Phonemic Awareness - Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. An example of how beginning readers show us they have phonemic awareness is combining or blending the separate sounds of a word to say the word ("/c/ /a/ /t/ - cat.").

Phonics - Phonics is the understanding that there is a predictable relationship between the sounds of spoken language and the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written language. Successful decoding occurs when a student uses his or her knowledge of letter-sound relationships to accurately read a word.

Fluency - Fluency is the ability to read and comprehend a text correctly and at an appropriate rate.

Vocabulary - Vocabulary refers to the words children must know to communicate effectively. In school terms, it can be described as oral vocabulary or reading vocabulary.

Comprehension - Reading comprehension is an intentional, active, interactive process that occurs before, during, and after a person reads a particular piece of writing. It is the act of understanding what is read.