Abstract: Difficult to fully or easily understand because it is intangible or theoretical and is not associated with a particular instance or concrete example. The concept of "hope" is more abstract than the concept of "house."

Acronym: A word made up of the initial letters of words in a phrase or sentence; an example is the acronym ASK IT (Attend to clues, Say some questions, Keep predictions in mind, Identify the answers, Talk about the answers.)

Cognition: The process of knowing by thinking, comprehending, analyzing, or evaluating. Examples: Students use cognition to gain meaning from spoken or written material by reasoning, making inferences, seeing relationships, etc.

Decoding: The ability relating a sequence of letters in print to their corresponding sounds, allowing the reader to translate the sequence into a word.

Explicit: Completely and clearly expressed without ambiguity or vagueness; fully developed. Example: Explicit instructions would leave no doubt in your mind about what you were to do. Every part would be "spelled out."

Expository text: A collection of written words that gives information, explains something, or seeks to persuade. Most classroom textbooks are expository - science, social studies, health, etc.

Goal-specific strategies: Procedures readers use to process specific material. Examples include predicting the outcomes, self-questioning, analyzing the text, visual imagery, using graphic organizers, paraphrasing, and summarizing.

Inference: A conclusion arrived at from facts and by reasoning. Example: If you arrived at a gathering of friends and one of them was sitting in from of a decorated cake and blowing out candles, you would make the inference that it was a birthday celebration and the person celebrating the birthday was the one blowing out the candles.

Metacognition: A person's reflection on his or her own thinking processes. By using metacognitive skills, readers are able to reflect on their own reading processes, for example, whether or not they understand what they read.

Multisensory imaging: The integrating of sounds, sights, smells, and tastes to help students create an image.

Narrative text: A collection of written words that seeks to entertain, display knowledge or skill, teach, organize, and plan behavior, most frequently involving imaginative stories with a setting, characters, and a plot. Examples of narrative writing: Little Women, A Tale of Two Cities.

Prediction: A learning strategy that involves taking information gained from listening or reading, identifying questions that emerge, and then guessing the answers before the answers are apparent. Prediction can facilitate understanding and remembering.

Proficient readers: Individuals who effectively and independently use skills and strategies to construct meaning from print.

Reading comprehension: The process or result of gaining intended and personal meaning from written material.

Schema: The structure, frame, unit, or script into which knowledge is packed and organized.

Self-questioning: Identifying cues from information heard or read that make a learner wonder about who, what, when, where, which and why and ask personalized questions that relate to the information. The learner then reads to find the answers to these questions. Self-questioning can facilitate understanding and remembering. Good readers automatically self-question; weaker readers need to be taught to do this.

Story grammar: A schema or framework for the components of a story. In its simplest form, story grammar involves specification of the main character, his or her problem or conflict, his or her attempts to solve the problem, and the chain of events that lead to a resolution. It also includes analysis of how characters react to the events and the articulation of the theme or themes.

Strategic instruction: An educational approach aimed at providing rules or guidelines to help individuals approach tasks more effectively, efficiently and independently.

Strategy: An individual's approach to a task; how a person thinks and acts when planning, executing, and evaluating the performance of a task and its outcomes.

Syntax: The ordering of words within phrases, clauses, and sentences whereby the relations among the words are indicated. For example, in English, verbs usually follow nouns, and adjectives usually precede nouns.

Visual imagery strategy: A strategic approach to aid comprehension, interpretation, and retention of information during which individuals create detailed pictures in their minds and link the images to the content being learned.