assessment: Broad term for any type of test or procedure used to gain information about a student's level of skill, knowledge, ability, progress, achievement, etc. With regard to phonological awareness, assessments are often used to establish a baseline of what students already know and to identify children who may require additional instructional help. Assessments can also be used to monitor progress during ongoing phonological awareness instruction.

automaticity: The state of being able to be automatic. In the area of reading, automaticity refers to being able to recognize letters and words without conscious effort or restraint. Example: You are now reading this with automaticity. You do not have to stop and think about how to say these words.

CCCVC words: Words with the following sequence of letters: consonant, consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant. Example: strum.

CCVCC words: Words with the following sequence of letters: consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant. Example: bland.

consonant blend : Two consecutive consonants in a word, each of which retains its own sound. Example: In 'green', we hear both |g| and |r|.

consonant cluster: Three consecutive consonants in a word, each of which retains its own sound. Example: In 'spring', we hear the |s|, the |p|, and the |r|.

conventional spelling: Conventional, or standard, spelling is the correct spelling of a word. This is the spelling you will find in the dictionary.

CVC words: Words with the following sequence of letters: consonant, vowel, consonant. Example: lad.

CVCC words: Words with the following sequence of letters: consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant. Example: land.

decoding: Attempting to identify a word that is not known immediately.

fluency: In the area of reading, the skill of reading with accuracy, speed, ease, expressiveness, and appropriate intonation.

invented spelling: Children's early attempts at spelling which usually reflect some knowledge about the sounds in words. There are multiple invented spellings for any one word. Example: a child might write "wuns" for once, "ppl" for "people," or "kot" for caught.

letter-name knowledge: Knowing the names for each letter of the alphabet.

letter-sound knowledge: Knowing the sound or sounds associated with each letter of the alphabet. Letter-sound associations are also referred to as symbol-sound or grapheme-phoneme relationships. Example: the sound for 'c' can be either |k| or |s|.

screening: A short, concise method to determine a child's strengths and weaknesses in a given area or to determine if a child needs further testing.

Standard Spelling: Standard, or conventional spelling, is the correct spelling of a word. This is the spelling you will find in the dictionary.

VC words: Words with the following sequence of letters: vowel, consonant. Example: 'is'.

word recognition: The ability to identify and read a word and understand its meaning.