Elementary Education (Grades K–6)
Subtest 1 Sample Items
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Question 1
1. Which of the following teacher practices in a kindergarten class is likely to be most effective in reinforcing students' development of phonemic awareness?
- leading students in daily recitation of simple chants related to basic classroom procedures
- having students line up or join a group when they hear the teacher say the first sound in their name
- labeling key objects around the classroom with the first letter of the object's name
- reading aloud each day's schedule and asking students questions about the planned activities
Answer to question 1
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0001) The ability to recognize that spoken words are made up of distinct sounds, or phonemes, is an important foundational oral language skill. Asking students to respond appropriately to the first sound in their name helps them listen for and distinguish initial phonemes in spoken words.
Question 2
2. Which of the following methods would be most appropriate to use as part of an assessment of a kindergarten student's phonological awareness skills?
- pronouncing a target phoneme and prompting the student to point to the printed letter most commonly associated with it
- having the student listen to a sentence presented orally and try to repeat the sentence exactly
- saying a familiar multisyllable word and asking the student to repeat the word while clapping for each syllable in the word
- asking the student to listen to a spoken word and identify the final letter in the word
Answer to question 2
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0001) Phonological awareness skills include detecting and identifying word boundaries, syllables, rhyming words, and onset/rime in spoken words or sentences. Having a student clap for each syllable in a spoken word would provide the teacher with evidence of the student's ability to detect and identify syllables, and would be an appropriate component of a phonological awareness assessment.
Question 3
3. A kindergarten teacher routinely conducts read-alouds with students. During the reading, the teacher stops periodically to discuss the story events with the students. Which of the following literacy elements is the teacher most directly supporting with this approach?
- providing the students with text details that they can use in their journal writing
- encouraging the students to become comfortable engaging in public speaking
- activating the students' prior background knowledge and language experiences
- promoting the students' listening comprehension skills and oral language development
Answer to question 3
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0001) Reading aloud to students is foundational in their literacy development and is important for promoting students' reading success. Active listening fosters contemplation and reflection, without which students may collect information, yet fail to gain knowledge. By discussing a story with the students throughout its reading, the teacher is helping the students to make connections between listening actively and responding appropriately to the story.
Question 4
4. A kindergarten teacher plans instruction to develop students' phonological awareness at the word level. Which of the following directions would be most effective for the teacher to use to promote this skill?
- "Tell me which word does not belong: man, can, fin, pan, van."
- "Clap your hands for each part you hear in the word sister."
- "Tap a finger for each word you hear in this sentence: I cannot run fast."
- "Count and then say how many sounds you hear in this word: fizz."
Answer to question 4
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0001) Phonological awareness is the ability to detect the parts of spoken language. It is typically broken into four levels: word, syllable, onset-rime, and phoneme (individual sound). At the word level, phonological skills include the ability to discriminate the number of words in a sentence and the component words of compound words.
Question 5
5. Prior to a class reading of a story, a second-grade teacher selects some action words from the text, writes the words on the board, and teaches them to the students. Next the teacher and students read the story together. The teacher directs the students to act out each word while repeating it aloud every time the words appear in the story. The teacher's actions primarily reflect the importance of:
- providing an opportunity for students to do a kinesthetic learning activity.
- reinforcing students' oral and phonics skills through an engaging activity.
- fostering students' phonemic awareness skills through an interactive approach.
- promoting a friendly community in which students work together collaboratively.
Answer to question 5
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0001) The teacher is engaging the students in an activity that orally connects learned words with their printed form and incorporates the words' physical actions for additional emphasis. This activity provides students with a context for the use of the learned words and combines several learning modalities (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic) to help reinforce the students' learning of the words.
Question 6
6. A first grader makes the following types of spelling errors during independent writing.
Target Word
|
Student Spelling
|
them |
dem |
him |
nim |
away |
avay |
open |
obim |
Which of the following statements provides the most likely explanation for the student's errors?
- The student mispronounces the vowel sounds of some words.
- The student has not yet fully grasped the alphabetic principle.
- The student has not yet developed phonemic-awareness skills.
- The student is confusing visually and auditorily similar letters.
