Foundations of Reading: Objective VIII

79. A third-grade teacher has been conducting a series of ongoing assessments of a student's oral reading. Shown below is a sentence from a text, followed by a transcription of the student reading the text. The sample is representative of the student's typical oral reading performance.

Given the information provided, the teacher could best address this student's needs by providing targeted, evidence-based instruction focused on:

• developing the ability to self-monitor reading comprehension.

• enhancing oral vocabulary development and use of word-learning strategies.

• improving reading accuracy by attending to all parts of a word.

• promoting the ability to track connected text.

80. A third-grade student performs below grade-level expectations in word-reading accuracy on informal assessments. Since the majority of the student's errors are with multisyllable words, the teacher plans to provide the student with daily explicit instruction for one week on the use of syllable-division strategies for reading multisyllable words. The teacher will then reassess the student at the end of the trial period. The primary benefit of this approach to informal assessment is that it:

• helps the teacher determine whether the student has the potential for improvement with short-term intervention.

• provides the teacher with nationally normed benchmarks with which to compare the student's progress.

• provides opportunities to engage a student who is not a skilled reader in authentic reading activities.

• contributes evidence that can be used to diagnose the student's specific reading disability.

81. Considerations of validity in test construction relate most closely to:

• how a particular examinee's test performance relates to a preestablished standard.

• whether the test questions effectively measure their specified content.

• how a particular examinee's test performance compares to the performance of other examinees.

• whether the test results are likely to be repeatable with a similar examinee test group.

82. If a standardized test is said to lack reliability, the test:

• is not measuring what it is supposed to measure.

• has not proven to be useful as an instructional intervention.

• gives fluctuating scores in different administrations.

• has poor predictive value relative to students' classroom performance.

83. A third-grade teacher notes that students' vocabulary scores on a school-wide standardized achievement test are below the national average and below their performance on the comprehension and decoding subtests.

The type of reading assessment described in the scenario that compares students' reading performance to the performance of students in a national sample group can best be categorized as:

• summative

• norm referenced

• curriculum based

• benchmark

84. A third-grade teacher notes that students' vocabulary scores on a school-wide standardized achievement test are below the national average and below their performance on the comprehension and decoding subtests.

In response to students' performance on the vocabulary measure, the teacher plans to take a more systematic and robust approach to vocabulary instruction. The teacher's use of the data best underscores the importance of which of the following approaches to reading assessment?

• conducting both formal and informal reading-related assessments to plan instruction

• demonstrating knowledge of evidence-based strategies for assessing the major components of reading

• using results from reading assessments to guide instructional decision making

• determining students' current skills with respect to specific state grade-level standards

85. The teacher decides to collect ongoing data related to vocabulary instruction. The teacher records examples of students' use of new vocabulary during class discussions and has students turn in weekly examples of how they use new words in their writing. The teacher also has students maintain a vocabulary journal in which they develop definitions for new Tier Two and Tier Three vocabulary in their own words, make visual representations of word meanings, and analyze changes to a word's form and meaning when affixes are added. This approach to informal assessment benefits literacy instruction primarily by allowing the teacher to:

• monitor various dimensions of students' vocabulary development across multiple language modes.

• use anecdotal and theoretical data for tracking students' vocabulary learning and evaluating their progress.

• monitor students' learning progress in ways that can be easily quantified and charted.

• use portfolio assessment to evaluate students' progress in each essential component of reading.

86. A kindergarten teacher regularly elicits oral retellings of stories children have listened to or read as a way to assess their understanding of narrative text structures. The retell protocol the teacher uses has a child retell the story to a stuffed animal, named Storalee, as the teacher records notes and checks off story components. The teacher starts with the prompt, "Tell our friend Storalee the whole story because she has not heard it before." The teacher rates each child's understanding of the text's characters, setting, events, and relationships according to standards-based rubric descriptors for story elements.

Which of the following components should be included in the story elements rubric to ensure that the assessment will provide information about children's understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships found in narrative texts?

• assigning scores for the number of details about events children provide in their responses (e.g., providing who-what-where information about a story event)

• scoring the use of sequence transition words that children use to connect their retelling (e.g., first, next, after that, finally)

• creating a list of generic questions to use as prompts to ensure that children's retellings are as comprehensive as possible

• identifying evidence of children's use of conjunctions (e.g., because, so, since) to connect the character's motivation to actions taken

87. A kindergarten teacher regularly elicits oral retellings of stories children have listened to or read as a way to assess their understanding of narrative text structures. The retell protocol the teacher uses has a child retell the story to a stuffed animal, named Storalee, as the teacher records notes and checks off story components. The teacher starts with the prompt, "Tell our friend Storalee the whole story because she has not heard it before." The teacher rates each child's understanding of the text's characters, setting, events, and relationships according to standards-based rubric descriptors for story elements.

Which of the following strategies would be most appropriate for the teacher to use to differentiate the retelling assessment for children who are advanced readers?

• substituting literal comprehension questions for the oral retelling

• replacing the fictional narrative text with an informational text to summarize, such as a social studies or science text

• recording the children's oral retelling so that they can listen to it later

• asking the children to elaborate on specific story elements, such as characters' responses to events and challenges

88. When considering how to support students who are at risk for reading difficulties, an elementary school teacher first tries to align an individual student's profile with one of the following evidence-based reading-difficulty profiles.

Profile 1: The student reads words accurately and efficiently but demonstrates needs in word knowledge and/or comprehension skills.

Profile 2: The student demonstrates needs in decoding and word recognition but has strong word knowledge and comprehension skills.

Profile 3: The student demonstrates needs in decoding and word recognition and also in word knowledge and comprehension skills.

One advantage of the teacher keeping these general profiles in mind when considering whether a student may be at risk for reading difficulties is that it helps the teacher:

• determine a direction for specific diagnostic probes (e.g., identifying gaps in phonics knowledge using a word-pattern survey).

• select a comprehensive intervention that systematically addresses all the essential components of reading.

• ensure that an intervention will take into account the interrelationships between reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

• incorporate principles of standards-based reading instruction into differentiation and intervention strategies.