Glossary

Anecdotal notes  - Anecdotal notes represent an informal process of taking notes during a lesson to document student growth, understanding, and areas to address.

Authentic text  - Authentic text may be thought of as any text that was written and published for the public. Authentic texts are written for “real world” purposes and audiences: to entertain, inform, explain, guide, document or convince.  Journal articles, blog posts, poems and novels are just a few examples. 

Balanced Assessment - In Henrico County Public Schools, a balanced assessment system includes a variety of measures (diagnostic, formative, and summative) that are purposeful, aligned with the content being taught, or meet accountability measures. The data gathered provides meaningful information that supports, guides, and maximizes classroom instruction. A balanced assessment system will allow opportunities to measure student achievement and growth based on content standards, specific learning goals, and the 6 C’s (critical thinking, creative thinking, quality character, collaborator, communicator, and global citizen).

Bracken School Readiness Assessment - The Bracken is used to assess a child’s readiness for school by evaluating the understanding of 85 important foundational academic concepts in the categories of Colors, Letters, Numbers/Counting, Sizes/Comparisons, and Shapes. The Bracken is administered in the fall and the spring. 

Classroom library -  A classroom library is a collection of books housed in an individual classroom that students can easily access during the instructional day.  The books in a classroom library are up-to-date and engaging for students.

Collaboration  - Collaboration is the act of working with someone to produce or create something. 

Concept of word - Concept of word refers to a student’s ability to  match spoken words with individual words in a line of text.  It demonstrates a reader’s understanding that groups of letters form a word, words are separated by spaces, and each individual word has meaning.  

Conferring - Teachers confer with readers and writers to support self-selected reading and student writing. These interactions are conversations in which the teacher discovers what the student is doing, assesses how well the student is using decoding or strategies/techniques, and decides what to teach the student. During a conference, the teacher provides a model of a reading or writing strategy and asks the student to give it a try.

Curate - The act of pulling together, sifting through, and selecting resources to form a collection.  School librarians curate collections of text and resources in the library, and teachers curate collections of books for their classrooms.

Curriculum - The term curriculum refers to the specific learning standards, lessons, assignments, and materials used to organize and teach a particular course.

Decodable Text - Decodable text allows beginning readers to use letter-sound relationships to decode, or read, words.   The words in decodable text are carefully selected to reflect a developmentally appropriate sequence of phonics skills. 

Deeper Learning - Deeper learning is the process of learning for transfer, meaning it allows a student to take what's learned in one situation and apply it to another.

Diverse - A diverse group is made up of people or things that are very different from each other and those differences (i.e. race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies) should be embraced and celebrated.

Diverse Text - Diverse Texts include books and genres that reflect different social, cultural and world views.  When students read a variety of different authors, genres and styles, they learn to open their mind to new perspectives and ways of seeing things. 

Exit Ticket - An exit ticket is an informal assessment process that documents student understanding at the end of a lesson.

Explicit Instruction - Explicit instruction is a way to teach skills or concepts using a direct, structured approach.

Henrico Learning Profile - The Henrico Learning Profile describes the knowledge, skills, attributes, and experiences that empower students to be #LifeReady.  It provides an expanded framework to synthesize all of our frameworks, including the Profile of a Virginia Graduate, into a common vision for all students. 

High-Frequency Words - High-frequency words are words that appear frequently in written English.  The most common sources for a list of these words are Dolch and Fry.  

Inclusive - To be inclusive is to think of all learners, including those with learning differences, language barriers, and gifted.  An inclusive classroom is one in which all students, irrespective of their abilities or skills, are welcomed into a supportive and responsive learning environment so that everyone feels valued.

Information Literacy - Information literacy is knowing when and why information is needed, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use, and communicate it in an ethical manner.

Inquiry - Inquiry is a process in which the learner is engaged in asking questions and finding answers, not simply accumulating facts presented by someone else that have no relation to previous learning or new understanding.

Instructional Strategies - Instructional strategies encompass any type of learning technique a teacher uses to help students learn or gain a better understanding of the course material. Strategies used in Henrico  include Kagan, Marzano, Total Participation Techniques and content specific strategies.  Teachers use instructional strategies to help students become independent, strategic learners.

Interactive Read Aloud - An Interactive Read Aloud is an instructional practice in which the teacher reads text aloud to students.  The teacher has planned stopping points that support a specific instructional focus.  The teacher uses modeling and questioning to engage students in thinking critically about the text being read.

Leveled Text - Text that is evaluated for complexity and placed on a continuum that runs from A (easiest) to Z (most complex).  Leveled text is used in guided reading to match text with students’ needs.

LifeReady Literacy - Life Ready Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, evaluate, interpret, create, compute, and communicate using visual, audible, and digital materials across disciplines and in any context.

Mentor text - Mentor text is a piece of authentic text that is used to model a specific concept. 

