Foundations of Reading 090 Subarea 2:45-57 Ob5;60-68Ob6;69-80Ob7

45. 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 ofthe following steps?

• A. Make note of the word in a vocabulary log, and then study the word after finishing the story.

• B. Use context clues in the sentence to guess the meaning of the word, and then try out that meaning in the sentence.

• C. Look up the word in the dictionary, and then paraphrase the sentence using the dictionary definition.

• D. Break the word into its component parts, and then compare 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 dictionarydefinition 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. 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.

46. 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:

 

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

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

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

•  D. 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. 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 series of activities described in the scenario did not involve exploration of word derivations. Nor did it involve using semantic or syntactic clues from the text to verify words' meanings (D). C isincorrect because studying the conceptual connections among key vocabulary in a text is not likely to enhance students' understanding of the text's structure.

47. A first-grade teacher designs the following activity. This activity is likely to contribute to students' literacy development primarily by:

• A. helping them begin to make connection between print and the spoken word.

• B. fostering their ability to work independently of teacher guidance.

• C. promoting their oral language development and listening comprehension.

•           D. encouraging them to practice speaking skills.

Answer explanation

Correct Response: C. In the activity described, the students must convey the identifying features of an object using orallanguage alone. This prompts the students to use descriptive language and synonyms 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. A is incorrect because the activity is completely oral, so it would not be effective in promoting students' connections between spoken language and print.Since the activity is structured and monitored by the teacher, it is also not likely to enhance the students' ability to work independently (B). D is incorrect because a critical component of the activity is to promote students' listening comprehension.

48. A fifth-grade student reads the sentence, "After playing with her friends all day, Kaylee did her science homework, her geography project, and her composition in one fell swoop." The student asks the

teacher for help understanding what is meant by the phrase one fell swoop. The teacher can best help the student understand this idiomatic expression by:

• A. discussing with the student more examples of the phrase used in context.

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

• C. helping the student create a tree diagram of the structure of the phrase.

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

Answer explanation

Correct Response: A. The phrase one fell swoop is an idiom. An idiomatic expression is a sequence of words that has a specific meaning beyond the sum of the meanings of the component words. In addition to explaining the idiom's specific meaning, the most effective way to promote a student's understanding of a new idiom is to provide the student with several examples of the idiom used in comprehensible contexts. B and D are incorrect because one fell swoop functions semantically as a single unit, so using various means for determining the meaning of its component words would not helpthe student determine the meaning of the unit as a whole. Tree diagrams (C) 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.

49. A second-grade student demonstrates automaticity decoding grade-level regular and irregular words. However, the student frequently experiences poor text comprehension. Which of the following is the first-step the teacher should take in order to promote this student's reading proficiency?

 

• A. evaluating the student's ability to apply grade-level phonics skills

• B. determining the rate of the student's phonological processing

• C. evaluating the degree to which the student uses syntactic clues

•  D. determining the extent of the student's vocabulary knowledge

Answer explanation

Correct Response: D. For a student to comprehend a text during reading, the student must be able to decode each wordand then connect the decoded word to a word in his or her oral vocabulary. 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 who has automaticity decoding grade-level words but a very limited oral vocabulary may be able to apply accuratedecoding skills when reading an extended text but still not be able to make sense of the text. 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 his or her comprehension difficulties. C is incorrect because readers use syntactic clues as a strategy for determining a word's grammatical function in a sentence. This can be helpful as a decoding strategy for verifying the meaning and pronunciation of a multiple-meaning word but is not a text-comprehension strategy.

50. A fifth-grade teacher is about to begin a new unit on weather and climate. Which of the following types of vocabulary words from the unit would be most appropriate for the teacher to pre-teach?

 

• A. words that are conceptually challenging

• B. high-frequency, phonetically irregular words

• C. multisyllable words

• D. high-frequency words with multiple meanings

Answer explanation

Correct Response: A. 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. B and D are incorrect because high-frequency words, whether with irregular spellings or multiple meanings (B and D respectively), are likely to be in students' reading vocabularies. Similarly, students begin to encounter many multisyllable words (C) in their reading by second grade, so this feature alone would not necessarily indicate that such words would be unfamiliar to students.

