| A | B |
|---|
| balanced approach | an approach to literacy instruction that recognizes the need for some direct instruction in reading skills but emphasizes the importance of providing such instruction in meaningful contexts to ensure that students are able to comprehend and use what they read for authentic purposes. |
| before, after, during | (BDA) in literacy instruction, refers to strategies used before, during, and after reading a text to maximize students' comprehensions. Also referred to as into, through, and beyond. |
| close reading | refers to the way students engage in the reading of a text, particularly a complex text, to fully comprehend the information it contains and the inferences that may be drawn from it. |
| complex texts | texts that may be above a students' independent reading level but that can be made comprehensible through careful scaffolding. Complex texts vary in terms of genre and typically have one or more of the following features: high lexical density, complex syntax, implicit meaning, figurative language, archaic language, literary devices, and others. |
| concepts of print | refers to such reading-related issues as understanding the differences between letters and words and words and spaces; knowing where to start reading and how to do a return sweep to continue reading the next line; and understanding the basic features of a book, such as the title and the front and back covers, and even how to hold the book properly. |
| guided reading | a form of literacy instruction in which small groups of students who read at about the same level are matched to texts at their appropriate instructional level, and the teacher provides support as the students attempt to read the texts on their own. |
| independent reading | reading that students are able to do on their own with little or no support. |
| language experience approach | a literacy instruction approach in which students dictate stories based on their own experiences, and teachers transcribe the students' dictations into texts and then use those texts for reading instruction |
| narrow reading | a form of independent recreational reading that entails reading several books on the same subject, by the same author, or in the same genre. |
| phonics | a component of reading instruction in which students learn the phonetic value (i.e., sounds) of individual letters and combinations of letters. |
| read-alouds | sessions during which a teacher, parent, or other proficient reader reads aloud from a book or other text to one or more students. |
| Reader's Workshop | a structure for reading instruction often used in secondary schools that enables teachers to tailor instruction to students' strengths, interests, and needs. |
| reading self-assessments | tools or procedures used by students to assess their own reading performance. |
| running record | a reading assessment tool that provides a visual record of a student's reading performance word by word on a specific text. |
| shared reading | reading instruction in which the teacher reads a big book or other source of enlarged text with the students, modeling a variety of reading strategies and using the text (once the students are familiar with it) to teach reading skills. |
| text complexity | a combination of qualitative and quantitative measures to determine the level of reading difficulty of a book or other text. |
| word study | short mini-lessons focusing on the morphological or semantic properties of words and related sets of words. |
