Praxis Practice: Teaching Reading

A teacher reviews the following student scores on a standardized reading test with the goal of determining the areas in which the student will require additional instruction.

• 75th percentile in vocabulary knowledge

• 85th percentile in decoding

• 40th percentile in comprehension

• 70th percentile in fluency

Based on the data, which of the following activities best addresses the student’s needs?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Reviewing high-frequency words

B. Identifying context clues in sentences

C. Listening to an audio version of the text

D. Using a plot chart to track the events in a story

A kindergarten teacher plans a lesson designed to give students guided practice in learning a phonological awareness skill. Having students participate in which of the following activities best meets the teacher’s goal?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Asking students to follow along as the teacher moves a finger from left to right while orally reading a line of text in a picture book

B. Having students say the word “airplane” and then asking them to say it again without pronouncing “air”

C. Distributing a set of plastic letters to students and having them use the manipulatives to form decodable words

D. Cutting a student’s name card into individual letters and modeling how to put the letters together to form the name

A second-grade teacher selects a picture book that retells the well-known fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears to read aloud to the class. Following the first oral reading of the text, the teacher distributes a graphic organizer with a set of questions for students to answer as the text is read again. During the second reading, the teacher pauses at different parts of the story and asks students to independently answer one of the questions related to that part of the story on the work sheet. A portion of the graphic organizer the teacher uses is represented by the following table.

The teacher’s instructional method best engages students in which of the following thinking processes related to successful reading comprehension?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Making decisions about what is going to happen next in a story by connecting existing knowledge to new information an author gives as a text is read

B. Determining what is important in a story and recording it in the student’s own words

C. Locating the author’s text clues and using prior knowledge to construct meaning that goes beyond what is literally stated

D. Creating mental images of the events happening in a story that support recall of main ideas

A first-grade teacher works with small groups of students to teach them how to develop their writing skills. Which of the following methods best fosters the students’ ability to use correct mechanics, such as punctuation and capitalization, in their own writing?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Assigning punctuation and capitalization work sheets from a workbook to complete

B. Having students copy punctuation and capitalization rules in their copybooks for reference

C. Emphasizing pauses indicated by punctuation during read-alouds

D. Modeling how and when to use punctuation and capitalization during writing instruction

Which of the following phonemic manipulations is the most complex and is generally developed last by most students?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Changing the /m/ in the word “mouse” to /h/

B. Breaking apart the word “cat,” and saying each sound aloud

C. Combining “bl” and “oom,” and then saying the word aloud

D. Saying the word “doughnut,” then saying it without “dough”

A third-grade teacher’s reading instruction includes sources from multiple content areas. During a science lesson, students are reading a book about plants that contains many new and difficult vocabulary words, such as “chlorophyll,” “germinate,” and “photosynthesis.” Which of the following teaching activities will best help the students develop an understanding of the new words?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Making lists of words from the science book to post on a word wall in the classroom

B. Planning direct instruction that uses multimedia to introduce words in rich contexts

C. Having the students guess the definitions for the new words and then relate the new words to words they already know

D. Giving the students Venn diagrams to sort the new vocabulary into well-defined categories

Which of the following strategies best gives a teacher an opportunity to evaluate beginning readers’ comprehension of a literary passage?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Posing clarifying questions during shared reading of the passage

B. Discussing key words and art used in the passage before reading the text

C. Providing students with graphic organizers to complete during partner reading

D. Demonstrating how to attach sticky notes to the passage to identify challenging sections

Using informational texts, fourth-grade students are researching animals. The students complete the following inquiry chart, or I-chart, to record what they find in various texts.

Which of the following is the most important pedagogical reason for having students complete an I-chart?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. It enables students to evaluate the reliability of expository texts.

B. It encourages students to build on their prior knowledge of a topic.

C. It supports students’ understanding of content vocabulary.

D. It promotes students’ understanding of expository text features.

Which of the following is the most effective way for a teacher to model using onset and rime?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Showing students how to recognize common chunks within word families

B. Showing students how to identify words that have the same first sound

C. Showing students how to identify words that have the same final sound

D. Showing students how to count syllables in multisyllabic words

Which of the following is the most effective method for teachers to use to increase students’ comfort with self-reflection and self-critiquing their writing?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Providing opportunities for peers to anonymously critique one other’s writing