Answer to question 6
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0002) Given the student's pattern of spelling errors, the student is confusing visually similar letters, such as h and n, which differ in height, and auditorily similar letters, such as p and b, which share the same place and manner of articulation but differ in voicing.
Question 7
7. A kindergarten teacher models the following procedure for a student who is experiencing difficulty with letter recognition. The teacher looks at the target letter p with the student, says the letter's name, and then traces the letter while verbalizing the strokes involved in its formation. Then the teacher provides the student with guided practice following the same procedure with other target letters (e.g., b, d, q). This multisensory activity would be most effective to use in an intervention designed to promote the student's ability to:
- use letter names as a strategy for developing phonetic spelling.
- map speech to print in regular single-syllable words.
- form letters correctly as a result of hearing them pronounced orally.
- distinguish between the features of visually similar letters.
Answer to question 7
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0002) In this activity the teacher uses multiple modalities (visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic) to reinforce the student's recognition of target letters. Focusing the student's attention on the strokes involved in forming a target letter helps the student remember features such as whether the "stick" in the letter p sits on or falls below the baseline and whether it is to the left or right of the "circle." Attending to such features will help the student recall the target letter and distinguish it from other letters that contain the same features but in a different orientation (e.g., b, d, q).
Question 8
8. A teacher places printed labels on various objects in the classroom and frequently points to and refers to the objects by name in conversation with the students. Which of the following early literacy skills is the teacher most directly promoting?
- concepts of print
- letter recognition
- letter-sound correspondence
- phonemic awareness
Answer to question 8
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0002) Concepts of print (e.g., directionality of print, spacing between letters) includes the awareness that print carries meaning and is a fundamental early literacy skill. To promote concepts of print, it is important for teachers to create a print-rich environment. Teachers should immerse students in print by labeling the students' belongings and classroom objects, displaying print in the classroom, and emphasizing to the students the associations between the items that are labeled and the printed words that name them.
Question 9
9. Kindergarten students each have a notecard with their first name written on it. The teacher asks a series of questions, such as "Whose name has a t in it?" and "Who has a capital K at the beginning of their name?" The students respond affirmatively by giving a thumbs up. By engaging students in this activity, the teacher is providing practice in:
- decoding.
- letter recognition.
- letter formation.
- sight-word recognition.
Answer to question 9
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0002) Letter recognition is the ability to visually identify letters of the alphabet, name each letter, and match that letter name with its written form, in both upper and lower case. Letter recognition is important in emergent reading, because a mastery of letter names enables students to learn letter sounds and connect the way printed text is associated with spoken language. In this name activity, the teacher is providing practice in recognizing letters, identifying upper- and lowercase letters, and connecting the letters with the sounds they make in the students' names.
Question 10
10. In a research-based, systematic program of phonics instruction, which of the following complex letter combinations should be taught last?
- ee
- au
- ea
- oa
Answer to question 10
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0003) In a systematic program of phonics instruction, sets of letter-sound relationships are taught to students directly in a clearly defined sequence. Key research supports the effectiveness of this type of instruction in teaching students to read. Such programs begin with providing instruction on commonly used letter-sound relationships before moving on to more complex ones. The letter combination au does not follow the most widely used vowel team pattern, in which the vowel team generally makes the sound of the first vowel in the combination (e.g., ee in sleep, oa in boat). Combinations such as au should be taught after students have learned the more conventional vowel teams.
Question 11
11. A third-grade student can read grade-level literary texts at an appropriate rate with strong accuracy and good prosody. When reading grade-level, self-selected informational texts, however, the student reads in a slow, halting manner. Which of the following statements best explains the most likely reason for this discrepancy in the student's reading styles?
- The informational texts contain vocabulary and/or syntactic structures that are unfamiliar to the student.
- The student has limited decoding and word recognition skills, which hinders automaticity when reading the informational texts.
- The informational texts provide the student with fewer textual supports (e.g., diagrams, photographs) than do literary texts.
- The student is less interested in the subject matter of the informational texts than in the subject matter of literary texts.
