Glossary J - R

Letter-Sound Correspondence:
Students identify letter sounds (one to one correspondence) and then match the sound to a letter (initial, final, medial).

Linguistic:
Of, or relating to, language.

Literary Text:
Genre of reading that includes fiction, literary non-fiction, and poetry.

Mastery:
Full understanding of a skill at a predetermined level.

Meaning Focused:
Instruction that teaches students how to extract and construct meaning from text. It focuses on general comprehension by stressing the functional nature of printed words.

Minimal Pairs:
Two words that differ by one phoneme.

Modeling:
When the teacher overtly demonstrates a strategy, skill, or concept that students will be learning.

Morpheme:
The smallest meaningful unit of language.

Morphemic Analysis:
A word-learning strategy that uses an analysis of words formed by adding prefixes, suffixes, or other meaningful word units to a base word.

Morphology:
The study and description of word formation (as inflection, derivation, and compounding) in language.

Narrative Text:
Genre of reading consisting of stories about fictional or real events.

Nonsense Words:
Words that follow the patterns of Standard English, but are not real words.

Normal-Curve Equivalency:
The score resulting from separating the normal distribution into 99 statistically equivalent parts. This score is used for comparison of scores across groups or across time.

Norm Referenced:
Results are determined on comparison with other students (peers). Its name is derived from the normal curve and teachers use it to establish what is commonly called a “grading curve”. This curve is based on percentages of students’ score distribution (e.g. top 15% receive an A).

Onset and Rime:
In a syllable, the onset is the initial consonant or consonants. The rime is the vowel and any consonants that follow (e.g., the word “sat”: the onset is “s” and the rime is “at”. In the word “flip” the onset is “fl” and the rime is “ip”).

Outcome Measure:
An assessment used to measure the success of instruction throughout the year. The FCAT is an example of an Outcome Measure.

Outlier:
A student with a score in the top or bottom 5 percent of the class.

Percentile Rank:
Percentage of students the same age, whose scores equal or surpass that of a particular child. These scores cannot be averaged.

Phoneme:
The smallest unit of sound within our language system.

Phonemic Awareness:
The ability to notice, think about, or manipulate individual phonemes (sounds) in words. It is the ability to understand that sounds in spoken language work together to make words. This term is used to refer to the highest level of phonological awareness: an awareness of individual phonemes in words.

Phonics:
The study of the relationships between letters and the sounds they represent; also used to describe reading instruction that teaches sound-symbol correspondences.

Phonological Awareness:
One’s sensitivity to, or explicit awareness of, the phonological structure of words in one’s language. This is an “umbrella” term that is used to refer to a student’s sensitivity to any aspect of phonological structure in language. It encompasses awareness of individual words in sentences.

Phrasing:
To express in words or in appropriate or telling terms; a style of expression.

Print Awareness:
Ability to recognize written language and understand that printed words carry meaning.

Progress Monitoring:
Tests that keep a teacher informed about a student’s progress in learning to read during the school year. The tests are a quick sample of critical reading skills that will tell the teacher if the student is making adequate progress toward grade level reading ability at the end of the year. They can be administered to a student every week, every two to three weeks, or monthly.

Pronoun Reference:
Pronouns usually refer to other words called antecedents (nouns or other pronouns) because they come before the pronoun. Pronouns must refer clearly to distinct, close, and single antecedents so as not to interfere with a reader’s comprehension of the text.

Psychometric Standards:
Rules pertaining to the theory and technique of educational and psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and overall aptitudes.

Qualitative:
Relating to or involving comparisons based on qualities.

Rate:
The timed speed at which a reader navigates the text (e.g., words per minute).

Raw Score:
The score that is first acquired when scoring a test or performance task. It is often changed to a type of derived score for interpretation (e.g., standard scores or percentile rank).

Reader Characteristics:
The levels of knowledge a reader brings to the text, with respect to linguistic, cognitive, and affective areas.

Recall:
To bring back to mind what one had already read; a display of comprehension.

Recognize:
To acknowledge, or take notice of, given and new information within a text in some definite way.

Recommended Instructional Level (RIL):
The level of instruction needed by individual students to have success at grade-level reading and are derived from combining scores on tests given at each assessment period. These levels include:

Initial: Outcome of the DIBELS® assessment that indicates a student is performing on grade level.
Strategic: Outcome of the DIBELS® assessment that indicates a student would benefit from additional assistance in targeted areas.
Intensive: Outcome of the DIBELS® assessment that indicates a student is in need of immediate intensive intervention (iii).

Reliability:
Refers to the consistency of the outcomes; how dependable a test is. It is also a prerequisite of validity.

Retell:
To tell again, or in another form, to convey comprehension of a text.

Rhyming:
Words that have the same ending sound.

Risk Levels:

High: Seriously below grade level and in need of substantial intervention. A student at high risk who does not receive immediate intensive intervention (iii) has about a 10 percent chance of reading on grade level at the end of the year.
Moderate: Moderately below grade level. Targeted instruction is needed to improve at least one skill. Without targeted instruction, a student at moderate risk has about a 50 percent chance of achieving grade level at the end of the year.
Low: The current classroom instruction is sufficient for meeting the student’s needs. A student at low risk has a about an 80 percent chance of reading at grade level at the end of the year.
Above Average: The student’s performance in a particular skill is above average in proficiency.

S - Z