RICA Subtest 1

A sixth-grade teacher observes that several students have misspelled the word pasteurize. After writing pasteurize and Louis Pasteur on the board, the teacher explains how Pasteur invented the process of pasteurization. Students then discuss how the word Pasteur relates to the word pasteurize. This instructional activity fosters students' reading and writing development primarily by:

• helping them learn to use etymology to improve spelling and decoding of multisyllabic words.

• encouraging them to memorize spelling rules without understanding their origins.

• focusing solely on phonetics to enhance their reading skills.

• promoting the use of technology in spelling and writing activities.

The use of rhyming texts for kindergarten read-alouds is likely to promote the reading development of kindergarten students primarily by:

• fostering their phonological awareness.

• improving their vocabulary skills.

• enhancing their comprehension abilities.

• increasing their interest in storytelling.

Several first graders have mastered sounding out and blending words that follow simple short-vowel phonics patterns. Their teacher would like to help them begin to develop whole-word reading (i.e., automatic word recognition) of words that follow these patterns. Which instructional approach would be most effective for this purpose?

• using teacher read-alouds followed by echo reading and then choral rereading of the students' favorite texts that include some simple words

• scheduling frequent silent independent reading practice of word lists based on the students' oral language vocabulary

• providing modeling and guided student practice sounding out simple, regular words subvocally and then reading them aloud normally

• exposing students to common environmental print to provide frequent exposures to everyday words and phrases.

Which instructional activity best helps upper-elementary English Learners develop intonations and rhythms of the English language to support fluent reading?

• leading a class discussion on an age-appropriate topic, then having each student read aloud a section of a text that is written about the same topic

• having the students record their own oral reading of a passage and then listen to the recording while silently rereading the passage

• giving an expressive oral reading of a short text, then having the students echo read the text as the teacher reads it aloud again

• encouraging the students to practice reading aloud a text in which stressed words and punctuation marks are highlighted

Which method would most effectively in helping second-grade students who show the ability to decode skills in order to read words that end in the inflectional morpheme -ing?

• explicitly teaching the students to read the unit -ing in isolation before teaching them to decode familiar words that end in the inflection

• using the think-aloud method during a guided reading to model how to use contextual analysis as a strategy for recognizing words ending in -ing

• having students practice reading word lists that include words ending in both the more familiar rime -ing as well as the inflection -ing

• directly and explicitly teaching the -ing ending in the context of an instructional unit.

When designing activities to teach letter-sound correspondences, the teacher should:

• provide reading opportunities for students to practice sounds in context after studying the sounds in isolation.

• focus solely on teaching sounds in isolation without context.

• limit practice to writing letters without any reading activities.

• use only digital resources for teaching letter-sound correspondences.

What instructional strategy would most effectively help first graders develop whole-word reading and automatic word recognition skills for simple short-vowel phonics?

• Begin the lesson with a teacher read-aloud that follows an activity of Echo Reading and then moves into using the Gradual Release of Responsibility model to choral reread the students' favorite texts that include some simple words

• The teacher should schedule silent independent reading practice using the i + i strategy from word lists based on the students' oral language vocabulary

• Provide modeling and guided student practice sounding out simple, regular words subvocally and then reading them aloud normally

• Exposing students to the environmental print found within the classroom to provide exposure to everyday words and phrases

An emergent reader frequently reverses some letters and numbers during writing tasks. Which strategy would be most effective in helping this student develop more accurate letter formation skills?

• Providing the student with supplemental practice writing lists of words that are spelled with the target letters

• Having the student practice tracing the target letter shapes with a finger while saying aloud the sequence of steps to form each letter

• Providing the student with a supplemental handwriting workbook that describes the formation of the target letters in a series of steps

• Encouraging the student to vocalize words when writing, especially when the words contain the target letters.

A first grader can identify the letters of the alphabet and decode a number of simple words. He becomes confused, however, when tracking print in consecutive lines of print. Which strategy is likely to be most effective in helping the student read a short paragraph of simple text?

• Help him sound out unfamiliar words included in the text before he attempts to read the entire paragraph.

• Have him use his finger or a marker as he reads the text.

• Help him increase his reading rate to improve his understanding of the continuity between words and sentences in the paragraph.

• Modify the paragraph by using a yellow highlighter to identify natural groupings of words and phrases within the paragraph.

Based on the student's reading performance on this assessment, instruction to increase the student's reading fluency should focus primarily on:

• enhancing the student's contextual analysis skills

• promoting the student's automatic word recognition

• improving the student's academic-language skills

• expanding the student's oral vocabulary knowledge