Brownsville Independent School District
Reading
Program
Standard
Operating
Procedures
Board Approval Date: May 23, 2000
Table Of Contents
Philosophy……………………………………………………………1
Program Standards
Elementary…………………………………………………...3
PreKindergarten
Instructional
Program
Assessment
Interventions/Acceleration Strategies
Kindergarten
Instructional Program
Assessment
Intervention/Acceleration Strategies
Grades 1-2
Instructional Program
Assessment
Intervention/Acceleration Strategies
Grades 3-5
Instructional Program
Assessment
Intervention/Acceleration Strategies
Secondary Education……………………………………….7
Instructional Program
Assessment
Interventions
Language Arts and
the Content Areas………..…………………...9
Instructional
Leadership………………………………………..….9
Teacher Training
and Pre-Service………………………………..10
Appendices
A.
Glossary
B.
Twelve Essential Components of A Research-Based Reading
Program
C.
76th Legislative Accelerated
Reading Program Guidelines
D.
Scientific Spelling Collaborative Planning Form-Beatrice
Lucio Rodriguez (Gonzalez
Elementary) Sample
E.
Balanced Reading Scale
PHILOSOPHY
Brownsville Independent School District’s reading program is research-based and founded on the understanding of how phonological and orthographic processing inform our ability to extract meaning from print. The BISD Program brings together reading components supported by research from cognitive science and the effective systematic focused instructional methodologies of the teaching of a balanced reading program. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s major findings which are at the foundation of this philosophy are as follows:
1) Reading disabilities affect at least 10 million children or approximately one child out of every five;
2) As many girls as boys are affected by reading disabilities,
3) 74% of all students who are reading disabled in the third grade remain disabled in the ninth grade;
4) The ability to read and comprehend depends on rapid and automatic recognition of single words and slow and inaccurate decoding are the best predictors of difficulty in reading comprehension;
5) Learning to read is not a natural process. Most children require systematic and explicit instruction;
6) Early identification and intervention is essential to successfully treat students who are at risk for reading failure. There are accurate and reliable identification procedures that are linked to prevention programs; and
7) INSTRUCTION BY EXPERT TEACHERS WITH PROPER TRAINING AND SKILLS CAN PREVENT READING FAILURE BY EMPHASIZING EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF PHONEMIC AWARENESS. INTENSIVE, DIRECT INSTRUCTION OVER A SUFFICIENT DURATION CAN REMEDIATE DEFICIENT DECODING AND WORD RECOGNITION SKILLS. Children with the most severe impairments, however, respond more slowly.
Systemic reform in the area of reading is the responsibility of the entire Brownsville community. The district, university, private schools, business leaders, medical community, and parents are all accountable for our community’s children and their ability to read.
BISD’s approved effective, systematic methodologies based on the Twelve Essential Components of a Research-Based Reading Program (Appendix B) support:
· The sequential introduction of the sound-symbol relationships which make up the structure of printed language (Component #4);
· The ability to attend to the sound structure of spoken language (phonemes, syllables, words, and translate them into meaning (Component #5);
· The use of decodable text (Component #6);
· The ability to attend to the conventions and formats of print (Component #6);
· The alphabetic principle and mastery of written words composed of letters of the alphabet that are intentionally and conventionally related to segments of spoken words (Component #8); 1
· Orthographic conventions of the language (English & Spanish) to include letters and letter clusters, roots, prefixes and suffixes, final consonants, and inflectional endings (Component #10);
· Comprehension strategies involving inferential, analytic, and evaluative thinking (Component #10); and
· Reading practice to move from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” and learning to love to read.
Exposure to a print-rich environment and complex elaborated sentence patterns are part of the required experiential background for BISD’s first and second language learners. Excellent language models are critical for BISD’s students’ success in reading and learning (Components #1 &2).
BISD rejects retention and/or social promotion at any grade level as a solution when students are not reading on level. Intervention and acceleration strategies based on early and regular assessments are mandated. BISD mandates the proactive and preventive rather than reactive and remedial approach to the teaching of reading. In short, it is critical that students be proficient and on-level readers by the end of the second grade and remain on-level readers of content area material and literary selections throughout their academic careers.
