Foundations of Reading 190 Sub-Area2:46-55Ob5;56-67Ob6;68-78Ob7

46. A second-grade student demonstrates automaticity decoding grade-level regular and irregular words. However, the student frequently experiences poor text comprehension with informational texts. Which of the following steps should the teacher take first to promote the student's reading development?

• evaluating the student's ability to apply grade-level phonics and syllabication skills when reading the target texts

• determining the rate of the student's phonological processing when reading the target informational texts

• evaluating the degree to which the student uses syntactic clues when reading the target informational texts

• using questioning to determine the student's vocabulary and background knowledge with respect to the target texts

Answer explanation

Correct Response: D. Option D is correct because this explanation identifies comprehension challenges frequently associated with informational texts that are independent of the reader's decoding ability. For a student to comprehend a text during reading, they must be able not only to decode each word but also connect the decoded words to words in their oral vocabulary. Content knowledge and academic vocabulary are important components of the background knowledge demands of informational texts. Research has shown that if a reader does not understand the meaning of at least 90 percent of the words in a text, comprehension breaks down. Therefore, a student with strong decoding skills but limited academic vocabulary and content knowledge related to grade-level informational texts may be able to decode the texts accurately but still not be able to make sense of them. Options A and B are incorrect because the student in the scenario already demonstrates automaticity decoding grade-level regular and irregular words, so phonologically based deficits are not likely causing the student's comprehension difficulties. Likewise, Option C is incorrect because readers use syntactic clues as a strategy for determining a word's grammatical function in a sentence. For example, this can be helpful for verifying the meaning and pronunciation of a multiple-meaning word in a text. However, a weakness in interpreting syntactic clues is not likely to be the primary cause of the student's consistent comprehension difficulties with informational texts.

47. A first-grade teacher designs the following activity.

1. Divide students into pairs.

2. Have the two students sit back-to-back.

3. Give a student in each pair a picture of a familiar object to describe.

4. Have the second student try to name the object based on the description.

5. If the second student cannot determine the target object, instruct the student describing the object to use more precise language (e.g., describing the object's color, texture, size, use).

6. The student pairs switch roles and repeat steps 2–5.

This activity is likely to contribute to students' literacy development primarily by:

• showing them how to distinguish shades of meaning among words with similar denotations

• developing their ability to categorize words according to their function

• promoting their oral language development and listening comprehension

• encouraging them to develop their oral presentation skills

Answer explanation

Correct Response: C. Option C is correct because, in the activity described, the students must convey the identifying features of an object using oral language alone. This prompts the students to use descriptive language to try to evoke a mental image of the object in the minds of their partners. Conversely, the partners must listen attentively and focus carefully on these oral language clues to visualize and make accurate deductions about the objects. Options A and Bare incorrect because the focus of the activity is on describing or interpreting descriptions of real objects using language. The activity does not focus on comparing words in terms of their connotative meanings (A) or syntactic category (B). Option D is incorrect because, while precision in language is one characteristic of an effective presentation, the setting in this activity is informal and conversational, and does not rely on or promote development of presentation skills.

48. Students in a fourth-grade class read a text that includes the word indefensible, which is unfamiliar to some of them. Which of the following strategies for teaching the word would be most effective in both clarifying the meaning of the word and extending the students' understanding and use of an appropriate word-learning strategy?

• asking the students to paraphrase the sentence that contains the word by substituting a synonym for the word

• having the students enter the word in their ongoing list of new vocabulary words and then look up its definition independently

• modeling for the students how to apply knowledge of morphology to construct the word's meaning and use context to confirm it

• using print and digital reference materials to explain the word's meaning to the students before they read the text

Answer explanation

Correct Response: C. Option C is correct because, by modeling how to use structural analysis and knowledge of familiar English morphemes to deduce the meaning of a new word (i.e., the root defense and the affixes in- and -ible), the teacher reinforces for students a powerful, independent word-learning strategy. Learning this strategy immediately extends students' understanding of the target word indefensible and, in the long term, promotes their ability to learn unfamiliar words that contain familiar morphemes. After using the strategy, the students should use context clues to verify that the meaning they have deduced makes sense in the text. Options A, B, and D are incorrect because they describe strategies that help students understand the meaning of a specific word, but they do not promote or extend the students' ongoing vocabulary development.

49. A fifth-grade teacher is about to begin a new unit on ecosystems, with an emphasis on the movement of matter among the various components of an ecosystem. Which of the following types of vocabulary words from the unit would be most appropriate for the teacher to pre-teach?