51. A text includes the word indefensible, which is unfamiliar to some students in a fourth- grade class. 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' vocabulary development?

 

        

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

• B. Use explicit explanation to describe the meaning of the word to the students before they read the text.

• C. Help the students apply structural and contextual analyses to construct and confirm the word's meaning.

• D. Ask the students to paraphrase the sentence that contains the word by substituting a synonym for the word.

Answer explanation

Correct Response: C. Teaching students to use structural analysis and their knowledge of familiar English morphemes (i.e., the root defense and the affixes in- and -ible) to deduce the meaning of a new word containing these morphemes provides students with a powerful independent word-learning strategy. This strategy immediately extends students' understanding of both the target word and other words that contain these morphemes. Afterwards, the students shoulduse contextual clues in the text to verify that the meaning they have deduced fits the context. A, B, and D are incorrectbecause they describe strategies students can use to clarify the meaning of a particular word, but they do not extend the students' vocabulary development beyond the target word.

52. In which of the following sentences is context most helpful in understanding the italicized word?

• A. Tulip trees are ubiquitous in Virginia and in some other parts of the United States as well.

• B. John's friends surreptitiously planned a housewarming party for him soon after he had moved in.

• C. Mary is magnanimous in all of her dealings with people, even when she does not know a person well.

•  D. Peter's mother was adamant that he should attend college, but his father did not seem to care.

Answer explanation

Correct Response: D. This sentence provides a reader with both syntactic and semantic clues as to the meaning of the italicized word adamant. First, the coordinating conjunction but sets up a comparison between the two independent clauses, which immediately alerts the reader that the meaning of the second clause contrasts the meaning of the first clause. Next, the meaning of the second clause is simple and clear—Peter's father did not seem to care whether or not Peter attended college. Thus, we now know that Peter's mother must have felt very strongly that he should attend.Indeed, someone who is adamant about something is unshakable or unmovable in his or her belief. In the other responses, the contexts do not provide adequate clues for the reader to deduce the meaning of the italicized words. In fact, a reader could substitute a variety of words for the italicized word in A (e.g., rare, blooming), B (e.g., immediately, collaboratively), or C (e.g., rude, selfish), and any of them would be plausible in the given context.

53. Students in a third-grade class are studying different forms of transportation that are used around the world. As part of this unit of study, they work together to create a semantic map of words associated with transportation, including words that they have recently learned (e.g., barge, rickshaw). This activity is most likely to promote students' vocabulary development by:

• A. showing them how structural analysis can be used to determine the meaning of new vocabulary.

• B. helping them to categorize, visualize, and remember new vocabulary.

• C. guiding them to discover the multiple meanings of new vocabulary.

•  D. providing them with frequent, varied reading experiences using the new vocabulary.

Answer explanation

Correct Response: B. In content-area subjects, concept building and vocabulary building are reciprocal and closely interdependent processes. Helping students construct a semantic map of words associated with a particular content-areatopic such as transportation both deepens and broadens their understanding of the topic. It also provides them with a framework for making connections among related words (e.g., barge, rickshaw).

Creating the visual display of the semantic map, in which related words are literally grouped together, also aids students'recall of the connections among the words. The other responses are incorrect because teaching students how to use structural analysis (A), encouraging exploration of multiple-meaning words (C), and providing students with multiple exposures to new words (D) are all strategies for supporting vocabulary development but are not the primary goals of the semantic mapping activity described.

54. A third-grade class that includes several English Language Learners is about to read a text about water sports. Which of the following teaching strategies would be most effective in promoting the English Language Learners' comprehension of the text?

 

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

• B. Pair English Language Learners with native speakers of English and have the native speakers explain any unknown vocabulary.

• C. Activate students' prior knowledge about the topic and provide visual aids such as illustrations to clarify new vocabulary.

• D. Give students a list of new vocabulary with definitions and ask the students to try to construct their own sentences using the words.

Answer explanation

Correct Response: C. Two of the most effective instructional strategies for promoting English Language 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, and/or hands-on activities. To contextualize new vocabulary related to water sports, the use of visuals such as 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 A, B, and D are not likely to be particularly effective in promoting English Language 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.