TExES 293: STR Practice Test

According to findings in the Report of the National Reading Panel and convergent research in the years following its publication, providing young children with systematic, explicit instruction in which of the following skills is essential to an effective phonics program?

applying developing letter-sound knowledge to read and spell simple words

Which of the following learning outcomes best reflects a research-based understanding of second-language development and a goal for English learners in the TEKS for English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR)?

acquiring competency in both social and academic language in English over a period of years

A student demonstrates the same level of comprehension when reading a text silently as when listening to a comparable text read aloud. Reaching this milestone in reading development is first likely to occur among readers who are near the end of which of the following stages of reading?

reading-to-learn-the-new stage

A student's developmental spelling exhibits the following characteristics.

- Words are represented by one or two letters, usually the first and last letters.

- Consonant sounds in words are primarily represented.

- Letter names are sometimes used to spell words (e.g., spelling are as "R")

These characteristics correspond most closely to which of the following stages of spelling development?

semi-phonetic

A third grade teacher considers adopting an instructional strategy described in an article in a professional literacy journal. The article sites several reputable, scientifically based studies with significant statistical evidence that the strategy improves student outcomes. To ensure that using the strategy in the classroom will be consistent with the principles of evidence-based reading instruction, which of the following questions would be most important for the teacher to consider before implementing the strategy with students?

Will the learning strategy successfully support students' mastery of the targeted grade-level TEKS?

A first grade teacher creates a literacy-learner profile for each student in the class. In the profiles, the teacher notes activities and interests students have outside of school, information about family relationships, and descriptions provided by family members about the students special skills and personal strengths. The profiles can support an effective literate environment primarily by:

identifying assets that the teacher and students can call upon to meet literacy learning goals.

According to convergent research as described in the 2018 update to The Dyslexia Handbook (Texas Education Agency), which of the following kindergarten students exhibits an early indicator of dyslexia?

a student who struggles to learn the most common sounds associated with letters.

In which line in the table below is the example word accurately matched to the phonics term that is used to describe phonics element?

Line //// Phonics Term //// Example word

1 /// blend ///cheers

2 /// diagraph /// part

3 /// diphthong /// soap

4 /// trigraph /// match

Line 4

A 3rd-grade teacher uses a variety of assessment strategies to monitor independent reading. EX: administering an oral reading fluency assessment with a comprehension check to individual students to help determine independent reading level. The teacher also meets with each student to talk about their prior reading experiences and interests.

Which of the following questions would be most important for the teacher to investigate during the reading conferences to better inform selection of appropriate independent reading materials for each student?

What are the student's strengths and gaps in the background knowledge?

A 3rd-grade teacher uses a variety of assessment strategies to monitor independent reading. EX: administering an oral reading fluency assessment with a comprehension check to individual students to help determine independent reading level. The teacher also meets with each student to talk about their prior reading experiences and interests.

One student in the class has selected a literacy text for the 3rd-grade range. During the student's conference with the teacher, the student reads a representative except from the text with 94% accuracy and 80% comprehension. In considering these data, the teacher could best conclude that:

this text is written at the student's instructional reading level and should be read with some adult support.

The most fundamental role of assessment in a standard-based reading program is to:

provide a measure of the effectiveness of instruction in promoting students' progress toward learning goals

During a whole class lesson, a 2nd-grade teacher would like to determine if students can demonstrate mastery of the derivational prefixes un and re before continuing to a related but more advanced skill. Which of the following types of assessment would be most appropriate to use for this purpose?

a formative assessment

A teacher would like to collaborate with parents to promote students' literacy growth based on their current skill levels. During scheduled midyear conferences, which of the following strategies for sharing assessment data with parents would most effectively establish a basis for collaboration with families?

using classroom observations to classify a student's assessment results and elicit parent observation about their child's at-home literacy experiences

A teacher provides modeling and guided practice to help students categorize example sentences as fact or opinion, and then has students continue practicing the skill independently with the remaining example sentences. What would be most appropriate for the teacher to add to the independent practice portion of the lesson to enhance the alignment of the activity to the learning goals and the value of the activity as a formative assessment?

having students write a sentence briefly explaining their reasoning for identifying a sentence as a fact or opinion

The teacher circulates among students during the independent practice portion of the lesson and, using an exemplar response, briefly reviews each student's ongoing work. The teacher could use this assessment strategy most appropriately and effectively for what purpose?

measuring students' understanding of the lesson material in order to adjust whole-group instruction or provide individualized support, as needed

A teacher conducts a family literacy project that engages family members and students to produce bilingual picture books. Students can select from a range of formats for their book ( ex: picture books with labels only, picture books with simple sentences). Each book should be written in English and one other language.