The BISD Reading Program is aligned with research in bilingualism and English as a Second Language methodology. BISD students will be taught to read in their first language while simultaneously receiving structured, systematic, multisensory ESL listening, speaking, reading, and writing instruction as a preparation for transfer into English reading. Although BISD respects the philosophy that it takes five to seven years to learn a language, the reality is that students who enter the district after the age of five will not have that gift of time needed for second language acquisition. Thus, it is the responsibility of the curriculum and instruction offered to such students, to accelerate teaching and learning in a way that will maximize opportunities to learn the nature and structure of the English language and translate that learning into production through reading and writing. The goal of the program is graduation of all students proficient in two languages with on-level English reading and writing as non negotiables.
The program standards which follow bring together reading components supported by research from cognitive science and the effective practices of successful teachers in a balanced approach to reading instruction. Balance is defined, not as the mindless eclecticism or rejection of scientific inquiry, but rather as the intelligent approach to reading practice supported by scientific research and the combining of skills involving phonological awareness and literature-rich activities (Components #1-2).
The BISD’s informed approach to the teaching of reading is appropriate for children from all language, cultural, and social backgrounds and the same quality of instruction must be equitably provided for all groups of children. Dr. Reid Lyon’s research indicates that reading failure is a serious national problem and cannot be attributed to poverty, immigration, or the learning of English as a second language.
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PROGRAM STANDARDS
Elementary Education
BISD bilingual education program students entering the district in Kindergarten will be proficient Spanish readers by the end of second grade and transfer into English reading in grade three. Accordingly, bilingual education students entering BISD schools in first grade will be proficient Spanish readers by the end of third grade and will transfer into English reading in grade four. Similar timelines (2 years) apply to students entering the district’s bilingual program in grades 2-4. Students entering the district’s program in grade five must be provided additional English instruction, support, and acceleration systems as a preparation for the district’s middle school ESL program. Language Proficiency Assessment Committees (LPAC) have the final responsibility for monitoring, supervising, and making recommendations regarding program placement/reclassification, etc. LPAC committees must carefully monitor and hold campuses and programs accountable for students who are not making normal progress in learning English.
PreKindergarten
Four-year-olds develop vocabulary, extend language skills, and acquire a knowledge of the world around them through interactions with responsive adults and peers in language and print-rich environments. They will best develop complex sentence patterns, listening comprehension, phonemic awareness, an understanding of the everyday functions of print; and motivation to read through activities that are integrated across different developmental areas and that respond to their primary/home language.
Instructional
Program
1. Phonemic Awareness In Young Children by Marilyn Jager Adams is the core of the BISD’s PreKindergarten phonemic awareness program.
1. State-adopted programs embedded in the Texas Early Childhood Objectives will
complete the language arts curriculum.
3. Approximately 2/3 of each instructional day/half day will be devoted to oral language and early literacy development which integrates social studies, science, art, music, gross motor and other enrichment areas (EA Local). PreKindergarten first and second language strategies will include phonemic awareness, rhyming, and appropriate oral and aural multisensory activities (Components #1 &4).
Assessment
1. Progress in phonemic awareness and language development will be assessed through the PreKindergarten Progress Report to Parents document beginning with the second six weeks of each school year.
2. Students demonstrating lack of proficiency at the end of the school year will be afforded extended year opportunities through the bilingual or regular programs.
Intervention/Acceleration Strategies
1. PreKindergarten students who are not exhibiting behaviors consistent with the skills delineated on the PreKindergarten Progress Report to Parents should be
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closely monitored and afforded during-school or extended day/week additional smaller group and/or individualized opportunities to acquire the skills.
2. A variety of bilingual and non bilingual summer academic opportunities are also available and provide students the gift of additional time and support in acquiring phonemic awareness and oral/aural language skills.
Kindergarten
All Kindergarten students will be provided direct, multisensory, explicit, systematic, sequential, and cumulative instruction in phonological awareness, alphabetic principle, and listening comprehension (Components #3 & 4).
Instructional
Program
1. Reading Readiness by Neuhaus Education Center, Esperanza by Elsa Cardenas Hagan, and the Kindergarten Teachers’ Reading Academies strategies form the core of the BISD Kindergarten phonemic awareness program.
2. State-adopted materials embedded in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) will complete the language arts curriculum.
3. Approximately 90 minutes will be devoted to phonemic awareness (including 20 minutes of read-aloud) and 60 minutes to language development daily (EA Local). The kindergarten program is an integrated one and thus, these timeframes may actually merge during the instructional day.
Assessment
1. The Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) (English) or the Tejas LEE (Spanish) are the district’s assessment tools for monitoring progress and making informed instructional decisions in reading readiness.
