Language Arts

Balanced literacy is a reading instruction approach that attempts to combine phonics with whole language methods, using techniques like guided reading and independent reading alongside some explicit skill instruction.

Grammar instruction is the systematic teaching of rules governing sentence structure, ensuring effective communication through clarity and precision in speaking and writing.

Guided reading is small-group reading instruction where a teacher works with students reading at similar levels, providing targeted support as they develop reading strategies for increasingly difficult texts.

Independent reading is when students choose and read books on their own with minimal adult assistance, building fluency, vocabulary, and a lifelong love of reading through self-selected materials.

Multisensory reading instruction simultaneously engages visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile pathways to strengthen reading skills, particularly benefiting struggling readers and those with dyslexia.

The Orton-Gillingham approach is a direct, multisensory method for teaching reading, writing, and spelling that engages visual, auditory, and kinesthetic pathways simultaneously—particularly effective for students with dyslexia and reading difficulties.

Phonemic awareness is the auditory ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words—a foundational skill that predicts reading success and develops before formal phonics instruction.

Phonics is a method of reading instruction that teaches the relationships between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes), enabling children to decode unfamiliar words by sounding them out.

A read-aloud is when a proficient reader reads text aloud to children, modeling fluent reading while listeners focus on comprehension and vocabulary. Research identifies it as the single most important activity for reading success, and homeschool families use read-alouds from preschool through high school.

Sight words are high-frequency words that readers learn to recognize instantly without sounding out. The term typically refers to words from lists like the Dolch Words or Fry Words that appear so commonly in texts that automatic recognition significantly improves reading fluency.

Spelling rules are patterns and principles that guide how English words are written, providing a systematic framework for understanding letter-sound relationships rather than relying purely on memorization.

Structured Literacy is an evidence-based approach to reading instruction that explicitly and systematically teaches the structure of language, including phonology, sound-symbol relationships, syllables, morphology, syntax, and semantics.

Whole language is a reading instruction approach that emphasizes learning through meaningful literature and context clues rather than systematic phonics instruction, though research now favors explicit phonics methods.

The writing process is a series of five stages—prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing—that writers use to develop ideas into polished compositions, making writing more manageable by breaking it into distinct, teachable steps.