B. Reflecting aloud on a variety of selections from students’ favorite published authors

C. Modeling the reviewing and revising process using a sample of their own work

D. Encouraging students to ask classmates to critique a sample of their work as a class

While assessing students’ reading ability, a teacher notices that many students struggle with words like “enough,” “sign,” “night,” “through,” and “was.” Which of the following instructional strategies has the greatest impact on building students’ automatic recognition of such words?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Using an interactive whiteboard to show each word to students

B. Providing activity sheets with each word for students to complete

C. Having the students read each word aloud, build each word with plastic letters, and write each word in a journal

D. Providing each word to students on an index card to place on a spelling ring, and having students practice reading the words independently

Which of the following best integrates and expands readers’ thinking about terms and concepts encountered while constructing meaning from a text?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Mapping vocabulary

B. Making predictions

C. Summarizing text

D. Searching sources

A teacher scores student writing samples using criteria that define expectations for different levels of proficiency. Which of the following tools is the teacher most likely using?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Anecdotal notes

B. Checklist

C. Scoring guide

D. Rubric

A first-grade teacher notices during small-group instruction that a student has difficulty decoding words such as “ran,” “pet,” “him,” and “hot.” Which of the following is the most appropriate way for the teacher to confirm the student’s difficulty?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Administering a phonemic awareness assessment in which the student breaks spoken words into individual phonemes

B. Choosing an appropriate passage for the student to read aloud and noting how many words the student can read in one minute

C. Checking for understanding by asking explicit questions after the student has completed reading a grade-level passage

D. Presenting a list of grade-level high-frequency words for the student to read aloud

In order to develop students’ spelling skills, a teacher presents the following words to the class.

1. Bite

2. Hope

3. Kite

4. Tape

Which of the following is the best strategy for teaching students how to spell these words?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Chanting a poem with the sounds found in the words

B. Using letter tiles to build previously learned CVC words along with the new words

C. Completing a work sheet that matches pictures with the correct words

D. Writing each new word and similar words multiple times

A third-grade student struggles with reading because of poor decoding skills. Which of the following is the student most likely having difficulty with?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Understanding the difference between words and sentences

B. Making connections to prior background knowledge

C. Paying attention to text features and visual cues

D. Sounding out new words and interpreting the text

A kindergarten teacher assesses students’ understanding of concepts of print at the beginning of the year. The results of one student’s assessment are shown in the following table.

Based on the data, which of the following instructional methods will best promote the student’s understanding of print conventions?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Teaching letter-sound relationships explicitly and in isolation

B. Activating the student’s background knowledge of concepts that are important to the content of the text

C. Drawing attention to letters and words in the text by tracking with a finger during a shared reading

D. Previewing the text to make predictions about its content before a shared reading

A fourth-grade teacher works with a small group of students who decode well but demonstrate poor comprehension. Through various informal assessments, the teacher determines that the students do not effectively apply knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, roots, and bases when words change form, and therefore students often lack understanding of academic text. Which THREE of the following activities best help students improve morphological analysis for better reading comprehension?

Answer the question by selecting the correct responses.

A.  Combining word parts written on cards to form new words

B.  Making lists of words with similar affixes in a vocabulary notebook

C.  Completing a cloze by using a bank of word parts to fill in blanks in sentences

D.  Examining word affixes and roots on semantic map posters

E.  Studying words with common bases and roots for a spelling quiz

A student who is engaged in an argumentative writing activity is most likely doing which of the following?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Listing the ingredients needed to make a gourmet chocolate cake and the steps taken to bake and serve the dessert

B. Crafting a poem that recalls the sights and sounds experienced during a leisurely walk in a park on a warm spring day

C. Articulating a personal position after learning that the school board recommends that students spend more time on homework

D. Documenting an interview with a grandmother detailing her early life growing up in one country before immigrating to another country

The figure shows three cards. Each card consists of a picture with three Elkonin boxes underneath. Each box contains one or two letters.

• The first card shows a picture of a boat. Underneath the picture, the first box contains the letter b, the second box contains the letters o a, and the third box contains the letter t.

• The second card shows a picture of someone washing their hands with soap. In the picture, an arrow is pointing to the soap. Underneath the picture, the first box contains the letter s, the second box contains the letters o a, and the third box contains the letter p.

• The third card shows a picture of a car driving along a road. Underneath the picture, the first box contains the letter r, the second box contains the letters o a, and the third box contains the letter d.

