Little Timmy, Round-Robin Reading, and Kindly, Old Mrs. Peterson

Important Terms

• Round-robin reading – going around the table or around the room and having each student in turn read a section of text out loud. This is a teaching strategy that should very rarely (if ever) be used.

• Popcorn reading – a form of round-robin reading except that the teacher randomly selects students to read a section of text out loud. This is designed to keep all students paying attention and on their toes. This is a teaching strategy that should very rarely (if ever) be used.

• Metacognition – thinking about thinking. In the context of reading, it means to pause and check for understanding. Does it make sense? Does it fit in the paragraph?

• Word recognition – you see a word in print an instantly know what it is.

• Word identification – you see and word in print that you don’t recognize. You must consciously employ some strategy to recognize it.

• Clown – a humorous circus performer. In the context of reading, it’s the term used to denote one who thinks they know a great deal about something when in fact, they know very little.

• Penguin or phonics penguin - one who thinks that heavy phonics and decoding should be the primary focus of early reading instruction. Every reading problem becomes a phonics problem and every solution becomes a phonics solution because that’s all they know.

• Lexicon – the dictionary in your head. These are all the words in your vocabulary. These words are known at various levels.