THE ABC’S OF ENGLISH, LANGUAGE ARTS, AND READING.

Ashley Ellis

ELED 412, Summer 2013

A IS FOR..... Alliteration – is a technique used to

emphasize phonemes. This can be accomplished by using many words that have the same consonant sound or letter.

Example – Tongue Twisters

B IS FOR….. Bottom-Up Approach – “Parts to the whole”,

This approach begins with phonemes and graphemes and continues by expanding to the syllable, words, sentences, paragraphs, and then whole reading selections.

In other words – Phonics Instruction

C IS FOR….. “Clues” Clues for Decoding – Context Clues

are use to help identify unknown words. There are also three main types of contexts clues Semantic, Syntactic, and Structural.

Semantic Clues (thinking) – requires student to think of the meaning of the word. Syntactic Clues (order) – requires the student to use the order of words in the sentence. Structural Clues (built) – requires the student to pay attention to the letter groups, many groups of letters frequently occur with in words. Example – Prefixes – pre, anti, and sub

D IS FOR….. Dolch Words – “sight words” or frequently

used words in the English language. If students are exposed to the words and learn to recognize them as sight words, they will become more fluent readers.

E IS FOR….. Emergent Readers – understand that print

contains meaningful information. These students imitate the reading process and display basic reading readiness skills.

-Eye Movement – top to bottom and left to right

-Participate in shared reading activities

-Follow and match words

-Use illustrations to support text

F IS FOR….. Full Alphabetic Stage – Students begin

making connections between the letters, the sounds they represent, and the actual meaning of the word.

Students begin to “Crack the Code” of the written language.

G IS FOR….. Graphemes – or “letters”.

Graph made up of lines and dots. Line and dots form letters. Therefor – a graph is made up of lines and dots so, Graphemes means letters.

H IS FOR….. Homophones – words that sound the same but

are spelled differently and have different meanings.

Examples

Blew and Blue, Cents and Sense, Heir and Air, Wait and Weight, Hear and Here, Eight and Ate

I IS FOR….. Intonation Patterns – describe the pitch

contour of a phrase or a sentence that is used to change the meaning of the sentence.

Example

Question – How are you?

Reply – How are you?

J IS FOR….. Journals – writing in journals provide students

with opportunities to use language authentically in literary contexts.

K IS FOR….. Knowledge – activating prior knowledge lets

readers pay more attention because they can relate to the text. Students receive a better understanding of the text if they can make connections between text, their lives, and the larger world.

You can address this by – K-W-L’s, Reflecting, and Confirming Prediction only to name a few.

L IS FOR….. Lexicon – refers to the vocabulary of a

language. Meaning of words change based on context and its historical framework. Vocabulary is said to be one of the most variable and rich components of language.

M IS FOR….. Morphemes – are the smallest representation

of the meaning of a word.

N IS FOR….. Newly Fluent Readers - can read with

relative fluency and comprehension. Ability to use several cuing systems Sematic, Structural, Visual, and Grapho-

Phonemic Cuing Systems cuing systems.

O IS FOR….. Observation – teachers should use

observations during individual or group work. Teachers can make a checklist of competencies, skills, or requirements then uses the list to check off the skills the students or group displays.

P IS FOR….. Phonology – is the study of the sound system

of a language.

Q IS FOR….. Questions – comprehensive questions can

begin at reading level of the student and continue to increase in complexity until the student is not able to respond to the comprehension questions.

R IS FOR….. Readers Theater – used to emphasize reading

fluency. A story is modified so that various characters have to read portion of the text. Students rehearse their reading part and then create a theater format to present the reading.

S IS FOR….. Syllabication – refers to the ability to

conceptualize and separate words into their basic syllables.

T IS FOR….. Top Down Approach – begins with the whole

and then proceeds to its individual parts. Whole stories, paragraphs, sentences, words

and then proceeds to the smallest units of syllables, graphemes, and phonemes.

U IS FOR….. Using – Using parts of a book such as the

charts, diagrams, indexes, and tables of contents to improve their understanding of the reading content.

V IS FOR….. Visualizing – active readers create visual

images based on the words they read in the text. These created pictures in turn enhance readers’ understanding.

W IS FOR….. Whole Language Approach – More than

graphic information the whole language approach relies on the structure and meaning of the language.

Teachers can help this by reading and rereading texts to children

Teachers must have a sharp emphasis on phonics will skill-based approaches to reading.

X IS FOR….. SuffiX & AffiX & PrefiX– Affix is commonly a suffix or

attached to a base word, stem, or root. Suffix is an affix attached to the end of a base word or word root. Prefix comes at the beginning of a word.

Y IS FOR….. Syllable Juncture – The transition for one

syllable to the next.

Sometimes this transition involves a spelling change such as a consonant doubling or dropping the final –e before adding ing.

Z IS FOR….. Zone Proximal Developing (ZPD) – The

conditions for learning something new. A persons ZPD is the zone that which is neither too hard nor too easy.

THE ABCS OF ENGLISH, LANGUAGE ARTS, AND READING.

Ashley Ellis ELED 412

Summer II, 2013 Refrences – Rosado , L. A. (2013 ). Texes 191 generalist ec-6 test .

Research & Education Association, INC. http://www.texes.ets.org/assets/pdf/testprep_manuals/191_g

eneralist_ec_6.pdf