A second-grade teacher guides students in using Elkonin boxes to write letters in boxes under pictures. Which of the following phonics concepts does the strategy best reinforce in the example shown?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Vowel teams

B. Schwa sounds

C. Short vowels

D. Consonant blends

A kindergarten teacher uses bright-colored chalk to write individual letters on sheets of black construction paper. Students take turns pointing a flashlight at and naming the letter on each sheet. Which of the following instructional objectives does the activity target?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Improving phonological awareness skills

B. Building understanding that words are made by sequencing letters

C. Supporting learning of the alphabetic principle

D. Reinforcing knowledge of using phonics as a decoding strategy

While conducting a think-aloud to demonstrate a word-learning skill for use in decoding multisyllabic words, the teacher states, “I look for parts of the word I know.” By using this technique, the teacher provides instruction that focuses primarily on

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. phonics

B. knowledge of cognates

C. etymology

D. structural analysis

Which of the following should a teacher do to best help students who are revising their own writing?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Give the students a lesson on how to identify errors in subject-verb agreement.

B. Identify grammatical errors in the students’ writing that need correction.

C. Recommend that students elaborate and use words to make images more specific.

D. Require students to use dependent clauses to make simple sentences more elaborate.

Mr. Krause’s fourth-grade students are having difficulty answering text-dependent comprehension questions. He plans to use the question-answer relationship (QAR) strategy to help students comprehend the types of questions being asked. The QAR strategy supports students in

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. distinguishing between textually explicit and textually implicit questions

B. identifying the text structure presented in the questions asked

C. determining whether the question requires an answer or is hypothetical

D. using words directly from the question to formulate a complete response

Which of the following is the primary benefit of implementing well-planned peer editing in the classroom?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Students will learn to have empathy and patience for their peers through partner work.

B. Students will be able to conference with a teacher while the rest of the class works with partners.

C. Students will improve their writing skills and learn to collaborate effectively.

D. Students will experience an environment in which criticism is empowering.

A second-grade student struggles when decoding and spelling words with long-vowel patterns. Which of the following strategies will best help the student master the reading and spelling of words such as “cake,” “they,” “train,” and “eight,” which all contain the same long-vowel sound?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Identifying words with long-vowel syllables in an assigned piece of text

B. Reviewing long-vowel patterns in familiar words and decoding patterns in new words

C. Segmenting unfamiliar words into known root words, affixes, and phonemes

D. Singing nursery rhymes that contain words with long-vowel patterns

Ms. Dorsey, a second-grade teacher, begins a lesson by reviewing the story grammar of conventional short fiction. She reminds students that most stories have a beginning that includes information about the setting and the main characters. Then an event introducing a goal or problem occurs, followed by a series of events in which the characters attempt to solve the problem. At the end of the story, the goal or problem is finally resolved.

Which of the following best explains the teacher’s rationale for instructing students in recognizing story grammar in fictional texts?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. To provide a framework that helps students to comprehend and retain story information

B. To improve skill in noticing how character traits change over the course of a story

C. To support interest and motivation to engage in wide, independent reading activities

D. To use the understanding of repetition in fictional plot development to write an original story

A kindergarten teacher is helping students develop concepts about print. The teacher can best achieve the goal by using which of the following approaches?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Helping students understand that a new word is formed when adding certain sounds to the beginning of a familiar word

B. Having students identify a missing word in a familiar text when only one vowel in the word is provided

C. Asking students questions about the number of words in a sentence and where a sentence begins and ends in a paragraph

D. Creating word charts so that students can see that words look alike when their endings sound alike

A teacher has students read the following passage during a science lesson. The teacher then refers to the same passage during the reading block to demonstrate the structure of certain forms of informational text.

Not all stars are the same, and it is important to understand their properties. There are five parameters of stars that we can measure. Luminosity is the measure of how much energy is emitted by the star. Stars also have their own size and temperature. The mass of stars can be measured, and we can also determine their composition.

The passage best demonstrates which of the following text structures?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Generalization

B. Sequence

C. Enumeration

D. Classification

A teacher focuses on the following skills while working with a group of students.

