Praxis Teaching Reading: K-12 flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Phonemic awareness

The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual phonemes in spoken words, such as blending /k/ /a/ /t/ into cat. It is oral and does not require print.

Alphabetic principle

The understanding that speech sounds are represented by letters and letter combinations in a predictable way. It underlies decoding and is a key early literacy milestone.

Print concepts

Knowledge of how print works, including left-to-right directionality, front and back of a book, spaces between words, and matching spoken words to printed words during reading.

Orthographic mapping

The mental process of forming letter-sound connections to bond written words to their pronunciations and meanings in memory, enabling instant word recognition.

Simple View of Reading

A model stating that reading comprehension equals decoding ability multiplied by language comprehension. A deficit in either component limits overall reading comprehension.

Onset and rime

The onset is the initial consonant or cluster of a syllable; the rime is the vowel and remaining letters. Example: in 'stop,' /st/ is onset and /op/ is rime.

Systematic phonics

Phonics instruction that follows a carefully sequenced scope and sequence of letter-sound correspondences, moving from simple to complex patterns with cumulative review.

Six syllable types

Closed, open, vowel-consonant-e, vowel team, r-controlled, and consonant-le. Recognizing these patterns helps readers decode multisyllabic words accurately.

Structural analysis

Using knowledge of morphemes, including prefixes, suffixes, and roots, to identify unfamiliar words. It is a primary word-identification strategy for older readers.

Prosody

The expressive dimension of reading fluency, including appropriate phrasing, intonation, stress, and pacing. It reflects comprehension and is a component of fluent reading.

Oral reading fluency

A measure of reading accuracy and rate, typically reported as correct words per minute. It is often used as a screening and progress-monitoring indicator.

Miscue analysis

An examination of oral reading errors to determine whether the reader relies on meaning (semantic), syntax, or letter-sound information (graphophonic) when identifying words.

Decodable text

Text that primarily uses letter-sound correspondences and high-frequency words the student has been taught, providing practice in applying phonics knowledge to connected reading.

Irregular sight words

High-frequency words with parts that do not follow common phonics patterns, such as 'said' or 'was.' They are taught through explicit sound-letter mapping plus practice.

Tier 2 vocabulary

High-frequency academic words used across content areas, such as analyze, contrast, and evidence. They are high-priority targets for direct vocabulary instruction.

Inferential comprehension

Understanding ideas that are not explicitly stated in the text, requiring the reader to combine text evidence with background knowledge to draw conclusions.

Text structure

The organizational pattern of a text, such as description, sequence, compare-contrast, cause-effect, or problem-solution. Recognizing structure supports comprehension and recall.

QAR

Question-Answer Relationship: a framework classifying questions as right-there, think-and-search, author-and-me, or on-my-own, teaching students where answers can be found.

Reciprocal teaching

An instructional approach in which students take turns predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing while reading, building self-regulated comprehension strategies through dialogue.

Morphological awareness

Knowledge of meaningful word parts, including prefixes, suffixes, and roots, which supports vocabulary growth, decoding of multisyllabic words, and reading comprehension.

Screening assessment

A brief assessment administered to all students to identify those at risk for reading difficulty who need further diagnostic evaluation or intervention.

Progress monitoring

Frequent, brief assessment of a student's skill growth over time, used to determine whether an intervention is working and to guide instructional adjustments.

Running record accuracy rate

Calculated as words correct divided by total words read, multiplied by 100. 95-100% is independent, 90-94% instructional, and below 90% frustration level.

Informal Reading Inventory

An assessment using graded passages and comprehension questions to determine a student's independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels.

Curriculum-based measurement

Brief, standardized, timed probes such as oral reading fluency or maze tasks used to screen students and monitor academic progress over time.

Three-tier RTI model

A prevention framework with Tier 1 core instruction for all, Tier 2 targeted small-group intervention, and Tier 3 intensive individualized intervention based on assessed need.

Criterion-referenced test

An assessment that measures a student's mastery of specific skills or standards rather than comparing performance to a norm group.

Disciplinary literacy

Instruction in the specific reading, writing, and reasoning practices of a discipline, such as sourcing evidence in history or interpreting data in science.

Sheltered instruction

An approach that teaches content and language objectives together, using visuals, gestures, and scaffolded language supports to make content accessible to English learners.

Structured literacy

Explicit, systematic, cumulative, and multisensory instruction in phonology, sound-symbol correspondence, syllables, morphology, syntax, and semantics, often used for students with dyslexia.

Universal Design for Learning

A framework providing multiple means of representation, engagement, and action/expression so that instruction is accessible to diverse learners.

Text complexity

A judgment based on quantitative readability measures, qualitative features such as structure and knowledge demands, and reader-task considerations, used to select appropriate texts.

Text-dependent questions

Questions answerable only by referring back to the text and citing evidence, used in close reading to build comprehension of complex text.