Modeling - Modeling is a demonstration of a concept or activity.

Multiplicity of texts - Multiplicity of texts is the access to a variety of formats, such as print, digital, and audio

Performance Task - A performance task is any learning activity, assessment or application of knowledge and skills to a problem or situation in which students demonstrate their understanding and proficiency with an authentic task that is tailored to a specific audience and assessed by clear standards and outcomes.

Personalized learning - Personalized learning includes instructional practices that increase student engagement by meeting individual needs.   It includes student voice and choice, customization to each student’s strengths and needs, student ownership of learning, and flexibility of instruction. 

Phonemic Awareness - Phonemic Awareness is the awareness that words are made up of individual sounds.  For example, the word cat is made up of three phonemes, or sounds, /c/, /a/, and /t/.  Students need to be able to orally manipulate phonemes to have full phonemic awareness.  

Phonics - Phonics is teaching students the relationship between sounds and written letters. It includes understanding of spelling patterns (i.e., ar, ea, oi). 

Phonological Awareness - Phonological awareness is the understanding that sounds in words can be represented by syllables, onsets and rimes, and/or by phonemes.

Profile of a Virginia Graduate - The Profile of a Virginia Graduate describes the knowledge, skills, experiences and attributes that students must attain to be successful in college and/or the work force and to be “life ready.”  It provides the framework for the requirements students must meet to earn a Standard Diploma or Advanced Studies Diploma.

RAN - Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) is a test of a person’s ability to name known items such as colors, letters, or numbers quickly and accurately. RAN scores can be predictive of a student’s reading fluency.  

Read Aloud - A read aloud is an instructional practice in which a teacher reads text aloud to students to nurture the joy of reading and to support listening comprehension.   It also allows for the teacher to model fluency and introduce students to different authors and genres. 

Responsive Instruction - Responsive instruction is the moment-to-moment decisions that teachers make as they observe and analyze students' behaviors. It is the observation and analysis of the students' literacy behaviors that inform a teacher’s next instructional move.

Rubric - A rubric is an assessment tool that includes a scoring scale and criteria.   Rubrics are frequently used to evaluate student writing, projects, and presentations.

Running Record - A running record assesses a student’s decoding and fluency skills by asking students to read an excerpt of text aloud.

Sight Words - A sight word is any word a person knows without having to consciously decode.  The word is accessed automatically, without thinking.  

Scaffolding - Scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques designed to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and a greater independence in the learning process.

Seed Writing - A form of writing that involves the teacher providing a seed (image, graphic, video clip, quote, text excerpt, etc.) that invites students to write.

Shared Reading - Shared Reading is an instructional practice in which all participants have access to the text.  The teacher supports the reading of the text and has a specific instructional focus.  Students participate by reading the text with the teacher and thinking critically about the text.

Social-Emotional - Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work and life success.  Social and emotional learning (SEL) includes students being able to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

Spelling  Inventory - A spelling inventory, such as Words Their Way or The Development Spelling Analysis,  assesses a student’s knowledge and understanding of spelling patterns and the relationships between sounds and written letters.   The information gained through a spelling inventory allows teachers to target instruction to meet the needs of students.

Standards of Learning Assessments - An annual assessment of student achievement as a component of Virginia’s accountability system.  

Strategic Plan - Henrico County’s Strategic Plan includes descriptions of six major strategic goals and how the school division plans to reach them. The goals are each tied to one or more of the four cornerstones that comprise Henrico Schools’ core values.

Text - Text refers to any piece of information. Text can include print materials, digital materials, film, statistical charts and graphs, maps, timelines, music, photos, and art.

Text set - A text set is a group of related pieces of text that encompass a central theme or idea across multiple levels of readability and genres.

Think-aloud - A think-aloud is an instructional process in which teachers verbalize thinking to illustrate a concept for students.   By sharing the thought process behind a concept, a teacher is making thinking visible to students.  

TS Gold - The assessment model used in GOLD® follows widely held expectations for children birth through third grade and enables a whole-child approach to assessment. Color-coded progressions guide teachers toward selecting and adapting activities that support each child’s development and learning. Meaningful reports inform classroom practices and individualized instruction. Data collection is ongoing throughout the school year with specific times that checkpoints take place to finalize developmental levels.

Viability - Viability represents an ability to be successfully implemented. 

Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System (VALLSS) - VALLSS is a screening tool that identifies student at risk for reading difficulities in the fundamental components of literacy.

Word Analysis - Word Analysis is a process for examining the structure of words, including the phonetic and morphological qualities of the word.

Writing Process - The writing process is a five-step cycle for composing text that includes prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.

Writing Workshop -  A writing workshop is an instructional structure that allows students to fluidly move through the writing process while exercising voice and choice.   It includes time for students to write, to confer with the teacher and peers, and for teacher-led mini-lessons on writer’s craft.