• Clarifying a purpose for reading

• Previewing a text before reading

• Monitoring understanding by adjusting reading speed

• Checking for understanding after reading a text

The teacher is primarily developing students’ ability to

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. draw conclusions from information or clues they find in a text

B. use metacognitive strategies to think about and have control over their reading

C. activate background knowledge to help them understand what they are reading

D. synthesize information in a text to explain what the text is about

A kindergarten teacher works with a small group of students in a center and asks them to walk around the room to find and name groups of five objects or pictures that begin with the same sound. Students first find a bat, a ball, a box, a boat, and a bug. Then they identify a chair, a chart, a chain, a chick, and a cherry. Which of the following early literacy concepts is best supported by the instructional activity?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Distinguishing letter-sound correspondence in printed words

B. Locating the onset and rime of words commonly used in class

C. Developing phonological awareness by recognizing alliteration

D. Building vocabulary based on items that are accessible in class

Which of the following is the most effective strategy for building and extending students’ vocabulary knowledge?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Showing students how to use roots and affixes to determine meanings

B. Asking students to use unfamiliar words in a sentence

C. Asking students to look up the definitions of unfamiliar words to determine meanings

D. Requiring students to memorize the spelling of unfamiliar words

Which of the following is the ability to recognize that words in oral language are made up of a variety of sound units?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Alphabetic knowledge

B. Phonological awareness

C. Letter knowledge

D. Print awareness

Which of the following reading skills is the most important prerequisite to understanding an author’s purpose?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Creating mental images while reading

B. Eliminating unnecessary information

C. Analyzing key ideas and details

D. Making personal connections to the text

The figure shows a work sheet consisting of four sentences. Each sentence has one or more blanks. The sentences are as follows.

1. I like to BLANK.

2. I like to BLANK, and after that I like to BLANK.

3. When I BLANK, I like to BLANK.

4. My brother didn’t go to BLANK, because he BLANK.

By guiding students to fill in the blanks on a work sheet, as shown, the teacher best supports student learning in which of the following areas?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Combining two or more sentences

B. Expanding sentences with different parts of speech

C. Writing a variety of sentence types

D. Applying punctuation rules to simple sentences

A teacher gives students strips of paper like the ones shown in the following figure.

The figure shows two strips of paper. Each strip of paper has six blank spaces underneath a heading.

• In the first strip of paper, the heading is a blank space followed by the letters: a t.

• In the second strip of paper, the heading is a blank space followed by the letters: e n.

The teacher asks the students to add different letters to the front of the letter patterns to create as many words as they can. The activity best develops students’ understanding of which of the following?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Consonant digraphs

B. Schwa sounds

C. Syllable types

D. Word families

A kindergarten teacher prepares to use an interactive read-aloud to enhance students’ vocabulary knowledge. Which of the following best describes a guideline the teacher should adhere to when selecting the vocabulary words the students will learn?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Words that are abstract in meaning should be chosen, because they require more frequent exposure before students can conceptualize them.

B. Words that are used over multiple contexts should be chosen, because they provide students with repeated exposure that can be transferred to a variety of texts.

C. Words that represent a variety of disparate themes should be chosen, because they help to broaden students’ background knowledge.

D. Words that are unique to an individual text should be chosen, because they are not likely to be seen elsewhere by students.

Which of the following instructional strategies is best for a first-grade teacher to use with emergent readers?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Teaching a brief lesson on a specific skill and asking students to complete independent practice of that skill

B. Demonstrating two or three reading objectives in one lesson and facilitating guided practice for each of the objectives

C. Designing a series of lessons with one reading objective and providing modeling, explicit instruction, and guided practice of the objective

D. Providing students with time to read independently and helping them select books with appropriate grade-level and interest factors

A teacher selects both fiction and nonfiction texts that all students in a reading group can read independently with 95 percent accuracy. The teacher instructs the students to read the texts chorally three times over a period of time. Which of the following changes to the activity best facilitates reading fluency?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Including only texts that students can read with 100 percent accuracy

B. Choosing either all fiction or all nonfiction texts

C. Setting a goal for a certain number of words to be read correctly during each reading session

D. Asking students to annotate the texts during each reading session

During a small-group literacy workshop, a teacher reads a classic fairy tale aloud to students. While reading, the teacher stops to discuss how good readers adjust the pitch and volume of their voice, use punctuation cues to attend to proper phrasing, and read with natural expression. The teacher’s instruction primarily emphasizes which of the following components of reading fluency?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Accuracy

B. Prosody

C. Automaticity

D. Rate

As part of a social studies unit on the American Revolution, a sixth-grade teacher plans to prepare students to read a short historical nonfiction novel about the Boston Tea Party. Which of the following prereading strategies will best assist the teacher in building students’ background knowledge and improving their general understanding of the topic?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Providing time for students to skim the text and create a list of new vocabulary words and ideas that the author discusses

B. Encouraging students to look at the illustrations in the text and discuss with a partner what they see in the images

C. Presenting a list of statements about the topic and having students indicate whether they agree or disagree with each one

D. Having students visit approved Web sites before reading the text to view video clips and primary documents related to the topic

According to Ehri’s phases of word reading development, which of the following characteristics is most closely associated with the full alphabetic phase?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Limited letter knowledge

B. Limited ability to correctly spell words except for a first name

C. Use of phonetic spellings of unfamiliar words using phoneme-grapheme correspondence

D. Use of graphosyllabic and morphemic units as well as phoneme-grapheme correspondences to spell unfamiliar words

The reinforcement method resulting from direct instruction is best illustrated through which of the following vocabulary-building activities?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. The teacher introduces unfamiliar words during daily interactions with students.