The family literacy project best demonstrates the teacher's understanding of what concept related to second-language acquisition?

providing English learners with opportunities to improve their English language proficiency while also building on strengths in their home language

A teacher conducts a family literacy project that engages family members and students to produce bilingual picture books. Students can select from a range of formats for their book ( ex: picture books with labels only, picture books with simple sentences). Each book should be written in English and one other language.

The teacher best demonstrates knowledge of culturally responsive instruction by:

Creating opportunities for English learners to make personal connections between school and their home life.

A teacher conducts a family literacy project that engages family members and students to produce bilingual picture books. Students can select from a range of formats for their book ( ex: picture books with labels only, picture books with simple sentences). Each book should be written in English and one other language

A task involved in generating a bilingual book for the family literacy project that is best aligned with performance expectations for English learners at the advanced level of English language proficiency?

generating their own sentences for the story following a text-structure template provided by the teacher

A teacher conducts a family literacy project that engages family members and students to produce bilingual picture books. Students can select from a range of formats for their book ( ex: picture books with labels only, picture books with simple sentences). Each book should be written in English and one other language

The family literacy project demonstrates best practices related to promoting English learners' language transfer primarily by:

using objects or pictures related to students' home cultures to connect new English words with familiar meanings.

20. Which of the following actions would be most appropriate for a teacher to take in response to a students variation in oral language development?

consulting with the school's speech-language pathologist about actions that the teacher can take in the classroom, and, if needed, beginning the process of a referral for a speech and language evaluation based on clear evidence from teacher and family observations that the student is experiencing significant delays in both speech and language development.

During an informal assessment of academic-language skills, a third-grade student combines two sentences into a longer sentence. A representative sample of the student's oral language performance in this part of the assessment appears below

Prompt:

The kid was so happy. Today was his birthday.

Her dog escaped from the yard. The lady was frantic.

Student Response:

The kid was so happy because today was his birthday.

The lady was frantic when her dog escaped from the yard.

What conclusion is clearly supported by the assessment data?

The student produces complex sentences effectively to express a casual relationship between events.

A pre-k teacher is planning classroom strategies for promoting the oral language development of 3 year old children in class. What strategy would be effective for this purpose and would align with the language development continuum of a typical 3-year old child?

acting out verbs while saying the progressive present forms ( ex: jumping) out loud

Once young children demonstrate that they can recognize everyday objects and interact with them appropriately (ex: push cars, feed and change dolls) what structured classroom activities would best promote their development of academic language to describe and explain concepts?

categorizing objects verbally according to their function or physical attributes

A second grade teacher administers a phoneme awareness measure individually to six students who are struggling with word-level reading and spelling. The students results on this assessment fall into two categories.

Group 1: Three of the students can consistently identify the initial and final phonemes in CVC words but not the medial phoneme. EX; When asked to identify each of the speech sounds in the word bat, a student in this group would respond, "/b/, /t/."

Group 2: The other three students have mastered segmenting and blending the initial, final, and medial phonemes in spoken CVC words but do not perceive the internal consonant in words containing consonant clusters. EX; when asked to segment the speech sounds in the word cream, a student in this group would respond, "/k/, /e/, /m/" leaving out /r/.

What statement best explains the rationale for the teacher's decision to assess the students' phonemic awareness

In an alphabetic language such as English, the ability to perceive the sequence of sounds in spoken words supports students' learning to read and spell words.

A second grade teacher administers a phoneme awareness measure individually to six students who are struggling with word-level reading and spelling. The students results on this assessment fall into two categories.

Group 1: Three of the students can consistently identify the initial and final phonemes in CVC words but not the medial phoneme. EX; When asked to identify each of the speech sounds in the word bat, a student in this group would respond, "/b/, /t/."

Group 2: The other three students have mastered segmenting and blending the initial, final, and medial phonemes in spoken CVC words but do not perceive the internal consonant in words containing consonant clusters. EX; when asked to segment the speech sounds in the word cream, a student in this group would respond, "/k/, /e/, /m/" leaving out /r/.

