090 Set 1 Review 2 of 8

Which of the following is the most important reason for a fourth-grade teacher to assign a variety of high-quality trade books as a component of reading instruction?

• The themes typical of children's literature tend to reinforce students' development of literal comprehension skills.

• Reading across genres helps students develop an understanding of the structures and features of different texts.

• Simplified syntax and controlled vocabulary provide necessary scaffolding for students who are struggling readers.

• Reading diverse texts helps to promote students' development of phonological and phonemic awareness skills.

Answer explanation

Trade books are books marketed to a general audience, as opposed to books developed for specialized audiences. Children's trade books cover a range of topics and include both fiction and nonfiction texts. Wide reading of trade books provides students with exposure to many genres and helps them begin to develop an awareness of the structural differences between genres. Trade books are not limited to specific themes (A), nor do they use simplified syntax or controlled vocabulary (C). Reading trade books does not explicitly (or implicitly) teach fourth-grade students phonological and phonemic awareness skills (D), which are typically developed at a much earlier grade level using primarily oral language activities.

Frequent oral reading to kindergarten children using appropriate and expressive intonation and voices is likely to promote the students' reading development primarily by:

• improving their aural discrimination skills.

• explicitly teaching letter-sound correspondence

• fostering their engagement in and love of reading.

• explicitly modeling phonological concepts such as word boundaries.

Answer explanation

Promoting young children's motivation to engage in literacy-related tasks is an essential component of an effective kindergarten reading program. Research has shown that reading aloud to students promotes their vocabulary development as well as their interest in books and reading. Using expressive voices makes the activity even more engaging. Because the focus of a read-aloud is the construction of meaning, a read- aloud is not appropriate or effective to use for developing students' auditory discrimination skills (A), teaching alphabetic skills such as letter-sound correspondence (B), or teaching phonological skills such as detecting word boundaries (D).

Which of the following strategies is likely to be most effective in promoting reluctant readers' interest in independent reading outside of school?

• Calculate numerical scores based on the number and difficulty level of the books students read at home and integrate the score into students' report card grade for reading.

• Encourage parents to give their children simple external rewards for at-home reading, such as an extra helping of a favorite treat.

• Encourage students and parents to read books together on a regular basis, either silently or aloud, and discuss their personal responses to each chapter or key event.

• Recommend that parents make their children's daily television-watching time contingent on their reading a specified number of pages first.

Answer explanation

Reluctant readers are often reluctant to read independently at home because they have experienced some level of difficulty in reading. Encouraging students to read with a proficient reader, such as a parent or guardian, and to discuss key events in the text helps scaffold and support their comprehension of the text. Sharing personal responses to books with a partner also underscores that reading can be a highly social and enjoyable act; this in turn promotes positive dispositions toward reading. A and B are incorrect because providing extrinsic rewards to students for their reading may work as a short-term strategy with some students, but it is not effective in promoting a lifelong interest in or love of reading. Withholding a treat or reward until reading is complete (D) is another short-term strategy, but it may actually increase reluctant readers' negative feelings about reading instead of fostering their positive feelings.

Electronic reading books are advantageous for beginning or struggling readers primarily because this type of computer software:

• scaffolds learning by providing a high level of interactivity.

• helps students develop familiarity with reading from a computer screen.

• provides students with models of good reading practices and habits.

• minimizes the focus on written text by using sound effects and voices to convey meaning.

Answer explanation

Electronic books can offer many scaffolds to beginning or struggling readers, including providing the opportunity to hear the pronunciation or the definition of an unfamiliar word in the text or to listen to the whole text read aloud by a proficient reader. While electronic books can be available for use on a computer, they are not necessarily limited to this medium (B). Electronic books can provide good models of fluent reading; however, they are inanimate objects, so they cannot model good reading practices or habits (C). While electronic books may use auditory input to enhance comprehension (D), this is intended to be a scaffold for the reader and not a substitute for the text.

Sea, and see, fair and fare, are called:

• Homophones

• Antonyms

• Homographs

• Twin words

Answer explanation

Homophones. Homophones are a type of homonym that sound alike, but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Other examples are two, to, and too; their, they're, and there.

