MTEL Foundations of Reading (190) cheat sheet

Phonological awareness is the umbrella skill: it covers hearing syllables, onsets and rimes, and individual phonemes; phonemic awareness is the narrower ability to isolate and manipulate single phonemes.

Phonemic awareness tasks progress from least to most difficult: phoneme isolation, then blending, then segmentation, then deletion, then substitution, then reversal.

The alphabetic principle is the understanding that letters map to sounds systematically; it differs from letter-name knowledge, which alone does not enable decoding.

Consonant digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh, ph) represent one phoneme with two letters; consonant blends (bl, str, spl) keep each letter's sound audible.

Vowel teams and diphthongs: digraph teams (ai, ee, oa) usually make one long sound, while diphthongs (oi/oy, ou/ow) glide between two vowel sounds.

The six syllable types are closed, open, vowel-consonant-e, vowel team, r-controlled, and consonant-le; syllable division rules follow the pattern VC/CV, V/CV, and VC/V.

Orthographic knowledge develops in stages: pre-alphabetic, partial alphabetic, full alphabetic, consolidated alphabetic, and automatic; spelling errors reveal which stage a reader occupies.

Morphology supports reading: inflectional morphemes (-s, -ed, -ing) change tense or number, while derivational morphemes (un-, -ness, -tion) change word class or meaning.

Fluency has three components: accuracy, automaticity (rate), and prosody (expression); rate alone is not sufficient evidence of fluent reading.

The simple view of reading holds that reading comprehension equals decoding ability multiplied by linguistic comprehension, so weakness in either factor limits comprehension.

The three tiers of vocabulary instruction are Tier 1 (everyday conversation), Tier 2 (academic cross-content words), and Tier 3 (domain-specific technical terms); Tier 2 words yield the highest instructional payoff.

Scarborough's Rope model depicts skilled reading as interwoven strands: word recognition strands (phonological awareness, decoding, sight recognition) and language comprehension strands (vocabulary, background knowledge, verbal reasoning, literacy knowledge).

Comprehension strategies with strong evidence include predicting, questioning, monitoring, clarifying, summarizing, and using text structure; strategy instruction should be modeled with gradual release.

Narrative text structure elements are setting, characters, initiating event, internal response, attempts, consequence, and resolution; expository structures include description, sequence, compare-contrast, cause-effect, and problem-solution.

Running records and miscue analysis classify errors as semantic, syntactic, or graphophonic; a high proportion of meaning-based miscues indicates a reader relying on context over print.

Assessment purposes differ: screening identifies risk early, diagnostic assessment pinpoints specific skill gaps, progress monitoring tracks growth on a repeated measure, and outcome assessment evaluates program effectiveness.

Phonological awareness instruction is most effective when delivered orally before print is introduced, in short daily sessions, and sequenced from larger units (words, syllables) to smaller units (phonemes).

Explicit, systematic phonics teaches a defined sequence of letter-sound correspondences and applies them in connected text; implicit or incidental phonics lacks a planned scope and sequence.

The alphabetic code should be taught cumulatively: new correspondences are practiced in words that contain only previously taught elements (decodable text).

Sight-word instruction targets high-frequency irregular words (said, was, could) and should pair orthographic mapping-sound-to-letter analysis-rather than whole-word visual memorization.

Word study for older readers uses syllable patterns, Greek and Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes, and spelling generalizations (e.g., the doubling rule, the silent-e drop rule).

Vocabulary instruction is strongest when it provides student-friendly definitions, multiple contextual encounters, semantic mapping, and opportunities for productive use in discussion and writing.

Comprehension instruction should include both strategy teaching and knowledge building; text-dependent questioning and close reading require answers grounded in the passage rather than in prior opinion.

Struggling readers benefit from increased instructional time, smaller groups, more explicit modeling, and immediate corrective feedback; interventions should be matched to the specific assessed deficit.