Teaching reading

Why is it important for teachers to focus on students’ phonological awareness during emergent reading development?

• Memorizing sight words to read quickly and efficiently.

• Spelling correctly leads to success in other subjects like social studies and science.

• Understanding how the smallest units in words function is necessary for spelling and reading development.

• Being able to read fluently allows students to achieve on standardized reading exams.

Answer explanation

Answer C: phonological awareness is essential in developing spelling and word recognition. The foundational skills in phonological awareness are necessary for students to acquire the phonics skills necessary for reading.

Which of the following strategies would be most helpful for students who are working on onset and rime skills?

• Count the number of sounds in the word back.

• Identify the beginning sound in the word back.

• Substitute the /b/ sound with a /t/ sound.

• Segment the word back into two sounds /b/ and /ack/

Answer explanation

The /b/ is the onset and the /ack/ is the rime.

Asking students to listen to the word “can” and asking the students to add /t/ sound to the word is most appropriate for students wo have a:

• Beginning level of phonemic awareness.

• Beginning level of phonics skills.

• Relatively high level of phonemic awareness.

• Relatively high level of phonics.

Answer explanation

Manipulation of words is part of the complex stage of phonemic awareness. Therefore, students must have a relatively high level of phonemic awareness to engage in this activity.

An English learner is struggling to identify certain sounds in words. What would be the best approach to help the student develop phonemic awareness?

• Determine if the student has phonemic awareness in the first language.

• Have the student work with an English learner who is fluent in English

• Require the student to use English only when speaking.

• Use pictures to help the student identify different words.

A teacher is using a picture of the sun to help students recognize words. Students see the picture and say, “Sun!” What phase of word recognition are students in?

• Pre-Alphabetic

• Partial-Alphabetic

• Full-Alphabetic

• Consolidated-Alphabetic

Answer explanation

The students are only seeing the picture. Therefore, they are in the pre-alphabetic stage.

Having students trace letters in the sand is most appropriate for students working on…

• Letter formation

• Word recognition

• Pencil control

• Phonemic awareness

Answer explanation

Having students trace letters in the sand is effective for letter formation.

When a student has awareness of phonemes in words, syllables, onset-rime segments, and spelling, he or she is demonstrating…

• Phonological awareness

• Phonics mastery

• Phonemic awareness

• Structural analysis

Answer explanation

Phonological awareness is putting awareness and phonics together.

Phonemic awareness includes the ability to:

• Form compound word parts

• Spell accurately and decode unfamiliar words

• Pronounce individual sounds in words

• Differentiate between homonyms and spell accurately

Answer explanation

Phonemic awareness involves only listening to and pronouncing sounds in words.

A teacher is working with a student on initial sounds. The teacher says pet and asks the student to replace the initial consonant to make other words such as vet get and set. What is this an example of?

• Segmenting

• Blending

• Structural analysis

• Substituting

Answer explanation

The students are manipulating the word by switching or substituting one sound for another.

A reading teacher wants to help students with segmentation. What is the most appropriate instructional approach?

• Have students break apart words by separate phonemes

• Have students break apart compound words

• Have students blend beginning consonants together

• Have students use prefixes and suffixes to learn words.

Answer explanation

Segmenting is breaking apart a word by individual sounds.