2. These inventories are administered in the fall and in the spring.
3. Each student’s inventory results must be carefully studied and reported to parents.
4. The BISD Kindergarten Progress Report provides another source of information to parents regarding students’ acquisition of reading readiness skills.
5. TPRI/Tejas LEE and the BISD Kindergarten Progress Report are aligned and meet the requirements of 76th Texas Legislature’s Accelerated Reading Program.
Intervention/Acceleration Strategies
1. Intervention and acceleration strategies based on the TPRI/Tejas LEE inventory results must be planned and implemented with students not experiencing success in reading readiness (TPRI/Tejas LEE/BISD Kindergarten Progress Reports).
2. All Kindergarten teachers, having been trained through Kindergarten Teachers’ Reading Academies (KTRA), and are equipped with research-based information and strategies to meet the needs of students in small group and individualized instructional settings.
3. The 76th Texas Legislature further requires that Intervention Plans be developed in conjunction with parents and progress subsequently monitored with the appropriate adjustments as necessary.
4. BISD’s Letters to Parents and Intervention Plan forms can be found in the annual
Elementary Grading Procedures document.
5. Summer academic programs as well as extended day/week opportunities must be available for additional time and support in acquiring reading and language skills.
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First Grade
All first grade students will be provided direct, multisensory, explicit, systematic, sequential, and cumulative instruction in phonemic awareness, the alphabetic code, and blending and unblending by use of: a) decodable text and b) oral reading to assess each student’s automaticity and fluency (Components #3 & 4). All first grade students will be provided direct, multi-sensory, explicit, sequential, cumulative, & systematic instruction in regular spelling patterns (Component #5). All first grade students will be provided direct, systematic instruction in reading comprehension strategies in alignment with automaticity of decoding (Component #9).
Instructional Program
1. Language Enrichment I by Neuhaus Education Center, Esperanza by Elsa Cardenas Hagan, and 1st Grade Teachers’ Reading Academies (1stTRA) strategies form the core of the BISD first grade reading program.
2. State-adopted materials embedded in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) will complete the language arts curriculum.
3. The Scientific Spelling Program by Neuhaus Education Center is the district’s first grade spelling program. BISD does not teach spelling words in isolation or as memorized lists. Words for which students are held accountable must be grade appropriate. Students must have the appropriate verbal background for the terms being studied and a variety of assessments (editing, sentence dictation, and content area words/terms) must comprise the evaluation.
4. Approximately 90 minutes (including 20 minutes of read-aloud) will be devoted to reading and 60 minutes will be devoted to the balance of the language arts program: listening, speaking, viewing, and writing daily (EA Local). The elementary program is an integrated one and thus, these timeframes may actually merge during the instructional day.
5.
While in bilingual education, Spanish Language Arts must not be dropped
from the student’s
instructional program.
Assessment
1. The Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) (English) and Tejas LEE (Spanish) are the district’s assessment tools for monitoring progress and making informed instructional decisions in reading.
2. These inventories are administered in the fall and in the spring.
3. Each student’s inventory results must be carefully studied, used to plan instruction, and reported to parents.
Intervention/Acceleration Strategies
1. Intervention and acceleration strategies based on the TPRI/Tejas LEE inventory results must be planned.
2. All first grade teachers, having been trained through First Grade Teachers’ Reading Academies (lstTRA), are equipped with strategies to meet the needs of students in small group and individualized instructional settings.
3. The 76th Texas Legislature further requires that Intervention Plans be developed in conjunction with parents and progress subsequently monitored with the appropriate adjustments as necessary.
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4. BISD’s Letters to Parents and Intervention Plan forms can be found in the annual
Elementary Grading Procedures document.
5. Summer academic programs as well as extended day/week opportunities must be available for additional time and support in acquiring reading and language skills.
Second Grade
All second grade students will be provided direct, multisensory, explicit, systematic, sequential, and cumulative instruction in reading, fluency, the structure of the English language, advanced reading concepts (alphabetizing, syllabication, morphology,
exceptional patterns, etc) and writing conventions
(Components #3, 4, & 5). All
second grade students will be provided direct, systematic instruction in
reading comprehension strategies in alignment with automaticity of decoding
(Component #9).
Instructional Program
1. Language Enrichment I by Neuhaus Education Center and Esperanza by Elsa Cardenas Hagan form the core of the BISD second grade reading program.
