The basic units of sounds that make up a word.

Example: “/c/” “/a/” “/t/” are the phonemes that make up the word “cat.”

The written form of a phoneme. Several graphemes may produce

the same phoneme.

Example: The grapheme “s” represents the “/s/” sound in the word

“snake.” The grapheme “ce” also represents the “/s/” sound in the word “nice.”

The beginning sound in a syllable. It may be a single phoneme, or a

cluster of phonemes.

Example: “/b/” is the onset in the word “bat.” “/bl/” is the onset in the

word “blue.”

The vowel sound in the middle of a syllable. The vowel sound

may be short, long, or r-controlled.

Example: “/a/” is the medial sound in the word “cat.” “/a-e/” is the

medial sound in the word “cake.” “/or/” is the medial sound in the word “cork.”

The part of a syllable containing the vowel and any following

consonants.

Example: “/at/” is the rime in the word “cat.” “/ish/” is the rime in the

word “fish.”

Breaking down spoken words into their component phonemes.

Example: The word “cat” is segmented into the phonemes “/c/-/a/-/t/.”

The process of combining individual phonemes to produce a word.

Example: The phonemes “/c/-/a/-/t/” are blended into the word “cat.”

The ability to translate written words into speech. This is a key ability for students that are learning to read. Decoding involves understanding the relationship between graphemes and their corresponding phonemes. Blending and segmenting skills are essential skills for converting written words into speech and vice versa.

Example: The word “cat” can be decoded by segmenting the word into

its component phonemes, “/c/-/a/-/t/,” and blended together to make the word “cat.”

As students learn more phonemes and their corresponding representations as graphemes, they can decode a greater number of words. For example, the word “fish” can be decoded once the “sh” phoneme and grapheme have been learned, and the word “plane” can be decoded once the “/a-e/” long A phoneme and grapheme have been learned.

Words commonly encountered in reading that students

memorize and do not need to sound out. Sight words are often not easily decodable.

Example: The word “should” is a sight word because it is a commonly encountered word and the “oul”grapheme is an uncommon spelling of the “/u/” phoneme.