B. The teacher asks students to read books that incorporate new words.

C. The teacher builds in activities that provide students opportunities to use new words.

D. The teacher has students work in pairs to look up the meanings of new words in the dictionary.

Which of the following TWO strategies are most appropriate for fluency instruction in the classroom with beginning readers?

Answer the question by selecting the correct responses.

A.  The teacher asks students to read independently for ten minutes a day.

B.  The teacher incorporates fluency work into a monthly homework packet.

C.  The teacher provides explicit instruction on new or difficult words and has students practice these words in isolation before reading the text.

D.  The teacher offers poetry as the sole source for fluency practice in small groups.

E.  The teacher models reading with expression repeatedly through read-aloud opportunities.

Which of the following instructional techniques is most effective in teaching students the phonemic awareness skill of segmentation?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Having students identify the odd sound in a sequence of three or four spoken words

B. Saying a sequence of individual sounds and asking students to combine them to form a word

C. Asking students to recognize the common sound in a set of three one-syllable words

D. Pronouncing a word and having students position plastic counters in a row to represent each sound

A teacher provides students with sentences to use to determine the meanings of words according to their contexts. Which of the following sentences best fulfills the teacher’s purpose?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. “Decomposers” are beneficial to the environment.

B. Please “reanalyze” the errors in the assignment.

C. “Omnivorous” animals prefer eating both plants and meat.

D. My “radius” is broken, but the doctor says the injury is not life threatening.

A teacher prepares two visuals to model the components of a particular type of writing.

• A video clip of an advertisement featuring a well-known athlete as the spokesperson for a popular brand of shoe

• A pamphlet for mobile phone insurance that features images of damaged and cracked mobile devices

The visuals best facilitate instruction about which of the following types of writing?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Narrative

B. Persuasive

C. Expository

D. Descriptive

The instructional strategy list-group-label is most effective for teaching which of the following?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Vocabulary

B. Phonics skills

C. Concepts

D. Phonological awareness

A second-grade teacher is planning a lesson on derivational suffixes. Which of the following is considered a derivational suffix?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. “-ful”

B. “-est”

C. “-ing”

D. “-ed”

While reading a short passage from a realistic fiction story aloud to the class, a student reads the following sentence.

“I didn’t think what I had done was so bad, but my mother sure knows how to make a mountain out of a molehill.”

The teacher focuses the students’ attention on the author’s use of the phrase “to make a mountain out of a molehill” as an example of figurative language. Which of the following teacher actions is the most appropriate next step in helping students understand the phrase?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Having students recall other texts in which an author has used other unique linguistic structures

B. Asking students to decide whether the literal meaning of the phrase is the author’s intended message

C. Adding the phrase to a student-created poster of author’s tools used to convey meaning by using language in interesting ways

D. Requiring that students write explanations of their personal reactions to the author’s purpose for selecting the phrase to convey meaning

A teacher introduces a class of kindergarten students to concepts of print and assesses their understanding informally every day. Some students are struggling with directionality and return sweep. Which of the following teacher actions will best help support the students who are struggling with the concepts?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Having students arrange story sentences that are printed on strips of paper in correct order

B. Pointing out punctuation and illustrating its purpose during daily read-alouds

C. Handing students books upside down to practice orienting them correctly before reading

D. Modeling how text is read by using a finger to point to words as they are read aloud

A group of students have an accuracy rate of 94% on a recent oral reading assessment. Which of the following activities will best help students to develop their reading skills?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Continuing to read books at the current level due to the students’ consistent skills achievement

B. Reading familiar books with a partner who reads at a lower level

C. Participating in lessons focused on specific problematic phonics patterns

D. Listening independently to audiobooks from the next reading level

Which of the following is most beneficial in developing students’ writing abilities?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Improving students’ skill in applying standard English conventions to their own writing by focusing on an author’s accuracy in written expression

B. Modeling explicit writing instruction on how an author communicates ideas through elements such as word choice, text structure, and point of view

C. Allowing students to self-assess their writing pieces by using writing models to create rubrics that clearly describe elements of effective writing

D. Encouraging students to progress through the steps in the writing process fluently and quickly by allowing them to use models that demonstrate the relationship between writing and oral language

A fifth-grade teacher wants students to create semantic gradients like the ones that follow to expand their understanding of known vocabulary words.