2. State-adopted materials embedded in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) will complete the language arts curriculum.
3. The Scientific Spelling by Neuhaus Education Center is the district’s second grade spelling program. BISD does not teach spelling words in isolation or as memorized lists. Words for which students are held accountable must be grade appropriate and used in context. Students must have the appropriate verbal background for the terms being studied and a variety of assessments (editing, sentence dictation, and content area words/terms) must comprise the assessment.
4. Approximately 90 minutes (including 20 minutes of read-aloud) will be devoted to reading and 60 minutes will be devoted to the balance of the language arts program, listening, speaking, viewing, and writing daily (EA Local). The elementary program is an integrated one and thus, these timeframes may actually merge during the instructional day.
5.
While in bilingual education, Spanish Language Arts must not be dropped
from the student’s
instructional program.
Assessment
1. The Texas Primary Inventory (TPRI) (English) or the Tejas LEE (Spanish) are the district’s assessment tools for monitoring progress, checking on fluency, and making informed instructional decisions regarding reading.
2. Screening and inventory components are administered in the fall and spring.
3. Each student’s screening and inventory results must be carefully studied and reported to parents.
Intervention/Acceleration Strategies
1. Intervention and acceleration strategies based on the TPRI/Tejas LEE inventory results must be planned. Fluency and accuracy must be closely monitored.
2. A variety of summer academic and extended day/week opportunities are available and provide students with the gift of additional time and support in acquiring reading, fluency, written language, and comprehension skills.
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Grades
Three-Five
All third-fifth grade students will be provided multisensory, explicit, systematic, sequential, and cumulative instruction in the history of the English language, reading, fluency, accuracy, comprehension, advanced patterns, morphology, writing conventions (Components #3,4, & 5), and reading to learn.
Instructional Program
1. State-adopted materials, Scientific Spelling, multi-sensory grammar, fluency, accuracy, and comprehension strategies embedded in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) form the core of the grades 3-5 BISD reading program.
2.
Approximately 90 minutes will be devoted to reading (inlcuding 20
minutes of read aloud) and 60 minutes will be devoted to the balance of the
language arts program: listening, speaking, viewing, and writing (EA Local)
daily. The elementary program is an integrated one and thus, these timeframes
may actually merge during the instructional day.
Assessment
1. Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) and Reading Proficiency Test in English (RPTE) are the district’s assessment tools for monitoring progress and making informed instructional decisions in reading.
2.
Regular fluency and accuracy monitoring and strategies and benchmark
tests are part of the on-going assessment and must also be used to make
informed instructional decisions.
Intervention/Acceleration Strategies
1. Intervention and acceleration strategies based on TAAS/RTPE results
must be planned for each student.
2. A variety of summer and extended day/week opportunities must be available and provide students with the gift of additional time and support in acquiring reading fluency, written language, and comprehension skills.
3. Close monitoring of each student’s progress also dictates the need for further testing for dyslexia and/or other related special reading needs.
Secondary Education
All grades 6-12 reading and ESOL classes must provide direct, sequential, multisensory, explicit, cumulative, and systematic instruction in English language:
· Phonological awareness (as needed);
· Alphabetic principle;
· Word-attack (blending/unblending);
· Regular and irregular spelling patterns;
· Morphology;
· Syntax (and the grammar system);
· Automaticity of fluency and decoding;
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· Direct vocabulary instruction;
· Oral language development;
· Writing conventions (communicating ideas in writing by using personal understanding of tone, texture, diction, and syntax);
· Daily reading to discover, interpret, and enjoy;
· Daily oral reading with overt attention to fluency, accuracy, automaticity, and inflection;
· Listening and reading comprehension from multiple genres, including biographies, memoirs, autobiographies, business abstracts, legal documents, manuals, poetry, novels, drama, and short stories;
· Reading from various periods of time, recognizing literary forms and terms associated with reading, possible influences of history on a literary work, and logical/illogical arguments from clearly expresses definitions, theses, and evidence; and
· Reading to prepare, organize, and present informative and persuasive oral and visual messages (Components 1-12).
Instructional Program
1. Language Enrichment II by Neuhaus Education Center forms the core of the BISD ESOL Middle School reading program.
2. Language! by Jane Fell Greene forms the core of the BISD ESOL High School reading program.
3. Middle school and high school reading programs must respond to each student’s needs and level of competency for each knowledge and skill outlined by the Reading Strand of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) with expectations of on level reading ability for each student. Regular fluency and comprehension checks will dictate instructional plans.