Answer to question 11
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0003) Since the student is able to read grade-level literary texts accurately at an appropriate rate and with appropriate prosody (i.e., phrasing and expression), the factor most likely to be disrupting the student's fluency when reading informational texts is lack of familiarity with the more complex vocabulary and syntactic structures found in these texts. As the informational texts the student is reading are self-selected, the teacher is unable to ensure that the student is reading books at the appropriate reading level.
Question 12
12. A first-grade student struggles to read and comprehend grade-level texts. The results of informal assessments indicate that the student can identify basic letter-sound correspondences and sight words and is able to read CVC words that have already been taught explicitly. However, the student has difficulty reading new CVC words and other single-syllable words presented in word lists and relies heavily on context clues as a decoding strategy when reading connected text. Which of the following instructional strategies would likely be most effective in addressing this student's reading needs and promoting reading development?
- expanding the student's automatic reading of irregular words through the use of flashcards and explicit drill and practice exercises
- building the student's oral vocabulary knowledge using read-alouds and discussions of high-quality literary and informational texts
- providing the student with explicit instruction and guided practice in sounding out and blending the letters of simple regular words
- modeling for the student how to use semantic and syntactic clues to determine the pronunciation and meaning of multi-meaning words in a text
Answer to question 12
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0003) Assessment evidence suggests that the student lacks the beginning phonics skills of sounding out and blending the letters of printed words. While the student knows letter-sound correspondences, the student does not apply phonics skills to decode text but relies on context to try to guess words. This strategy is inefficient and often ineffective in the decoding process, particularly for beginning readers. The teacher should explicitly teach the student how to apply a knowledge of letter-sound correspondences to sound out and sequentially blend the individual letter sounds in regular words.
Question 13
13. In order to accurately read and spell words such as sight, treat, and mock, students would benefit most from instruction focused on which of the following phonics principles?
- silent letters
- word families
- long vowel sounds
- letter-sound correspondences
Answer to question 13
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0003) Word families, or phonograms, are groups of words that contain letter patterns commonly found in English that can be used to aid students' spelling as well as word automaticity in reading. Common word families include -ight (e.g., sight, tight, bright), -eat (e.g., treat, beat, wheat), and -ock (e.g., mock, clock, shock).
Question 14
14. On an oral reading fluency (ORF) assessment administered in the winter, a third-grade student reads 62 words correct per minute (WCPM). This accuracy and rate place the student in the twenty-fifth percentile. Further diagnostic assessments reveal that the student's nonfluent reading stems mainly from a lack of word automaticity. Given these results, which of the following instructional practices would be most appropriate for the teacher to consider for the purpose of promoting automaticity?
- independent silent reading
- phrase-cued reading
- timed repeated oral reading
- readers theatre
Answer to question 14
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0003) Automaticity refers to the fast, effortless word recognition that comes with a great deal of reading practice. In timed repeated oral reading, a student reads and rereads a text aloud, timed by a teacher, until the student reaches a predetermined goal of reading accuracy and rate. This repeated reading helps build word automaticity because the student sees the same words many times until he or she is able to recognize and read them quickly and accurately.
Question 15
15. A second-grade teacher is planning to read aloud a chapter book to students over the course of several days. Which of the following strategies is likely to be most effective in reinforcing and expanding students' understanding of vocabulary words found in each chapter?
- writing target words from each chapter and their meanings on the board before beginning the reading
- pausing periodically during each reading to elaborate on and question students about key words in the chapter
- asking students to make note of unfamiliar words they hear and would like to discuss after each chapter is read
- having students answer oral and written questions about the meanings of key words from the chapter after each reading
Answer to question 15
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0004) One of the most effective strategies for reinforcing and expanding students' vocabulary knowledge is to actively engage them in using vocabulary in meaningful contexts. Pausing to explore key words while reading a book helps provide a meaningful context for vocabulary words found in the book, thus leading to a deeper understanding of the words' meanings.
Question 16
16. A third-grade teacher would like students to learn how to use classroom print reference materials such as age-appropriate dictionaries and thesauruses to support independent word learning. Which of the following skills would be most important for the teacher to introduce first?