What strategy for differentiating instruction for the students in Group 1 would be most effective in addressing t

engaging in instructional activities that focus the students' attention on a word's vowel sound, such as listening to and identifying the difference between pairs of three-phoneme words that vary only by their vowel sound

A second grade teacher administers a phoneme awareness measure individually to six students who are struggling with word-level reading and spelling. The students results on this assessment fall into two categories.

Group 1: Three of the students can consistently identify the initial and final phonemes in CVC words but not the medial phoneme. EX; When asked to identify each of the speech sounds in the word bat, a student in this group would respond, "/b/, /t/."

Group 2: The other three students have mastered segmenting and blending the initial, final, and medial phonemes in spoken CVC words but do not perceive the internal consonant in words containing consonant clusters. EX; when asked to segment the speech sounds in the word cream, a student in this group would respond, "/k/, /e/, /m/" leaving out /r/.

What strategy for differentiating instruction for the students in Group 2 would be most effective in addressing t

supporting the students in using Elkonin boxes to map all the phonemes in sets of spoken three- and four- phoneme words (EX; lip and flip, Ben and bend)

A first grade student is planning phonemic awareness instruction focused on distinguishing between short- and long- vowel sounds in single-syllable words. Which of the following instructional strategies would be most appropriate for this purpose?

engaging students in phoneme substitution activities focused on the medial phoneme in three-phoneme words.

A second grade teacher is planning an introductory lesson on reading compound words. Which of the following activities in the lesson uses a phonological awareness skill to activate students' prior knowledge of compound words in a way that supports effective decoding of this type of word?

orally segmenting compound words into two words

A pre-k teacher uses the research-based continuum of phonological awareness skills to guide the sequencing of phonological awareness instruction. In keeping with this approach, which of the following of activities should the teacher introduce to children first?

counting words in familiar sentences using blocks or chips

A pre-k teacher shows a picture of a fish to a small group of children; pronounces the sounds, /t/, /l/, /sh/, and then asks, "What's my word?" Which of the following instructional strategies would be most developmentally appropriate for the teacher to use to enhance the effectiveness of this activity in promoting children's phonemic awareness?

raising a finger for each new phoneme as it is pronounced in a word

A pre-k teacher-child draws a picture and then writes a title below the drawing. The child explains to the teacher, "This says Sebastian. That's my cat!" The child's work is shown below.

This writing sample best provides evidence that the child understands which of the following concepts?

Print carries meaning

A pre-k teacher-child draws a picture and then writes a title below the drawing. The child explains to the teacher, "This says Sebastian. That's my cat!" The child's work is shown below.

According to the continuum of knowledge and skills in emergent literacy, which of the following descriptions best matches the most likely next stage of emergent-literacy development for the child?

writing words using a series of letters of the alphabet in random order

A kinder teacher sets up a writing station in the classroom, equipped with a large table and chairs; pencils, markers, and crayons; and a variety of writing stationary ( e.g., pads of lined and unlined paper, greeting cards, envelopes, cardstock "signs," stapled booklets of paper). The teacher introduces the station to small groups of students, explaining that the writing station and supplies will be available for their use during center time and also as needed to support various learning activities.

Integrating a writing station and writing resources into classroom activities promotes students' emergent-literacy development primarily by helping:

expanding their understanding of the functions of print

A kinder teacher sets up a writing station in the classroom, equipped with a large table and chairs; pencils, markers, and crayons; and a variety of writing stationary ( e.g., pads of lined and unlined paper, greeting cards, envelopes, cardstock "signs," stapled booklets of paper). The teacher introduces the station to small groups of students, explaining that the writing station and supplies will be available for their use during center time and also as needed to support various learning activities.

The teacher would like to use students' independent writing to reinforce instruction in the alphabetic principle. When introducing and overseeing the writing center, which of the following teacher practices would most likely be effective for this purpose?

teaching students to spell words by sounding out a word and matching the sounds to letters

At the beginning of the school year, a kindergarten teacher conducts individual informal assessments with students to help guide planning for small group instruction in letter knowledge. Which of the following single measures would be most effective for this purpose?

showing students a random sequence of cards displaying uppercase and lowercase letters and directing them to name the letters

A kindergarten teacher plans explicit instruction and reinforcement activities in letter formation as part of the grade-level curriculum in print concepts. In accordance with the recommended sequence of instruction described in the TEKS, which of the following writing-center activities would be most developmentally appropriate and effective to reinforce grade level instruction in this area?