4. The BISD Reading and English programs include: study skills instruction, daily reading activities, written expression activities to reinforce the reading process, guidance and supervision in the production of polished writing pieces and research papers, instruction in the use of library and other reference materials, and experiences in synthesizing more than one reading passage for content and creating original logical arguments to substantiate theories.
5. Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) direct the use of state–adopted instructional materials to achieve all of the above mentioned components of a research-based reading program for secondary students.
Assessment
1. The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) and/or Reading Proficiency Test in English (RPTE) are the district’s assessment tools for monitoring progress and making informed instructional decisions in reading.
2.
Regular fluency monitoring and strategies are part of the on-going
assessment and must also be used to make informed instructional decisions.
Intervention/Acceleration Strategies
1. All students who do not demonstrate automatized decoding and on-level comprehension skills must be provided extended day/week/year opportunities and direct, systematic multi-sensory explicit interventions consisting of:
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· Graphophonemic (sound/symbol) skills to decode unfamiliar words;
· Morphology (prefixes, suffixes, root words) to unlock word meanings as well as word recognition, reliable orthographic spelling patterns;
· Contextual and syntactic clues;
· Guided reading; and
· Sustained reading from multiple genres, including biographies, memoirs, autobiographies, business abstracts, legal documents, manuals, poetry, novels, drama, and short stories. (Components #4-9).
2. All students who do not demonstrate on-level comprehension skills of content area reading material are to be supported as described above.
LANGUAGE ARTS AND THE CONTENT AREAS
All content area courses (math, science, social studies, and related fields) will incorporate the teaching of reading strategies, study skills, organizational skills, and the use of research and reference materials into the daily instructional process. They will provide systematic, direct instruction on the writing process as it applies to technical writing, and other, varied writing experiences (observation journals, note-taking, article writing, procedures, directions, etc.), organization, and elaboration within the subject matter of the content area.
All content area courses will support students with multiple writing strategies which develop the ability to write in the content area at a level of proficiency commensurate with the grade level. Content area courses will provide students with role models, literary selections, and in depth understandings of the culture of the Hispanic southwest and the lower Rio Grande Valley as well as other cultures around the globe (Components #1-3).
INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP
Elementary principals and instructional facilitators shall fulfill 12 continuing professional education (CPE) hours in reading annually. Elementary assistant principals shall fulfill 6 continuing professional education (CPE) hours in reading annually. Secondary principals and deans of instruction shall fulfill 6 continuing professional education (CPE ) hours and secondary assistant principals shall fulfill 3 continuing professional education (CPE) hours in reading annually. Said training must be research-based and district approved. It may be within or outside the contract period. All administrators must demonstrate knowledge of research-based, standards-based reading instruction as evidenced through indicators on annual evaluation instruments and prior to contract renewal timelines.
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Instructional facilitators and deans of instruction shall be assigned 100% of each instructional and professional development day to supporting, monitoring, mentoring, and evaluating the BISD campus instructional program.
All ESOL, reading, and English classroom teachers (PreK-12) will be monitored for adherence to Reading Program Standards every six weeks through:
· Classroom observations,
· Walkthroughs,
· Student progress conferences, and
· Benchmark testing (in grades tested) results.
Pre-K-2 and secondary ESOL teachers trained in the corresponding instructional programs (Phonemic Awareness In Young Children, Esperanza, Reading Readiness, Language Enrichment I & II, and/or LANGUAGE!) WILL NOT BE REASSIGNED TO OTHER GRADE LEVELS/SUBJECTS ON CAMPUS UNLESS INDIVIDUALS WITH MATCHED TRAINING ARE AVAILABLE TO REPLACE THEM.
TEACHER TRAINING AND PRE-SERVICE
Teacher Training
All teachers teaching the grade levels/courses listed below must be trained as follows:
·
PreKindergarten:
Phonemic Awareness In Young
Children
·
Kindergarten:
Esperanza Readiness (Bilingual )
and/or Neuhaus
Readiness
·
Grades 1-2:
Neuhaus Lang. Enrichment I and
Esperanza (Bilingual)
·
Grades 3-5:
Neuhaus Multi-sensory Grammar
& Scientific Spelling
Fluency and accuracy strategies and monitoring
·
Middle School ESOL:
Neuhaus Lang. Enrichment II
·
High School ESOL:
LANGUAGE!