- using guide words
- ordering words alphabetically
- selecting appropriate definitions
- interpreting pronunciation keys
Answer to question 16
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0004) Students are more likely to use print references (e.g., dictionaries, thesauruses) to support their independent word learning if they are able to access desired information quickly and effectively. The most fundamental prerequisite skill required for using print references efficiently is the ability to alphabetize words accurately and rapidly.
Question 17
17. Fifth-grade students read the passage below from Anne of Green Gables, a novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
But Mrs. Spencer said distinctly that you wanted a girl about eleven years old. And the matron said she thought I would do. You don't know how delighted I was. I couldn't sleep all last night for joy. "Oh," she added reproachfully, turning to Matthew, "why didn't you tell me at the station that you didn't want me and leave me there? If I hadn't seen the White Way of Delight and the Lake of Shining Waters it wouldn't be so hard." . . .
But Anne could not eat. In vain she nibbled at the bread and butter and pecked at the crab-apple preserve out of the little scalloped glass dish by her plate. She did not really make any headway at all.
"You're not eating anything," said Marilla sharply, eying her as if it were a serious shortcoming. Anne sighed.
"I can't. I'm in the depths of despair. Can you eat when you are in the depths of despair?"
"I've never been in the depths of despair, so I can't say," responded Marilla.
"Weren't you? Well, did you ever try to imagine you were in the depths of despair?"
"No, I didn't."
"Then I don't think you can understand what it's like. It's a very uncomfortable feeling indeed. When you try to eat a lump comes right up in your throat and you can't swallow anything, not even if it was a chocolate caramel."
Which of the following methods would be most effective for the students to use to understand the meaning of the idiomatic phrase "the depths of despair" in the passage?
- applying morphologic analysis
- evaluating semantic clues
- using a dictionary
- studying context clues
Answer to question 17
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0004) An effective way to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words or phrases within a text is to use context clues from the surrounding text, as well as implications made by the author. In this passage, the reader can conclude from Anne's behavior (e.g., reproaching Matthew, not eating, sighing, speaking about an uncomfortable feeling like a lump in her throat) that she is entirely consumed with feelings of sadness, or as she says, "in the depths of despair."
Question 18
18. A teacher is helping a fourth-grade emerging-level English learner understand essential vocabulary in a reading selection from Charlotte's Web (e.g., pitcher, scratch). Which of the following strategies would likely be most effective for the teacher to use to help the student understand the meaning of such unfamiliar English words?
- providing the student with the dictionary meaning of each targeted word and an example of its use
- demonstrating the meaning of each targeted word by showing the student pictures or using gestures
- having the student write down unknown targeted words and look up their meanings later
- guiding the student in using context clues to understand the meaning of targeted words
Answer to question 18
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0004) English learners at the emerging level have limited English vocabulary and are dependent on visual clues to help them understand unfamiliar English words. When content words that are essential to the meaning of a text can easily be visualized, explaining their meanings by showing a picture of the word or gesturing is an effective method for a teacher to use to quickly and directly teach vocabulary.
Question 19
19. Which of the following reading processes provides an example of inferential comprehension?
- using background knowledge to recognize the implications of information presented in a text
- employing a familiarity with textual features to help identify the steps in a writer's argument
- drawing on knowledge of root words and affixes to deduce the general meaning of any unfamiliar words
- applying an understanding of logical argument to evaluate the validity of a writer's conclusions
Answer to question 19
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0005) Reading comprehension, the ability to derive meaning from text that is read, is composed of three levels of understanding. Inferential understanding is the second level of comprehension, in which the reader determines meaning that is not explicitly stated in the text. The reader reaches such conclusions by using clues provided by the author or by applying background knowledge to what is read in the text.
Question 20
20. During an assessment, a fourth-grade teacher observes that a student makes errors on four words when reading a 150-word text aloud. The teacher wants to confirm that this text is at the student's independent reading level. Which of the following strategies would best accomplish this goal?