making a greeting card for a friend or family member with colored paper and creating a "message" inside using target letters and phonetic spelling

Which of the following approaches to beginning instruction in letter recognition is best aligned with research in how children learn to recognize and name the letters of the alphabet?

introducing two or more letters in a lesson, noting and contrasting their distinctive features

A first grade class includes several beginning-, intermediate-, and advanced level English learners. The teacher is planning differentiated instruction in the letter-sound relationships. According to evidence-based best practices, which of the following strategies would be most effective for supporting the beginning-level English learners in the development of these foundational skills?

helping them attend to how each new letter-sound is articulated when mapping it to a letter

A 4th-grade teacher is working with struggling readers and writers in a small group because of gaps in their foundational literacy skills. As part of a targeted spelling intervention, the teacher models and provides the students with guided practice using subvocalization as a strategy when they write.

EX; Teacher meets with students following a science lesson on the flow of energy through a food web. The teacher begins by prompting the students to generate some sentences about food webs and asks the students, "Help me write the sentences." The teacher models the subvocalization strategy by saying each word slowly while listening to the sequence of sounds in a word and mapping each sound to the letter or letter combination that corresponds to the sound. After modeling writing the first few words this way, the teacher asks the students to help sound out the rest of the words in the sentence.

When they finish writing th

a systematic review of common letter combinations, such as consonant diagraphs, trigraphs, and vowel teams

A 4th-grade teacher is working with struggling readers and writers in a small group because of gaps in their foundational literacy skills. As part of a targeted spelling intervention, the teacher models and provides the students with guided practice using subvocalization as a strategy when they write.

EX; Teacher meets with students following a science lesson on the flow of energy through a food web. The teacher begins by prompting the students to generate some sentences about food webs and asks the students, "Help me write the sentences." The teacher models the subvocalization strategy by saying each word slowly while listening to the sequence of sounds in a word and mapping each sound to the letter or letter combination that corresponds to the sound. After modeling writing the first few words this way, the teacher asks the students to help sound out the rest of the words in the sentence.

When they finish writing th

reinforcing their phonemic awareness and grasp of the alphabetic principle.

A 4th-grade teacher is working with struggling readers and writers in a small group because of gaps in their foundational literacy skills. As part of a targeted spelling intervention, the teacher models and provides the students with guided practice using subvocalization as a strategy when they write.

EX; Teacher meets with students following a science lesson on the flow of energy through a food web. The teacher begins by prompting the students to generate some sentences about food webs and asks the students, "Help me write the sentences." The teacher models the subvocalization strategy by saying each word slowly while listening to the sequence of sounds in a word and mapping each sound to the letter or letter combination that corresponds to the sound. After modeling writing the first few words this way, the teacher asks the students to help sound out the rest of the words in the sentence.

When they finish writing th

having the students write additional information they recall about the science lesson and practice reading the sentences they wrote to reinforce their knowledge about food webs and support their future text comprehension related to the topic.

In an assessment administered individually, third-grade students read aloud unfamiliar texts featuring phonics skills that have been recently taught. The teacher monitors a student's performance and records any reading errors. In order to use the results of the assessment to plan differentiated phonics instruction for individual students, the teacher should take which of the following steps next?

analyzing letter sound omissions or substitutions that each student makes and determining patterns of errors that suggest gaps in specific skills.

To help plan effective, integrated beginning reading and spelling instruction, a 1st grade teacher analyzes students spelling errors and categorizes them according to their most likely cause.

CODE- spelling error indicates an orthographic or code-based difficulty (ex; student has not yet mastered a specific element and its associated spelling pattern)

PS- The spelling error is phonological and indicates difficulty in phonemic segmentation (ex; accurately identifying and sequencing the sounds in a spoken word)

Which spelling error has been interpreted correctly in the following table?

STUDENT/// TARGET WORDS/// SPELLING/// CAUSE OF ERROR

1 girl gril code

2 mean meen PS

3 trip tip code

4 play payl PS

Student 4

the error demonstrates a difficulty in perceiving the correct order of the sounds.