·
Secondary Reading:
Fluency and accuracy strategies and monitoring, compre-
hension,
and analysis of multiple texts for themes and concepts
·
Secondary English: Writing
strategies
All PreK-5 classroom, ESOL, secondary reading, secondary English, and special education/special programs reading teachers must be trained in varied methods of monitoring students’ success.
All PreK-5 classroom, ESOL, secondary reading, secondary English, and special education/special programs (dyslexia, ELD, etc) reading teachers will be required to attend 9 hours of research-based reading and related language arts training annually. Said trainings will include an assessment of language teaching proficiencies consistent with the needs of populations being served, clinical practicums, and peer review strategies.
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Pre-Service
Pre-service candidates for hire in PreK-5, special education, dyslexia, ESOL, secondary reading, and secondary English will be required to demonstrate language proficiency and knowledge of the structured, sequential teaching of reading and writing. University programs preparing candidates for employment in the BISD system will be provided the district’s reading standards so that said programs can align bachelors’, masters’, bilingual, educational administration, and school of education programs with the BISD philosophy.
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APPENDIX
APPENDIX A
Glossary
Alphabetic Awareness: The ability to demonstrate proficiency in alphabetic writing systems.
Alphabetic Knowledge: Refers to the student’s knowledge of symbols used to write English. Such knowledge includes letter names, alphabetic order, visual recognition of both lower and upper cases, written production of both lower and upper cases, and lower case and upper case correspondences.
Alphabetic Principle: The relationship between letters and sounds that is known as the alphabetic principle. The reader’s task is to gain the insight that written words are composed of letters of the alphabet that are intentionally and conventionally related to segments of spoken words.
Automatized: automatic
Balance: The intelligent approach to reading practice informed by scientific research. Balance involves a program that combines skills involving phonological awareness and decoding with language and literature-rich activities. An informed approach to reading instruction begins in pre-kindergarten and continues as long as necessary until the child is a fluent reader. Essential components of effective literacy instruction are phonological awareness, print awareness, alphabetic and orthographic awareness, comprehension strategies, fluency, accuracy, and reading practice.
Blend: a blend is the union of sounds as th to ing in thing.
Comprehension Strategies: Inferential and evaluative thinking about connected text.
Contextual: The part or parts of a written or spoken passage preceding or following a specific word which sheds light upon its meaning.
Conventions: Conventions includes skills such as: writes legible letters, writes spoken sounds with letters to write messages, writes from left to right, spaces, capitalizes, punctuates, uses grammar correctly, writes in complete sentences, and spells accurately.
Decoding: Converting from code to ordinary language.
Digraph: A single speech sound represented by two consonant letters placed together (ch, gh, ph).
Diphthong: The slurring of two letters. (i.e., oi, oy, ou, ow)
Disabilities: Challenges
Evaluative: Rate/Appraise
Explicit: Expressed with clarity and precision; clearly stated rather than implied. In phoneme and morpheme awareness, the explicit teaching of how speech sounds are produced motorically and the cultivation of the ability to compare speech-sound differences in words.
Fluency: Effortlessly, smooth and rapid: polished.
Format: Text types
Grapheme: A symbol or a letter that represents a sound.
Grapho-phonemic: Sound – Symbol
Inferential: Process of reasoning: deducing.
Informative: Expository
Letter sound Awareness: The ability to relate the correspondences of the letter code to the spoken segments as distinct from the meaning of the written language.
Multi-sensory Learning: The involvement of at least two of the three major senses (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) in the learning process.
Morpheme: The smallest unit of meaning in language. Meaningful parts of words (For example –s is a morpheme in English. It signals the meaning of plural.) Morphemes range from a single letter to multisyllabic structures.
Morphology: Examines word parts. The study and description of word formation including inflection, derivation, and compounding, syllables, prefixes, suffixes, root words.
Narrative: A story.
Orthographic Awareness: The ability to attend to the writing conventions of the language. This ability begins with familiarity with the written symbols – letters and clusters of letters – and progresses to such complexities as when to double final consonants when adding inflectional endings that represent speech sounds.
Orthographic Knowledge: The method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols: correct spelling. The knowledge of how the sounds (phonemes) of a language are mapped to the symbols (letters) of that language for use in reading and writing. Prerequisites for English orthographic knowledge are alphabetic knowledge and knowledge of the sounds (phonemes) used in English. Orthographic knowledge begins with the most basic mapping of letters to represent the 44 English phonemes.