- having the student read the text again and noting if the number of errors the student makes decreases during the second reading
- prompting the student to explain what metacognitive strategies he or she used to monitor understanding of the text
- giving the student a similar text to read and comparing the number of errors the student makes on each text
-
asking the student a series of questions about the text and determining how much of the text the student has comprehended
Answer to question 20
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0005) To determine a student's independent reading level, the teacher must assess both the student's oral reading accuracy and the student's reading comprehension. This student's oral reading accuracy is consistent with the level of accuracy expected at the independent reading level, but the teacher also needs to confirm that the student's comprehension of the text is at the independent reading level. By asking the student a series of questions designed to elicit information about his or her understanding of the text, the teacher can best determine whether the text is at the student's independent reading level.
Question 21
21. A new student in a fifth-grade class demonstrates strong oral language proficiency and participates successfully in class discussions in all subject areas but seems to have difficulty comprehending most literary and informational grade-level texts. Given this information, the teacher should most likely administer an assessment in which of the following areas of reading first to help determine the exact nature of the student's difficulty?
- oral reading fluency
- vocabulary knowledge
- academic language
- background knowledge
Answer to question 21
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0005) Key factors that can affect a student's reading comprehension include the student's decoding skills, fluency, vocabulary knowledge, knowledge of academic language structures, and background knowledge. The student's strong oral language performance in all subject areas provides evidence that the student's comprehension difficulties are probably not caused by limited language ability or prior knowledge. Since decoding and fluency skills are foundational for reading comprehension, the teacher should assess those areas first. An oral reading fluency test would provide information about the student's decoding accuracy, reading rate, and prosody.
Question 22
22. As part of a reading comprehension activity, a teacher asks third-grade students to orally retell a story they have just read to a partner. Which of the following strategies for scaffolding this assignment would be most appropriate for the teacher to use to support the needs of students who are struggling readers?
- providing sentence starters and frames for the students to complete
- having the students listen while the teacher rereads the story
- summarizing the story and having the students repeat the words
- allowing the students to draw pictures that depict plot events
Answer to question 22
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0005) Sentence starters (e.g., "First, the boy ________ blank ") and sentence frames ("The boy ________ blank because he ________ blank .") can provide support for students who may have difficulty finding adequate words to express their ideas and can help students organize their thoughts so that the story they read makes sense. The use of sentence starters and sentence frames is a good scaffolding strategy to use to help struggling readers successfully participate in a retelling activity.
Question 23
23. A fourth-grade teacher gives frequent book talks and allows students class time for independent reading but notices that some students do not seem engaged in reading. Which of the following strategies would be most appropriate for the teacher to use to promote students' motivation to read independently?
- providing the students with a variety of high-interest reading materials in the classroom library
- sending books home for the students to read and having parents/guardians help students complete reading logs
- asking the students to provide short written summaries after reading a particularly exciting book
- rewarding the students for the books they read with reading-related prizes such as books and bookmarks
Answer to question 23
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0005) High-interest reading materials are designed to motivate and facilitate learning. They should be well-written, engaging materials about relevant topics at appropriate readability levels for students who may be struggling readers. Providing students with a variety of high-interest materials from which to choose increases the likelihood that students will find something to read that captures their interest and with which they can be successful. Students' personal reading successes can be encouraging and may motivate them to engage in further reading.
Question 24
24. Which of the following sentences contains a metaphor?
- The river was a spill of silk cascading down the hillside.
- A solitary crow called out go! go! from its lofty perch.
- The stars were like tiny sparks aglow in the darkness.
- I think the mountain understands why I have come.
Answer to question 24
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0006) In contrast to personification (giving human qualities to an animal or object) or a simile (comparing two different things, typically by using like or as), a metaphor is an implied comparison. In this case, a river is equated with "a spill of silk," implying that the river is smooth and glimmering.
Question 25
25. A second-grade teacher regularly has students write and illustrate brief paragraphs about concepts they are learning in science and social studies. The teacher uses the following questions to help guide the students in developing their paragraphs.
- What idea are you trying to explain in your paragraph?
- What title can you give your paragraph to tell the reader what the paragraph is about?
- What kind of picture would show the reader something important that you describe in your paragraph?
- What labels will your picture need to help the reader understand it?
This writing activity is likely to promote students' understanding of informational texts primarily in which of the following ways?
