the thought processes students are able to rely on relative to problem solving;

students use creativity,analysis, and logic regarding their ability to analyze facts, make comparisons, generate ideas, defend view points, draw inferences, evaluate arguments, and solve problems

initiated from general to specific, and often referred to as the "top-down" approach;

primarily concerned with testing hypotheses;

in contrast to inductive reasoning, it is more open-ended and exploratory, especially during the beginning of an investigation

two letters that represent one speech sound

Ex: ea in bread, ch in chat

where teacher reads a line or passage with good expression, and calls on students to read it back;

a good technique to use with emergent readers to help build fluency

manifested through structuring, patterning, and constructing meaning;

understanding ideas that did not exist initially;

involves insight, reflection, creative expression, and/or group interactions;

dependent on intellegence, synthesis, intuition, creativity, and problem-solving skills;

accounts for only 1-2% of what students learn in a lifetime

the reader at the beginning stages of learning to read and developing an association of print with meaning;

children engage in reading play and retelling familiar stories from memory and using pictures to make predictions

typical of preschoolers, ages 3-5, involving stringing and scribbling of letters to form words;

a natural, early expression of the alphabet and other concepts about writing;

although children might use both upper and lowercase letters, they tend to prefer uppercase letters

credited to Carl Rogers who suggested that all human beings have a natural propensity to learn; 

the role of the teacher is to facilitate learning via setting a positive classroom environment, clarifying the purpose and rules, organizing and providing learning resources, balancing both intellectual and emotional components of learning, and ensuring that students engage in self-evaluation to assess their progress and success

coined by Piaget to identify a process that regulates tension between assimilation of information and accomodation of learning;

implies that individuals learn through experiences somewhat different from previous experiences, thus, their mental structure is modified in small steps; 

individuals learn best when the new incoming information is slightly different from existing information; the process allows the new information to be assimilated with a small degree of accomodation

relates to a sense of wholeness; emphasizes higher-order cognitive process relative to behavior, and endorses the notion of grouping characteristics of stimuli to allow for the interpretation of a problem;

key terms include proximity, similarity, closure, and simplicity

use of words perculiar to a particular language with a meaning that differs from typical syntactic patterns or from the literal meaning of its parts taken together;

examples of idiomatic expressions include, "john kicked the bucket" and "chill out"

multi-level stations where activities designed for specific, instructional purposes provide reinforcement, independent practice, and discovery;

In an early childhood program, this is an area that contains materials such as blocks, pretend household items or art supplies, where children can explore their own interests at their own pace

common with children 5-7 years of age; students learn to represent phonemes in words with letters;

shows that students have a rudimentary understanding of the alphabetic principle, suggesting a link between letters and sounds

associated with direct instruction and skill-and-drill activities; teachers use the mini lesson to teach about reading and writing procedures, skills, and strategies; 

or indirect teaching where teachers teach a brief lesson in response to students' questions

word forms and another component of syntax;

the smallest meaningful unit in language and word parts that could also change the meaning of a word

terms used to describe words whose pronunciations suggest their meaning 

ex: buzz

based on the premise that learning is a function of change in overt behavior; this change is a result of the student's response to events occurring in one's environment;

response produces a consequence; when the stimulus-response pattern is reinforced, the individual is conditioned to respond;

today's teachers use the term behavior modification to describe this reinforcement as it is used to control student behavior and motivate students 

study of nature and the use of symbols in a writing system;

correct or standardized spelling

phonogram

(also called rime, spelling pattern, word family)

designed to encourage students to read self-selected books independently or in small groups;

after or during their reading, students are expected to respond to books through loges, discussion, projects or sharing;

this approach helps students become fluent readers and to deepen their appreciation of books and reading

an outdated reading strategy that attempts to teach students to read by having them follow other students in reading a passage or text identified by the teacher;

not recommended because it supposedly hampers fluency, is boring, and it causes students to lose interest in story

metamorphic term used by Vygotsky to show how parents and teachers provide temporary assistance to children by modeling appropriate behavior or skills;

 In the classroom, teaches model or demonstrate specific strategies and gradually shift responsibility to the student to demonstrate

a data structure for representing the generic concepts stored in memory; 

there are 3 types: content (systems of factual knowledge, values, cultural conventions), language (includes sentence structure, grammatical inflections, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, and cohesive structures), and textual (the rhetorical structure of different modes of text such as recipes, fairy tales, and text books)

general theory of knowledge acquisition that is manifested as a function of the specific activity, context, or culture in which it occurs;

contrasts with most classroom learning activities which involve knowledge that is usually abstract and out of context;

learning requires social interaction and collaboration within an authentic context (settings and applications that would normally involve that knowledge)

some believe that the teacher can best serve a student individually in the classroom;

teachers function as collegues rather than leaders;

if we believe learning is enhanced when students are engaged in the process of information, then our challenge as teachers is to find creative ways to design dynamic learning environments that involve students in doing and thinking about specific subjects

structural organization of English that regulates how words are combined into sentences;

word order is important and during pre-k years, children learn to understand, ask questions, construct statements, and many of the capitalization and punctuation rules that elementary students learn reflect the syntactic system of language

students are passive recipients of the teacher's knowledge, and later expected to regurgitate what they have learned on meaningless tests; 

books written specifically for children;

story books, books of poetry, picture books used to teach language arts

common to 7-9 year olds;

shows that students understanding of the alphabetic principle is further refined in this state as they learn how to spell long-vowel pattern words and r-controlled vowels; 

the gap between what individuals know and do not know about a specific topic;

a range of specific tasks children can perform with assistance from parents or teachers, but are unable to perform on their own; 

children's ability to learn is facilitated via their interaction with adults, therefore, extensive, meaningful conversations between adults and children is important to the learning process