Orthography: Examines the way a language is written (encoded).
Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound (a single unit of sound) or individual sound units of the language. The smallest unit of speech in any given language that distinguished one sound (utterance) from another in a spoken word and makes a difference to meaning. The pronunciation of an individual phoneme is influenced by its neighbors in a phenomenon called coarticulation.
Phonemic Awareness: Refers to an understanding that words are composed of individuals sounds. This terms is used to indicate that a child is aware of the smallest units of sound in the language. It is the ability to examine language independently of meaning and to manipulate its component sounds. It requires the ability to attend to a sound in the context of the other sounds in a word. The ability to deal explicitly and segmentally with sound units smaller than the syllable (i.e. phonemes). Elements of the sound structure more relevant to beginning reading are words, syllables, and phonemes.
Phonetics: The science of speech sounds. The study of the way in which speech sounds are articulated; also the systematic classification of the inventory of speech sounds in a language.
Phonics: The system by which symbols represent sounds in an alphabetic writing system (i.e. orthography). The application of phonetics to the teaching of reading and spelling. The link between phonemic awareness and phonics is referred to as phonological recoding.
Phonological Skills/ Of or relating to the science of speech sounds. The
Phonological Processing: sensitivity to segments in the speech stream which is demonstrated by the ability to produce and recognize rhymes, to alliterate, and to segment and blend words into syllables.
Phonological Awareness: A term that refers to an awareness of words within sentences, rhyming units within words, beginning and ending sounds within words, syllables within words, phonemes within words (phonemic awareness).
Phonology: Phonology is the study of the systems of sounds and sound combinations in language.
Pragmatics: A branch of semiotics that deals with the relation between signs or linguistic expressions and their users.
Prefix: A meaningful beginning syllable which modifies the meaning of the root word to which it is attached.
Print Awareness/Concepts: Refers to the conventions and formats used in written English:
Directionality: left to right, top to bottom, front to back
Shapes of letters and production of letters
Significance of spacing: within the word, no space between
letters, a space between words, empty line between
paragraphs or indentation of paragraphs
Titles and captions: as set apart from text
Punctuation and capitalization: as separating thoughts
Parts of a book (e.g., title page, table of contents, chapters,
index, glossary)
Format of different genres (e.g., stanzas for poetic form)
Proficiency: Advancement toward the attainment of a high degree of knowledge or skill.
READING: Is getting meaning from print autonomously through a functional understanding of how the local writing system (and orthography) work to represent language.
Reading Problem: Refers to low achievement in reading or some key component of reading.
Research Based: As a descriptor for educational studies should mean the research meets rigorous scientific methods, including: long-term duration, adequate sampling procedures, control for researcher bias, standardized measures of progress, control of confounding factors, match of control or comparison group, and peer review.
Semantics: Semantics is the study of meaning. It includes not only the literal meanings of words, but also the myriad idioms and collocations of English. It includes the way that words are organized to vary meaning. It includes figurative language and other non literal language which many students don’t grasp without direct instruction.
Sound-Symbol
Relationships: Phonological awareness and print awareness.
Spelling Patterns: Inflectional endings to base words
Double final consonant
Dropping final e
Changing y to I
Structure: Construction.
Suffix: A meaningful ending which modifies the meaning of the root word to which it is attached.
Syllables: Each separate vowel phoneme creates a separate syllable. A syllable is a unit of speech with one vowel sound which may form a complete word or a part of a word.
Syntax: Sentence structure. It examines the various ways that words combine to create meaning. It includes the grammar of English.
APPENDIX B
Components of a
Research-Based Reading Programs Components
Twelve essential components of research-based programs for beginning reading
instruction are outlined in the TEA document, Beginning Reading Instruction:
Components and Features of Research-based Programs. These components are:
1. Children have opportunities to expand their use and appreciation of oral language.
2. Children have opportunities to expand their use and appreciation of printed language.
3. Children have opportunities to hear good stories and informational books read aloud daily.
4. Children have opportunities to understand and manipulate the building block of spoken language.
5. Children have opportunities to learn about and manipulate the building blocks of written language.
6. Children have opportunities to learn the relationship between the sounds of spoken language and the letters of written language.
7. Children have opportunities to learn decoding strategies.
8. Children have opportunities to write and relate their writing to spelling and reading.
9. Children have opportunities to practice accurate and fluent reading in decodable stories.
10.