- developing their awareness of ways in which features of a text can help support comprehension
- improving their ability to vary their reading strategies when reading texts for different purposes
- helping them learn to recognize text structures used to describe cause-and-effect relationships
- providing them with models of strategies for monitoring their comprehension of a text
Answer to question 25
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0006) The questions the teacher uses are designed to help students explore text features—such as titles, graphics, and labels or captions—as a strategy for increasing their understanding of informational texts.
Question 26
26. Read the transcript below of a student-teacher conversation about an excerpt from the novel Sounder by William H. Armstrong; then answer the question that follows.
Teacher: How do we know that the family is poor?
Student: They live in a drafty cabin with windows that rattle in the wind. And all they have to eat is corn mush.
Teacher: How does the father try to get food?
Student: He takes the dog Sounder out to hunt.
Teacher: Why doesn't the family eat what the father hunts?
Student: he hunting has been really bad.
Teacher: But one night the father leaves Sounder at home and goes hunting without him. Why do you think he does that?
Student: The book says Sounder's bark was loud. Maybe Sounder was scaring away the animals.
Teacher: Does the father bring back anything for the family to eat?
Student: I guess so. I mean, there were pork sausages and ham cooking on the stove the next morning, but we don't know where they came from.
Teacher: The family must be happy to have good food to eat.
Student: I thought they would be, but the mother is humming. The book says she only hums when she's worried. When she's happy, she sings.
Teacher: Why do you think she's worried?
Student: I don't know, but it might have something to do with the food on the stove.
During the conversation, the teacher's questions and comments are primarily intended to promote the student's ability to use critical thinking to:
- paraphrase text.
- retell events in sequence.
- make inferences.
- identify central themes.
Answer to question 26
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0006) The teacher's questions require the student to use textual evidence to infer meaning. For example, when the teacher asks the student how they know the family is poor, the student describes the family's cabin and their limited diet. When the teacher asks the student to speculate about why the father doesn't take Sounder hunting, the student uses textual evidence to support the theory that Sounder was scaring away the animals. In addition, the student infers a connection between the mother's worry and the food on the stove.
Question 27
27. Read the excerpt below from a novel; then answer the question that follows.
Omakayas's family were Anishinabeg and this was their island. Her father, her Deydey, was in the fur trade business, which meant that he was often gone, paddling the great canoes for the fur company or sometimes trapping animals himself. Yellow Kettle, her mother, was quick-tempered but always laughing, and her eyes shrewdly took in the world. Yellow Kettle was a strong-looking woman, and beautiful. Her smile was generous, enigmatic, slightly crooked, and kind. She missed nothing when it came to her children—it was impossible to hide a half-done job, ridiculous even to think of sneaking away in the morning before gathering wood for the fire and water for her cooking pot. And if Mama didn't notice the younger children's whereabouts, Omakayas's older sister, Angeline, surely would.
In the excerpt, the author uses the description of Yellow Kettle to imply that Omakayas and her siblings:
- aspire to be like their mother.
- dislike doing household chores.
- resent their father's absences.
- live an idyllic life on the island.
Answer to question 27
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0006) In the excerpt, Yellow Kettle is portrayed as being keenly observant, so that "it was impossible to hide a half-done job, ridiculous even to think of sneaking away in the morning before gathering wood for the fire and water for her cooking pot." This description implies that the children have thought of sneaking away to avoid gathering wood, but have been caught by their mother or their equally observant older sister. By extension, the author implies that the children dislike doing their assigned household chores.
Question 28
28. A fifth-grade class has just returned from a field trip to a local museum. The teacher can best help students become attentive to the differences between spoken and written English conventions through which of the following student activities related to their field trip?
- meeting with the teacher to brainstorm writing ideas for a story related to the trip, then reading aloud the finished story to the class
- selecting a topic of interest from the trip, then writing a research paper using observation notes and reference books to share with classmates
- discussing the trip as a whole class and writing down interesting thoughts and comments mentioned by other classmates
- working in pairs to record and transcribe interviews with one another about the trip, then using the recordings to write short collaborative essays
Answer to question 28
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0007) While it is important to help students make connections between spoken and written language, they need to develop an understanding of the differences between the language structures and conventions of speaking and writing. Written language is generally more formal than spoken language. The process of conducting oral interviews with classmates, then converting the interviews into appropriate written essays, most clearly helps students see how the two differ.
