later.
- As the child reads, the adult makes a checkmark or other mark for each correctly read word . However, if the child makes a mistake, the adult might circle the word, write down the type of error, or even write down what incorrect word was said.
- After the child is finished reading, the adult calculates the percentage of words read correctly and how often the child self-corrected an error.
- The adult may also conduct a miscue analysis after a retelling has been told by the child.
S
SCHEMA (BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE): the knowledge and understandings of the world that students have acquired through their everyday experiences -- riding in cars or buses, playing and talking with other children and adults, that help them to make sense of the texts they read.
SELF-CORRECTION: the ability of the reader to correct his/her mistake during reading
SELF-MONITORING: the mental act of knowing when one does and does not understand what one is reading.
SIGHT WORDS (LIGHTNING WORDS, WORD WALL WORDS, HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS): words the child recognizes automatically, without decoding
SKIPPING STRATEGY: child begins sentence again; when he comes to unknown word, child gets mouth ready to say the letters up to the first vowel; child continues reading to the period; once unknown word is figured out, child rereads sentence fluently
SUMMARIZING: a process in which a reader synthesizes the important ideas in a text. Teaching students to summarize helps them generate main ideas, connect central ideas, eliminate repeated and unnecessary information, and remember what they read.
SYLLABLE: a word part that contains a vowel or, in spoken language, a vowel sound (e-vent, news-pa-per).
SYLLABICATION: the act of breaking words into syllables.
T
TEXT COMPREHENSION: the reason for reading; understanding what is read, with readers reading actively (engaging in the complex process of making sense from text) and with purpose (for learning, understanding, or enjoyment).
V
VOCABULARY: words a reader knows.Listening vocabularyrefers to the words a person knows when hearing them in oral speech.Speaking vocabularyrefers to the words we use when we speak.Reading vocabularyrefers to the words a person knows when seeing them in print.Writing vocabularyrefers to the words we use in writing.
W
WORD ATTACK: an aspect of reading instruction that includes intentional strategies for learning to decode, sight read, and recognize written words
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