Another name for a persuasive essay is:

• Dynamic essay

• Convincing essay

• Argumentative essay

• Position paper

Answer explanation

Argumentative essay. The goal of a persuasive essay is to convince the reader that the author's position or opinion on a controversial topic is correct. That opinion or position is called the argument. A persuasive essay argues a series of points, supported by facts and evidence.

A teacher is working with a group of third graders at the same reading level. Her goal is to improve reading fluency. She asks each child in turn to read a page from a book about mammal young. She asks the children to read with expression. She also reminds them they don't need to stop between each word; they should read as quickly as they comfortably can. She cautions them, however, not to read so quickly that they leave out or misread a word. The teacher knows the components of reading fluency are:

• Speed, drama, and comprehension

• Cohesion, rate, and prosody

• Understanding, rate, and prosody

• Rate, accuracy, and prosody

Answer explanation

Rate, accuracy, and prosody. Fluent readers are able to read smoothly and comfortably at a steady pace (rate). The more quickly a child reads, the greater the chance of leaving out a word or substituting one word for another (for example, sink instead of shrink). Fluent readers are able to maintain accuracy without sacrificing rate. Fluent readers also stress important words in a text, group words into rhythmic phrases, and read with intonation (prosody).

"Language load" refers to:

• The basic vocabulary words a first grader has committed to memory

• The number of unrecognizable words an English Language Learner encounters when reading a passage or listening to a teacher

• The damage that carrying a pile of heavy books could cause to a child's physique

• The number of different languages a person has mastered

Answer explanation

The number of unrecognizable words an English Language Learner encounters when reading a passage or listening to a teacher. Language load is one of the barriers English Language Learners face. To lighten this load, a teacher can rephrase, eliminate unnecessary words, divide complex sentences into smaller units, and teach essential vocabulary before the student begins the lesson.

A syllable must contain:

• A vowel

• A consonant

• Both a vowel and a consonant

• A meaning

Answer explanation

A vowel. A syllable is a minimal sound unit arranged around a vowel. For example, academic has four syllables: a/ca/dem/ic. It is possible for a syllable to be a single vowel, as in the above example. It is not possible for a syllable to be a single consonant.

A third-grade teacher has several students reading above grade level. Most of the remaining students are reading at grade level. There are also a few students reading below grade level. She decides to experiment. Her hypothesis is that by giving the entire class a chapter book above grade level, high-level readers will be satisfied, grade-level readers will be challenged in a positive way, and students reading below grade level will be inspired to improve. Her method is most likely to:

• Succeed, producing students reading at an Instructional reading level. High-level readers will be happy to be given material appropriate to their reading level. Grade-level readers will challenge themselves to improve reading strategies in order to master the text. Because only a few of the students are reading below grade level, the other students, who feel happy and energized, will inspire the slower readers by modeling success.

• Succeed, producing students reading at an Independent reading level. High-level readers will independently help grade-level readers who will, in turn, independently help those below grade level.

• Fail, producing students at a Frustration reading level. Those reading below grade level are likely to give up entirely. Those reading at grade level are likely to get frustrated and form habits that will actually slow down their development.

• Fail, producing students reading at a Chaotic reading level. By nature, children are highly competitive. The teacher has not taken into consideration multiple learning styles. The children who are at grade level will either become bitter and angry at those whose reading level is above grade level or simply give up. The children reading below grade level will not be able to keep up and will in all likelihood act out their frustration or completely shut down.

Answer explanation

Fail, producing students at a Frustration reading level. Those reading below grade level are likely to give up entirely. Those reading at grade level are likely to get frustrated and form habits that will actually slow down their development. Giving students texts that are too far beyond their reach produces frustrated readers. In an effort to succeed, frustrated writers are likely to apply strategies that have worked for them in the past but cannot work in this case because the test is simply beyond them. Looking for contextual clues to understand the meaning of unfamiliar words requires that most of the words in the passage are familiar. Breaking unfamiliar words into individual phonemes or syllables can be effective, but not if the number of such words is excessive. In this case, students below reading level and students at reading level will become frustrated when the skills that have worked for them in the past now fail.