• words that are conceptually challenging

• high-frequency, phonetically irregular words

• high-frequency words that have multiple meanings

• multisyllable words made of two or more syllable types

Answer explanation

Correct Response: A. Option A is correct because conceptually challenging words, especially those associated with a new content-specific unit of study, are not likely to be in students' oral vocabularies, let alone in their reading vocabularies. To support students' reading comprehension of content-area texts associated with the unit, it is critical to introduce students to key concepts and associated vocabulary in both their oral and written forms prior to reading. Options B and C are incorrect because high-frequency words, whether with irregular spellings (B) or multiple meanings (C), are likely to be in students' reading vocabularies. Similarly, by fifth grade, students should have mastered reading many multisyllable words that include more than one common syllable type (D), so a word's syllable types alone would not necessarily indicate that the word is unfamiliar to students.

50. A fifth-grade student reads the sentence, "After playing with her friends all day, Kaylee did her science homework, her geography project, and her English paper in one fell swoop." The student asks the teacher for support in understanding the meaning of the phrase one fell swoop. After explaining the phrase's meaning, the teacher could best deepen and extend the student's understanding of this idiomatic expression by:

• asking the student to find other sentences in the text that use the words fell and swoop

• discussing with the student additional examples of the phrase used in context

• directing the student to look up different meanings of fell and swoop in the dictionary

• showing the student how to create a tree diagram of the structure of the phrase

Answer explanation

Correct Response: B. Option B is correct because the phrase one fell swoop is an idiom. An idiomatic expression is a word or set phrase that derives its meaning from common usage and not from the combined literal meanings of component words. After explaining the meaning of an unfamiliar idiom, a teacher can most effectively deepen a student's understanding of the idiom by providing several additional examples of the idiom used in comprehensible contexts. Options A and C are incorrect because one fell swoop functions semantically as a single unit, so strategies for determining the meaning of its component words would not help the student determine the meaning of the idiom as a whole. Tree diagrams (D) are used to represent the grammatical structure of a sentence. This would be useful in helping the student determine the grammatical function of the phrase in the sentence but not its meaning.

51. A sixth-grade teacher is planning explicit instruction to develop students' ability to read and understand sentences that have a complex sentence structure. Which of the following skills would be most effective for the teacher to focus on?

• distinguishing between complex sentences that use passive and active voice

• deconstructing complex sentences into independent and dependent clauses

• identifying common transitions words that link ideas in two or more sentences

• distinguishing between demonstrative and indefinite pronouns in a sentence

Answer explanation

Correct Response: B. This skill would enable students to make sense of a complex sentence step by step. Complex sentences are sentences that contain two or more clauses: an independent clause, which is the main clause, and one or more dependent clauses, which support or clarify the meaning of the main clause. The challenge for students in understanding this sentence structure is in understanding how the component clauses work together to communicate a coherent idea. Deconstructing the sentence into its component clauses allows the student to understand the ideas in each part of the sentence separately before considering how the ideas in the clauses are related. Option A is incorrect because distinguishing between sentences written in active voice and passive voice does not address the essential difficulty in understanding sentences with multiple clauses. Options C and D are incorrect because identifying transition words that link separate sentences (C) or distinguishing between demonstrative and indefinite pronouns (D) would not develop students' ability to understand complex sentences.

52. Over the course of the school year, a sixth-grade student who had been a fluent, proficient reader in previous years has become increasingly inconsistent in comprehending grade- level literary and informational texts assigned in class. The results of informal, curriculum- based assessments indicate that the student still meets grade-level expectations in vocabulary knowledge, but the student's reading rate and comprehension have dropped below grade-level expectations. The teacher observes that the student does not read smoothly when reading aloud sentences that contain more than one clause, and the student often comments about "getting lost in the sentence." The teacher is also aware that the student tends to choose fiction and graphic novels for independent reading that are written well below grade-level expectations. The student's overall reading profile suggests that the student would likely benefit most from explicit instruction focused on promoting the student's:

• understanding of important features of skilled and prosodic oral reading

• ability to deconstruct complex academic language and interpret its meaning

• skill in applying contextual analysis and other word analysis strategies

• development of automaticity recognizing grade-level high-frequency words

Answer explanation

Correct Response: B. Research has shown that independent reading of a wide range of literary and informational texts plays a key role in students' academic language development, as the language of books tends to be more sophisticated than that of everyday social language. The student in this scenario likely has adequate foundational reading skills, given the student's prior reading proficiency. However, the student's independent reading is limited to fiction and graphic novels written well below grade-level expectations, thus limiting the student's exposure to grade- level academic language. Explicit instruction focused on developing the student's command of grade-level academic language structures would support the student's continued progress in comprehending grade-level academic texts. Options A, C, and D are incorrect because the student had been a fluent, proficient reader in previous years and continues to read below-grade- level texts with pleasure. Thus, foundational reading skills are not likely causing the student's increasingly inconsistent reading comprehension of assigned academic texts.