Question 29
29. Following explicit instruction on the conjunctions that, because, although, when, and until, a fourth-grade teacher has small groups of students play a sentence-combining game. In the game, students randomly choose two teacher-selected simple sentences from texts and combine them into one meaningful sentence using a learned conjunction. This activity promotes students' reading development primarily by:
- increasing their motivation to read a variety of texts that contain different sentence types.
- providing them with practice constructing meaning from contextual clues.
- enhancing their ability to interpret complex sentences during independent reading.
- helping them learn to vary their reading strategies when encountering unknown language structures.
Answer to question 29
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0007) When two simple sentences are combined using a conjunction, the resulting sentence is a complex sentence. By providing the students with opportunities to create meaningful complex sentences, the teacher is giving the students the knowledge they need to understand various sentence types they will encounter in independent reading.
Question 30
30. In an introductory paragraph to a written research project, a sixth-grade student includes the following sentences.
Each of these famous Minnesotans made their own unique contribution to the history of Minnesota and the United States. However, only one of them had the distinct honor of having their portrait appear on a U.S. postage stamp.
The pattern of errors in this writing sample suggests the student would benefit most from explicit instruction focused on which of the following language structures or conventions used in standard written English?
- punctuation usage
- abbreviations and capitalization
- pronoun number agreement
- dependent and independent clauses
Answer to question 30
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0007) In the student writing sample shown, the pronoun their, a plural possessive pronoun, has a singular noun or pronoun as an antecedent. In the first sentence, the antecedent of their is the singular pronoun each, and, in the second sentence, the antecedent of their is the singular noun one. As the student's writing indicates mastery in the other areas, the appropriate place to begin effective instruction would be in the area of pronoun number agreement.
Question 31
31. A sixth-grade teacher notices that several students are having difficulty understanding the meaning and appropriate usage of general academic words that have been taught (e.g.,status, elaborate, strategic). The teacher can best help these students develop an understanding of such general academic words by:
- having students keep a vocabulary notebook in which they keep track of target words and definitions for reference.
- requiring students to use the target words in conversation on a daily basis throughout the school day.
- providing students with repeated exposure to target words in various ways in written and oral classroom activities.
- giving students differentiated word sort activities to perform using the target words.
Answer to question 31
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0007) By providing repeated exposure to words in various ways, the teacher helps students develop an understanding of the words' meanings, as well as appropriate ways to use them, until the words eventually become a part of their regular vocabulary.
Question 32
32. Which of the following forms of writing would most likely include the use of footnotes and a "works cited" section?
- journal entry
- newspaper article
- research paper
- business letter
Answer to question 32
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0008) A research paper requires students to explore primary and secondary sources in support of their thesis statement. Footnotes and a "works cited" section, or bibliography, are essential to properly attribute these sources when writing a research paper.
Question 33
33. Read the draft paragraph below from an informative essay; then answer the question that follows.
The Appalachian Trail is a 2,190-mile hiking trail in the eastern United States. Considered the longest hiking-only footpath in the world, the trail runs through fourteen states, from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Katahdin, Maine. Over 3 million people visit the Appalachian Trail annually, but only about one percent of them attempt to cover the entire trail, a feat known as a "thru hike." Hikers must prepare in advance for a thru hike. ____________________________________________________________ blank Once they are out on the trail, hikers face many challenges and sometime experience serious setbacks. Only about twenty percent of those who attempt a thru hike manage to complete it.
Which of the following sentences, if inserted in the blank, would most effectively develop the topic with relevant facts?
- Most thru-hikers arrange to have food and supplies sent to mail drops along the way.
- Shelters are available for hikers, but reservations are necessary along the most popular portions of the trail.
- Completing the "thru hike" takes from five to seven months and costs about $3,000 3,000 dollars.
- Every four miles or so, the trail passes near a town where hikers may or may not be able to purchase supplies.
Answer to question 33
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0008) Given the information presented in the sentence prior to the blank, the most relevant facts to use to develop the topic of hiking the Appalachian Trail would be information about the length of time and amount of money needed to complete a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. This information elaborates on the type of advance preparation needed for a thru hike.
