If I started lobbing lots of technical words and phrases related to reading, most people would likely get pretty confused, pretty fast! The average adult doesn't know the definitions of such words as 'diphthong', 'morphology', 'syllabication', 'phoneme', or 'grapheme'. But would it surprise you to know that my students do?
Right from the start, I empower children with the proper terms to describe what they are learning. It is a great way to let them know that I respect them as learners and that I trust them to be part of their own education. As a teacher, I get students' buy-in to the process. As a student, they get to feel like they are "in on it"!
There is another reason to teach children proper terms when it comes to studying reading, writing, and language. Each new word is an opportunity for word study and can become part of the teaching process!
For example, when I teach children about phonemes and graphemes, we begin by taking the words apart.
What does the root "phone" make you think of? Telephone? Something we use with our voices? Well, then you're halfway there because the Greek-origin root "phone" means sound or voice, and the French-originating "eme" means unit. Therefore, we can understand that "phoneme" means a unit of sound!
What about the root "graph"? Kids often think of a chart or mathematical graph. That's a great start, because a mathematical graph is a visual symbol of something, just as letters symbolize speech sounds. "Graph" means symbol, therefore we can understand that "grapheme" means a written unit that symbolizes a phoneme.
That might seem like a pretty advanced lesson for a 7-year-old, but we encourage deeper understanding when we demystify the terminology. After all, if kids can learn to read, say, and understand the word Pterodactyl, then they can certainly handle the word phoneme!
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