Foundations of Reading Terms
Morpheme ✔✔A meaningful linguistic unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units.
Changing morphemes can change the meaning of both a word and its sentence.
ex. un+system+atic+
...
Foundations of Reading Terms
Morpheme ✔✔A meaningful linguistic unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units.
Changing morphemes can change the meaning of both a word and its sentence.
ex. un+system+atic+al+ly (5 separate morphemes)
Free Morpheme= system,
Bound Morpheme=un, atic, al, ly
Phoneme ✔✔Combinations of letter sounds. A minimal unit of sound/smallest part of SPOKEN
language; speech sound
/b/ in book (/m/an VS /v/an)
Grapheme ✔✔The smallest part of WRITTEN language that represents a phoneme in the
spelling of a word
boy= /b//oi/
Blends ✔✔Two or more CONSONANTS clustered together, each of them make a sound Ex. bl,
cl, str, spr
Digraphs ✔✔Two VOWELS or two CONSONANTS that represent one speech sound
th/then wh/which oa/boat ai/rain
Phonological Awareness ✔✔A large category of ORAL language (auditory). The awareness that
oral language is composed of smaller units, such as spoken words, syllables, phonemes, rhyming
words, onsets and rimes. W/out good p.a. & memory, students are more apt to confuse words
that have different meanings but are similar in sound.
*Need to be taught focusing on 1-2 skills at a time
Phonemic Awareness ✔✔Most complex type of phonological awareness; involving the ability to
distinguish the separate phonemes in a spoken word. Also being able to recognize that words are
made up of individual speech sounds. Processes of breaking words down to individual
components, blending phonemes, and stretching them. Can obtain from common jingles, nursery
rhymes, and use of oral lang and sound patterns.
Affix ✔✔A bound morpheme that changes the meaning or the function of a root or stem to
which it is attached. Ex: prefix "ad" and suffix "ing" in "adjoining."
Compound Word ✔✔A compound word is made when two words are joined to form a new
word. ex. baseball
Contraction ✔✔a single word form by combining 2 words, using an apostrophe to represent the
missing letters (is not= isn't)
Homonym ✔✔A word with a different origin and meaning but the same oral and written as one
or more other words
Homophone ✔✔homo=same phone=sound
a word with different origin or meaning but the same pronunciation! ex. two, to, too; right, write
Homograph ✔✔homo=same graph=writing
a word with the same spelling as another word, whether or not it's pronounced the same. ex.
lie(untruth) lie (down)
5 types of Contextual Clues ✔✔Definition, Synonym, Antonym, Example, General
Definition Contextual Clues ✔✔The author actually presents a definition for the target word in a
text
Synonym Contextual Clues ✔✔Another word in the paragraph is a synonym for the target word
Antonym Contextual Clues ✔✔Another word in the paragraph is a antonym for the target word
Example Contextual Clues ✔✔The author of the text has provided the definition of the target
word by listing examples of the word in the text
General Contextual Clues ✔✔There are words in the paragraph, often spread across several
sentences, that will help the reader figure out the unknown word
Syllable ✔✔Part of a word that contains a vowel. A uni
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