53. A third-grade class that includes several English learners is preparing to read a text about the life cycles of various organisms (e.g., plants, mammals, reptiles). Which of the following teaching strategies would be most effective in promoting the English learners' comprehension of the text?

• having the students look up unknown English words using bilingual dictionaries and then make vocabulary lists in both languages

• pairing English learners with students whose home language is English and asking

• activating the students' prior knowledge about the topic and providing visual aids such as illustrations to clarify new vocabulary

• giving the students a list of new vocabulary with definitions and having them try to construct original sentences using the words

Answer explanation

Correct Response: C. Two of the most effective instructional strategies for promoting English learners' comprehension of a content-area text are activating the students' prior knowledge of the text's content and contextualizing new concepts and vocabulary through the use of visuals, demonstrations, multimedia presentations, and/or hands-on activities. To contextualize new vocabulary related to plants and animals, the use of illustrations and photographs would be the most effective (and efficient) strategy to use and would also activate any prior knowledge the students had regarding the topic. The strategies described in Options A, B, and D are not likely to be particularly effective in promoting English learners' comprehension of the text because they neither build nor activate background knowledge related to the topic, and they do not help contextualize new vocabulary for learners.

54. A sixth-grade student encounters the following sentence in a short story. The student asks the teacher about the meaning of déjà vu in the sentence. The teacher could best respond by advising the student to take which of the following steps?

• making note of the word in a vocabulary log, and then studying the word after finishing the story

• using context clues in the sentence to guess the meaning of the word, and then trying out that meaning in the sentence

• looking up the word in the dictionary, and then paraphrasing the sentence using the dictionary definition

• breaking the word into its component parts, and then comparing the parts to the meanings of similar known words

Answer explanation

Correct Response: C. Stopping to consult a dictionary is generally disruptive to the reading process; however, in some situations, as with the sentence shown in the box, consulting a dictionary is the only effective method for determining the meaning of an unfamiliar term encountered in a text. Also, paraphrasing the sentence by substituting the dictionary definition for the unfamiliar term is a good method for both reinforcing understanding of the new term and returning the reader to the flow of the story. The other strategies given would not be effective in this particular situation. Option B is incorrect because contextual analysis would not be a useful strategy here, since the sentence around the term déjà vu provides little or no clues as to the term's meaning. Using structural analysis (D) would also not be helpful, since the term is made up of two words and they are borrowed from the French language. Finally, simply noting the term in a vocabulary log and coming back to it after finishing reading the story (A) would cause the student to miss the significance of the sentence and could diminish the student's comprehension of the story.

55. Before beginning a new content-area reading passage, a fourth-grade teacher asks students to think of words related to the topic of the text. The teacher writes the words on the board and then asks the students to suggest ways to group the words based on meaningful connections. The teacher also encourages them to explain their reasons for grouping particular words together. This series of activities is likely to promote the students' reading development primarily by helping them:

• extend and reinforce their expressive and receptive vocabularies related to the text's topic

• infer the meaning of new vocabulary in the text based on word derivations

• strengthen and extend their understanding of the overall structure of the text

• verify word meanings in the text by incorporating syntactic and semantic clues into their word analysis

Answer explanation

Correct Response: A. Grouping words related to a text based on conceptual categories and the words' associative meanings helps deepen students' understanding of the vocabulary. Discussing and justifying connections among the words further enhances students' understanding of the words and promotes retention of new words. Option B is incorrect because, while exploring the etymology of target vocabulary words can also be an effective strategy for deepening students' understanding of the words, the activities described in the scenario did not involve exploration of word derivations. Nor did they involve using semantic or syntactic clues from the text to verify words' meanings (D). Option C is incorrect because studying the conceptual connections among key vocabulary in a text is not likely to enhance students' understanding of the text's structure.