Foundations of Reading Test Prep

Which of the following students is demonstrating the specific type of phonological awareness known as phonemic awareness?

• a student who, after being shown a

  letter of the alphabet, can orally

  identify its corresponding sound(s)

• a student who listens to the words

  sing, ring, fling, and hang and can

  identify that hang is different

• a student who, after hearing the word

  hat, can orally identify that it ends

  with the sound /t/

• a student who listens to the word

  magazine and can determine that it

  contains three syllables

A kindergarten teacher could best determine if a child has begun to develop phonemic awareness by asking the child to:

• count the number of words the child

  hears in a sentence as the teacher says

  the sentence.

• say the word cat, then say the first

  sound the child hears in the word.

• point to the correct letter on an

  alphabet chart as the teacher names

  specific letters.

• listen to the teacher say boat and coat,

  then identify whether the two words

  rhyme.

As students begin to read, the ability to blend phonemes orally contributes to their reading development primarily because it helps students:

• recognize and understand sight words

  in a text.

• use knowledge of letter-sound

  correspondence to decode words.

• \guess the meaning of unfamiliar

  words from their context

• divide written words into onsets

  and rimes.

Which of the following first-grade students has attained the highest level of phonemic awareness?

• a student who, after hearing the word

  hot and the sound /ĭ/, can substitute /ĭ/

  for /ŏ/ to make the word hit

• a student who can orally segment the

  word wonderful into won-der-ful

• a student who, after hearing the words

  fish and fun, can identify that they

  both begin with the same phoneme, /f/

• a student who can orally segment the

  word train into its onset and rime

Asking students to listen to a word

(e.g., same) and then tell the teacher

all the sounds in the word is an exercise that would be most appropriate for students who:

• have a relatively low level of

  phonological awareness.

• are beginning to develop systematic

  phonics skills.

• have a relatively high level of

  phonemic awareness.

• are beginning to master the alphabetic

  principle.

A beginning-level English Language Learner can consistently blend individual phonemes to make simple English words composed of two or three phonemes but is having difficulty blending the sounds of familiar single-syllable words composed of four phonemes (e.g., clip, trap, spin). Which of the following questions would be most important for the first-grade teacher to consider when addressing the needs of this student?

• Are the target words in the student's

  oral vocabulary in English?

• Does the student's primary language

  have consonant blends?

• Can the student distinguish between

  short and long vowel sounds in

  English?

• Do the target words have cognates in

  the student's primary language?

A teacher can most effectively support first graders' development of rapid automatic word recognition by first teaching students how to:

• apply consistent phonics generalizations in common words.

• context clues to determine the

  meanings of words

• identify the constituent parts of

  multisyllable words.

• look up unfamiliar words in the

  dictionary.

A second-grade teacher pairs students who are reading at approximately the same independent reading level for a partner- reading activity. During the activity, the two partners sit side by side and take turns reading aloud from a shared text. Over a period of several days, the partners read a large number of independent-level texts together. This activity is best designed to promote students':

• development of reading rate and

  automaticity

• awareness of key aspects of prosodic

  reading.

• development of comprehension skills

  and strategies.

• awareness of new phonics elements.

According to basic principles of research- based, systematic phonics instruction, which of the following common English letter combinations would be most appropriate for a first-grade teacher to introduce first?

• ir

• kn

• th

• oi

Which of the following provides the best rationale for incorporating spelling instruction into a first-grade reading program?

• Spelling promotes phonemic

  awareness by teaching students to

  break words into onsets and rimes.

• Spelling facilitates vocabulary

  development by introducing students

  to new words.

• Spelling simplifies the reading process

  by focusing students on a limited set

  of decoding rules.

• Spelling supports word recognition by

  helping students learn and retain

  common phonics patterns.