Glossary

1. Reading aloud/shared reading: The teacher reads aloud to entire class from a book or poem at or slightly above the level of the students. Goals are to introduce students to a work of literature, engage students in literature discussions, and increase interest in reading. During shared reading, the entire class will read selections of the text together. Often demonstrated using poetry and/or “big books”.

2. Guided reading: The teacher works with a small, homogenous group of students who are tackling similar goals and skills. During guided reading, the teacher will do a book introduction, have students read either the entire text or a selected portion, and then work on comprehension as well as specific decoding/fluency/vocabulary skills.

3. Independent reading: For the most part, students read material of their own choosing and on their own during this block. The teacher moves around, conferencing with selected students.

4. Minilesson: Any short lesson that takes place to introduce writing or reading concepts. Lessons usually focus on one skill or idea and last no longer than 20 minutes.

5. Shared writing (Interactive writing, modeled writing): The teacher works on a piece of writing with the entire class. In the case of modeled writing, the teacher is doing the writing with input from students. In shared writing, the teacher and students share the physical task of writing. In interactive writing, students take on more of the responsibility. In all three cases, the teacher models thinking aloud throughout writing, and working with words and sentences, vocabulary and other components of the process.

6. Guided writing: The teacher works with a small, homogenous group of students who are tackling similar goals and skills. During guided writing, the entire group focuses on a piece of student writing and work through corrections, adding descriptive details, and otherwise improving the work.

7. Independent writing: Students work on their own. In some cases, assignments vary within the class. Students also edit each other's work.

8. Word work: Teacher and students focus on learning and practicing skills related to decoding, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and other mechanics.

9. Writing Aloud: Students write while thinking aloud about choices made in terms of syntax, semantics, and other issues.