The figure shows two semantic gradients. Each semantic gradient is represented by a horizontal line with arrowheads at each end.

First semantic gradient

Five roughly equally spaced tick marks are indicated along the first semantic gradient. From left to right, the tick marks are labeled as follows: glance, peek, look, observe, and stare.

Second semantic gradient

Three roughly equally spaced tick marks are indicated along the second semantic gradient. From left to right, the first tick mark is labeled with the following four words: warm, lukewarm, tepid, and mild. The second tick mark is labeled with the following word: hot. The third tick mark is labeled with the following five words: scorching, boiling, searing, broiling, and fiery.

The teacher provides students with a thesaurus to help them complete the assignment. Which of the following is a major limitation of using only a thesaurus for this activity?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. The students may not be able to spell the words correctly.

B. A thesaurus does not distinguish between shades of meaning.

C. Students cannot distinguish between synonyms and antonyms.

D. The thesaurus does not have a wide variety of words in it.

A teacher selects words from a decodable text and places them in a pocket attached to the back cover of the book. The student removes all the words that they can decode effortlessly and attempts to blend and decode the remaining words. Which of the following is the instructional purpose of the activity?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Enhancing reading fluency

B. Developing phonemic awareness

C. Teaching sound-letter mapping

D. Recognizing initial consonants in words

Before introducing a nonfiction text on volcanoes, a teacher asks students to record one fact that they already know about volcanoes on an adhesive tab. The teacher and students create a poster with the tabs, and the class then discusses the facts on the tabs. Which of the following best describes the primary purpose of the activity?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Building schema

B. Checking for understanding

C. Assessing student readiness

D. Modeling comprehension strategies

When using a newspaper article for a shared reading activity, no students in the class can explain the meaning of the word “absence” in the last sentence of the following passage.

Sam was chosen because he is considered the best investigator of mechanical failures. The bridge collapsed overnight, yet the video shows no people, animals, or warnings of a problem. Sam read the report twice, yet he still could not overcome the absence of cause and gain a clear understanding about the factors that explained the disaster.

Based on the passage, which of the following teacher-directed questions is most appropriate for students learning to identify the meaning of unknown words?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Which definition in the dictionary explains the meaning of the word “absence”?

B. Was Sam confused because there were no people or animals near the bridge?

C. How would you use the word “absence” in a sentence?

D. Do the surrounding words offer a clue about the meaning of the word “absence”?

Students in a sixth-grade English language arts class are struggling with distinguishing between tone and mood. Which of the following questions should the teacher ask to begin to help students understand the interrelationship between tone and mood?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Which clues help indicate the organizational pattern of the passage?

B. Which words does the author use to establish that the characters are full of resentment toward each other?

C. How would you describe the setting of the novel?

D. What word would you choose to describe the feeling of the passage?

To address the fluency difficulties faced by students in a reading group, the teacher decides to implement readers’ theater lessons using a text each student is able to decode proficiently. Which of the following instructional steps will best support the students’ improvement of reading fluency?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Permitting the students to work as a group to select a text based on their collaborative interests

B. Assigning each student a character part prior to reading the text as a group

C. Previewing three possible texts so students can decide on one

D. Modeling reading of the script and asking students to read the text independently and orally before choosing character parts

Which of the following instructional practices is most effective to use in a first-grade classroom to support the students’ reading comprehension before they begin reading a text?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Isolating the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes in multisyllabic words

B. Reading a list of irregularly spelled high-frequency words found in the text

C. Identifying the letter-sound correspondences for consonant digraphs

D. Recording students’ predictions of what they think the text will be about

Which of the following literacy activities best demonstrates a first-grade student applying the literacy principles of decoding and encoding as reciprocal skills?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. After direct instruction, reading and sorting a set of words that contain the CVCV pattern, and then writing teacher-dictated sentences that include words in the CVCV pattern

B. Reading a story about a little boy’s family pet and recording a spontaneous retelling of the tale for classmates to listen to as a literacy workshop activity

C. Attending closely as a teacher reads a picture book aloud and provides instruction in the various components of print literacy skills

D. Reading a short fictional story independently and creating a story map through a series of drawings that illustrate major story elements

When planning instruction to support students’ reading development, a third-grade teacher includes the following activities.