A group of 1st grade students has mastered decoding words that follow the open-syllable pattern (ex; me, go, so) and closed-syllable pattern (ex; cab, pin, hand, ship, drop) with blends and diagraphs. According to research-based best practices for delivering systematic, sequential phonics instruction, which of the following instructional strategies would be most appropriate for the teacher to focus on next?

teaching VCe syllables by using phoneme-grapheme mapping to compare familiar closed-syllable words with similar silent-e words (ex; cap, cape)

A 2nd grade teacher uses a gradual release of responsibility approach to teach students explicit strategies for self-monitoring when reading connected text. In one lesson, the teacher models how to use a word-reading strategy to decode an unknown word and then confirm if the word is suitable in the text. Which of the following approaches would be most effective for the teacher to use next to scaffold students' growing independent use of the strategy?

reminding students to self-monitor their word-reading strategies and ask themselves if the decoding word fits the content.

45. A 1st grade teacher would like to reinforce newly taught phonics elements by providing students with structured opportunities to apply them in writing and spelling. According to evidence based best practices, which of the following activities would best support the teacher's goal?

a rewriting activity in which the teacher reads aloud selected sentences from students' writing that include newly taught phonics elements not yet mastered and students write the sentences using correct spelling

A 2nd grade teacher leads a phonics activity with a small group of students, including two ELL with developed literacy skills in their home language. In the activity, the teacher presents pairs of printed words and Elkonin boxes, helps students read the words and segment the sounds, and then maps the sequence of letters in each word to the appropriate boxes. Examples of word pairs and completed Elkonin boxes are shown...

f i ll

f i le

b a ck

b a ke

t u b

t u be

The teacher would like to ensure that the ELL in the group receive the support they need to participate fully in this activity. To meet this goal, which of the following factors would be most important for the teacher to consider?

The students' home languages may not distinguish between long- and short- vowel sounds

At the beginning of kindergarten, a small group of students have mastered letter-sound correspondences for a number of consonants and a few vowels. The students also have demonstrated well-developed phonemic awareness, including skills in segmenting and blending three-phoneme words. In keeping with best practices in evidence-based reading instruction, which of the following learning objectives would be most appropriate for the teacher to use next as the focus of small-group differentiated instruction for these students?

applying sound-by-sound blending to printed words using early decodable text featuring known letter-sound correspondences

As part of a thematic unit on cultural heritage and family relationships, a second-grade teacher reads aloud Abuela's Weave by Omar S. Castaneda, a picture book about a girl who learns to weave from her grandmother.

The teacher rereads the story several times, and uses material from the book in lessons focused on text comprehension, vocabulary learning, and decoding skills.

The teacher targets the following vocabulary words from the book:

blackbird, grandmother, backstrap, birthmark, daydream, tablecloth, sunset

Instruction in which of the following word identification strategies would be most effective in promoting students' ability to decode these words?

identifying base words that are components of a longer word

As part of a thematic unit on cultural heritage and family relationships, a second-grade teacher reads aloud Abuela's Weave by Omar S. Castaneda, a picture book about a girl who learns to weave from her grandmother.

The teacher rereads the story several times, and uses material from the book in lessons focused on text comprehension, vocabulary learning, and decoding skills.

The teacher identifies the following multisyllabic words from the text for vocabulary instruction:

weaving, middle, rumor, compound, reveal, freely, pretend, common, family, pottery, plastic, market, clothing, focus

The teacher plans to incorporate some of these words in instruction and in practice decoding multisyllabic words, differentiated according to students' demonstrated level of skill. Some students in the class can accurately read open and closed syllables but have not yet mastered all six common syllable types in simple-syllable words

pretend, plastic, common, focus

As part of a thematic unit on cultural heritage and family relationships, a second-grade teacher reads aloud Abuela's Weave by Omar S. Castaneda, a picture book about a girl who learns to weave from her grandmother.

The teacher rereads the story several times, and uses material from the book in lessons focused on text comprehension, vocabulary learning, and decoding skills.

Abuela's Weave is one of several books the teacher reads aloud that features relationships between the main character and a grandparent. In these stories, a grandparent shares skill and wisdom with a grandchild while encouraging the grandchild's own success. What student activity would be most effective in helping students infer the theme in these texts?

writing a character sketch of the grandparents in these books using what they say and do with their grandchildren as evidence

A teacher notices that many students in the class often have difficulty decoding multisyllabic words. They appear to recognize some multisyllabic words that frequently appear in texts, but they struggle with words that they have not encountered before. The teacher would like to develop a clearer understanding of students' word analysis development. Which of the following assessment strategies would best achieve this purpose?

asking individual students to apply syllable division strategies to a set of unfamiliar words and explain their steps or process