Vocabulary Words for the Week of March 23

Word Consciousness: Word consciousness is “awareness and interest in words and their meaning” (Graves & Watts-Taffe, 2008).  
(https://keystoliteracy.com/blog/word-conscious-classroom/)

Word consciousness is important because it is a great trait for students (and teachers) to have. If teachers encourage a sense of word consciousness within their students, then their students will be much more open to learning new words and expanding their vocabulary (which are great mentalities to have when becoming a successful literate person).



Diphthongs: A diphthong is a sound made by combining two vowels, specifically when it starts as one vowel sound and goes to another, like the oy sound in oil.
(https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/diphthong)

Diphthongs are important because they are unique and potentially confusing and impossible to decipher unless taught. If a student is taught multiple diphthongs, then they'll be able to read more words and have a better chance at correctly decoding an unknown word that contains a diphthongs they've seen before.



Ambiguous Vowels: – A vowel sound represented by a variety of different spelling patterns, or vowel patterns that represent a variety of sounds.
(http://ww3.mamkschools.org/ela/Documents/WTWLevelCContent.pdf)

Ambiguous vowels are important because developing readers need to be made aware of these patterns and all the spelling variations that a single sound can make, or vice versa. This is a tool that, once learned, can be used to decode unknown words.



Homophones: Words that sounds the same but are spelled differently.

Homophones are important because they can be very confusing to students, especially those in the within-word patter developmental writing stage. Homophones are examples of how different letter and letter combinations can create replicate sounds and why we need to be aware of the power of digraphs, diphthongs, ambiguous vowels, and other phonetic devises so that we are not fooled.



Homographs: Words that are written the same but have a different meaning and/or pronuncuation.

Homographs are important because they can be confusing to students who are unaware that letters and letter combinations can have a variety of different sounds. Students need to be taught why these words sound differently (the origin/history of the word) so that they can not be fooled in the future.




Homonyms: Words that have the same spelling and typically the same pronunciation, but have different meanings.

Homonyms are important because they can be very confusing and further prove how necessary it is to be aware of phonetic patterns. They also are an example of how the context of a word and how the word is used in a sentence can completely change the meaning of the word and why awareness of the story/text is incredibly important.

Vocabulary Words for the Week of March 16

Sight Words: Sight words are words that a reader automatically recognizes without having to use picture clues or sound them out. 
 (https://www.theclassroom.com/definition-sight-words-6465595.html)

Sight words are important because they are the main words that make up a majority of written text, such as "the" and "it." By mastering these words, children can read large parts of early-level text and be able to identify these commonly used words whenever they see them. It is a major first step in becoming a fluent, independent reader. 

Schwa: An unstressed mid-central vowel.

(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/schwa)

Schwas are important because it is the most commonly used sound and is featured in many, many words. Children need to learn to pronounce these sounds correctly in order to know how to read and write words featuring them. It is an important first thing to master when learning to become a literate person.

Digraph: A digraph is two letters that make one sound. The digraph can be made up of vowels or consonants.

(https://www.theschoolrun.com/What-is-a-digraph)

Digraphs are important because they are new sounds produced by different two letter combinations. If we do not teach students the different sounds that specific letters make when beside one another, then they will pronounce and read the word incorrectly. Many, many words contain digraphs and in order to become successful readers and writers, children need to know all of the digraphs and understand that certain letter combinations create entirely new sounds.

Blend: Phonics blends are groups of consonants whose sounds blend together.

(http://atozphonics.com/teaching/55/phonics-blends-what-are-they/)

Blends are important because they are a major part of many English words. Children need to be taught not to pronounce the consonants in a blend as individual letters, but to instead pronounce the group of consonants as a quick blending. If students are not taught about blends and examples of blends, then they will not understand how to pronounce or read several words and will greatly struggle with comprehension.

Phonograms: A succession of orthographic letters that occurs with the same phonetic value in several words (such as the ight of bright, fight, and flight).

(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phonogram)

Phonograms are important because they are basically word families that make learning other words with the same group of letter significantly easier. Once you learn what sound a cluster of letters make, you can use this as a tool when approaching an unknown word that contains that exact cluster of letters. You can apply that learned sound to the unknown word and have a much better chance at figuring out the word independently and successfully.

Onset: The "onset" is the initial phonological unit of any word (e.g. c in cat). 

(https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/onset_rime)

The onset is important because it plays a very large role in the construction of a word. If a child is taught how to identify an onset within a word, then they are enhancing their skills on how to properly break up a word (and eventually unknown words) and identify recognizable, common chunks.

Rime:  the string of letters that follow, usually a vowel and final consonants (e.g. at in cat).

(https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/onset_rime)

Rimes are important because much like their counterpart (onsets), they enhance a child's ability to properly break up a word and recognize common letter chunks that can be used to figure out unknown words in the future. Ultimately, rimes are a big tool in decoding words and expanding one;s vocabulary and increasing one's reading level.