• Engaging students in reader’s theater

• Requiring students to participate in repeated readings

• Modeling fluent reading of various genres

• Providing opportunities for reading narrative and informational texts

By engaging students in the activities listed, the teacher best demonstrates an understanding of which of the following principles related to growth in literacy?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. A reader’s ability to consistently process all genres of text at a rapid rate results in deeper comprehension of complex ideas.

B. A reader’s participation in oral reading activities with peers promotes the reader’s interest in wide reading of complex texts.

C. A reader who can fluently and automatically decode words can give full attention to comprehending a written text.

D. A reader’s exposure to texts in various genres allows the reader to absorb linguistic differences in authors’ writing styles.

During a phonics lesson, a third-grade teacher provides direct instruction to a small group of students on how to decode multisyllabic words by identifying the syllable types found within the word and applying the phonics rules that govern each. The beginning of the teacher’s instructional sequence with students follows.

• Teacher: Listen and tell me what you hear that is the same in each of these words: “ sudden,” “velvet,” “kitten,” “napkin,” “contest”.

• Student: Each of these words has two syllables.

• Teacher: Correct. Do you hear anything else that is the same?

• Student: Each syllable in the words has a short vowel sound.

• Teacher: That’s right. Now I’m going to show you the words on this chart. What do you notice?

• Student: Each syllable contains one vowel followed by a consonant.

When continuing the discussion with students, the teacher should inform students that each of the words presented in the lesson contains which of the following syllable types?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Vowel digraph syllable

B. Closed syllable

C. Final stable syllable

D. Open syllable

The data in the following table are based on a recent assessment of fourth-grade students reading a short passage.

The teacher analyzes the data to identify areas most in need of improvement. Which of the following instructional strategies will best meet the needs of Molly, Marcy, and Don?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Giving the students review activities and games to practice unknown words

B. Pairing the students with peers who scored slightly higher to read aloud and provide feedback to each other

C. Providing the students with graphic organizers to use while reading

D. Encouraging students to read more books at home for pleasure

Which of the following are transcription skills used in the simple view of writing?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Handwriting and spelling

B. Attention and goal setting

C. Revising and self-regulating

D. Planning and revising

A kindergarten teacher recognizes that a small group of students are struggling to segment words that have three phonemes. Which of the following is the most appropriate instructional practice for supporting the students’ phonemic awareness skills?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Using 3D letter tiles to break each word into individual sounds

B. Working with foam squares to demonstrate each sound that is present in each word

C. Having students repeat each word while the teacher writes the words on the board letter by letter

D. Introducing a tap it, map it, graph it approach to breaking apart each word letter by letter

A first-grade teacher wants to instruct students in phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Which of the following instructional scenarios is best for the teacher to use?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Teaching the class one letter-sound relationship per week in alphabetical order

B. Assisting students with identifying an unfamiliar word as they read connected text by teaching a specific letter-sound relationship

C. Presenting students with explicit instruction in specific letter-sound correspondences and having them think, say, and blend words containing such patterns

D. Teaching students individual letter-sound relationships and then having them first isolate the sounds and then blend them together to form a recognizable word

A first-grade teacher administered a universal screening assessment and identified several students with at-risk scores for reading difficulties. Which of the following is the most appropriate first step for the teacher to take for instructional decision making?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Providing instruction in the subskill administered

B. Administering a diagnostic assessment to determine areas of instructional need

C. Teaching CVC patterns with short vowel sounds

D. Beginning progress monitoring on oral reading fluency at the grade level

A first-grade teacher administered a universal screening assessment and identified several students with at-risk scores for reading difficulties. Which of the following is the most appropriate first step for the teacher to take for instructional decision making?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Providing instruction in the subskill administered

B. Administering a diagnostic assessment to determine areas of instructional need

C. Teaching CVC patterns with short vowel sounds

D. Beginning progress monitoring on oral reading fluency at the grade level

A first-grade teacher is preparing a phonics lesson on high-frequency words to introduce to the students. To prepare for the lesson, the teacher identifies several activities that would aid the students in acquiring the high-frequency words. Which of the following demonstrates an understanding of how to approach instruction in word recognition?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Having the students tap out the regular sound correspondences in the word

B. Writing words on index cards to flash to students when they are in class

C. Having students copy and trace the words on a work sheet

D. Partnering students to have them find the words in a word search

A third-grade teacher notices that many students in class exhibit poor reading fluency when asked to read sentences or longer passages aloud and plans to incorporate activities to support fluent reading behaviors. Which THREE of the following activities best accomplish the teacher’s objective?

Answer the question by selecting the correct responses.

A.  Encouraging students to record events from a story while they read

B.  Engaging in choral reading as a class for a page of text

C.  Asking questions during and after reading a familiar text

D.  Modeling one sentence at a time aloud for students to imitate

E.  Providing students with a script to practice and read orally in front of their peers

A first-grade teacher introduces phonics concepts to students early in the school year and explicitly teaches short vowel sounds. Which of the following activities will best help students work on the described phonics concept?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Sorting one-syllable words that have closed and open syllables

B. Inserting vowel teams into words with blank spaces

C. Highlighting words with the CVCe pattern in a passage

D. Identifying word families that follow the CVC pattern

A fourth-grade teacher intends to use student performance data to guide lesson planning for small-group reading and remediation of specific skills. Which THREE of the following actions are most appropriate for using the data to inform instruction?

Answer the question by selecting the correct responses.

A.  Analyzing data prior to adjustment of instructional goals and delivery

B.  Analyzing data after the adjustment of instructional goals and delivery

C.  Analyzing data to determine summative descriptions of performance

D.  Analyzing data to determine formative descriptions of performance

E.  Analyzing data to determine norm-referenced descriptions of performance

Which of the following statements is correct about developing listening and speaking skills in students?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Receptive and expressive language skills can be codeveloped by focusing on the development of vocabulary, the comprehension of grammar structures, and the interpretation of intonation.

B. Receptive and expressive language are distinctly separate cognitive activities, so effective instruction for skill development must isolate the reception of language from the expression of language.

C. Receptive and expressive language are naturally occurring processes, so they can be taught primarily through structured and unstructured opportunities for social interaction without further intervention needed.

D. Receptive and expressive language skills are processed and interpreted in precisely the same area of the brain’s front right hemisphere, so instructional activities should focus on left brain/right brain strengths.

Which of the following is the primary purpose of the model-practice-reflect instructional cycle in writing?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Giving students ample opportunity to plan out their thinking before writing

B. Providing students with an opportunity to reflect on their audience before writing

C. Offering students an example of how to cite evidence from the text

D. Allowing students to observe the thinking process and actions of a strong writer

While explicitly and systematically teaching phonics to students, a teacher wants to ensure proper phonics maintenance. Which of the following strategies will best meet the teacher’s goal?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Highlighting examples of words in texts that introduce a new spelling pattern

B. Using interactive practice opportunities to review previously taught sound-letter relationships

C. Orally manipulating onsets and rimes in word families as a class

D. Modeling how to break words apart into sounds with small groups

Which of the following statements about the relationship between reading and writing development is best supported by research?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Both reading and writing are markedly similar with regard to activity, strategy, and purpose.

B. Reading and writing are innate skills for which the human brain is naturally wired.

C. Developing readers and writers proceed through the same stages to reach proficiency.

D. Decoding involves translating printed words to sounds, and encoding involves using individual sounds to build and write words.

A teacher who is working with students on decoding multisyllabic words in text writes the following words on an anchor chart after students encounter them in their readings for the week.

Multisyllabic words

• common

• butter

• swimming

Which of the following activities will best help the students divide the words into syllables?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Marking off syllables by using a dot between vowels and consonants

B. Examining long-vowel sounds in the words with a stable-final syllable

C. Identifying stressed and unstressed vowels in each of the words

D. Breaking up closed-syllable words based on consonant splitting

Which of the following factors should a second-grade teacher use to determine whether a student will benefit from a fluency-based intervention?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. The student receives a score of 75 percent accuracy on an oral reading fluency assessment.

B. The student uses awkward word groupings while reading aloud from a short passage.

C. The student shows no interest in reading books from the classroom library in school or at home.

D. The student correctly reads aloud all words from a piece of text yet struggles to explain the meaning of the words.

Criteria such as timeliness of information, professional affiliation, bias, and domain suffixes all relate to which of the following factors?

Answer the question by selecting the correct response.

A. Considering ethical issues that may arise when designing assessments

B. Respecting cultural knowledge and prior learner experiences when designing instruction

C. Tailoring content, process, products, and learning environment to meet individual learner needs

D. Evaluating and selecting reference materials for student use in classroom research