Question 34
34. Read the draft paragraph below; then answer the question that follows.
China has sought to try a novel concept for combatting its environmental pollution: constructing forest buildings and—more ambitious yet—forest cities. Forest buildings, distinct from traditional structures, feature living trees, groundcover plants, and shrubs affixed to their outer surfaces. ____________________________________________________________ blank City planners and officials are hoping that forest buildings will bring some noticeable benefits to their urban areas.
Which of the following sentences, if inserted in the blank, would most effectively develop the topic?
- Vertical farming is another way to add greenery to city buildings.
- Covering walls with living plants creates a unique visual aesthetic.
- Forest cities will look different in each region, depending on the climate.
- Plants filter the air around them by absorbing carbon and releasing oxygen.
Answer to question 34
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0008) The topic of the draft paragraph is China's construction of "forest buildings" to combat environmental pollution. Information about plants' ability to filter the air around them helps explain why affixing plants to the exterior of buildings can potentially reduce pollution in urban areas.
Question 35
35. A student is developing an explanatory essay about how professional collectors determine the monetary value of comic books. Which of the following strategies would best help the student develop a strong conclusion to the essay?
- reviewing key points and pointing out how they may relate to readers' own experience
- citing references to motivate readers to investigate the topic more thoroughly
- directing readers to compare information in the essay to information found elsewhere
- introducing a new example that illustrates a point made earlier in the essay
Answer to question 35
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0008) By reviewing key points of the essay and pointing out how they may relate to readers' own experience, the student will reinforce readers' general understanding of information presented in the essay, as well as their understanding of how they can apply this information to their own lives. For example, readers who own comic books may want to make a preliminary determination of their monetary value, while readers who collect comic books will be better able to determine a reasonable price for future purchases.
Question 36
36. When evaluating a media message for bias, which of the following questions should a student ask first?
- What other types of media are conveying the same message?
- Whose interests are protected and promoted by the message?
- How does the message compare and contrast with my beliefs?
- How relevant to my own life is the information in the message?
Answer to question 36
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0009) When evaluating a media message for bias, a student should first ask whose interests the message protects and promotes. In some cases, such as advertising, the message is overtly biased, as advertisements are designed to persuade people to purchase the advertised product. But in other cases, bias may not be obvious. Some online advertisements are disguised as news stories, presenting biased information as if it were objective.
Question 37
37. A fifth-grade teacher is planning a media literacy lesson in which students will analyze persuasive techniques used in magazine advertisements as compared to television commercials for the same products. Which of the following questions would be most important for the teacher to consider when determining how to address the needs of English learners in the class during the lesson?
- Are students familiar with the language structures used in the advertisements and commercials?
- What types of media are most common in the students' home cultures?
- Are the students familiar with the products featured in the advertisements and commercials?
- What cultural assumptions are made in the advertisements and commercials?
Answer to question 37
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0009) When determining how to address the needs of English learners for this lesson, the teacher should first consider what cultural assumptions are made in the advertisements and commercials that may be unfamiliar to students who have different cultural backgrounds. If these types of cultural assumptions are not addressed by the teacher, they can interfere with students' learning.
Question 38
38. A student wants to incorporate a brief excerpt from a reference book into a research report. To best comply with principles of fair use and attribution, the student should:
- use a different font to set off the excerpt in the report.
- embed a link to a digital edition of the book in the report.
- request permission from the book's authors to include the excerpt in the report
- enclose the excerpt in quotation marks and include a source citation in the report.
Answer to question 38
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0009) According to the principles of fair use, the student may include a brief excerpt from a reference book in a research report without seeking permission from the authors or publishers or other copyright holders. However, the student must indicate that the student is not the author of the excerpt by enclosing it in quotation marks. In addition, the student should provide a full source citation for the excerpt. Citations vary in format but would typically include the names of the book's authors and its title, year of publication, and publisher.
Question 39
39. Which of the following actions by a middle school student exemplifies a safe practice in online communications?
- setting up a social media account under a pseudonym
- using an avatar as a personal identifier on gaming sites
- engaging in a live chat with other visitors to a Web site
- sharing personal contact information on a public forum
Answer to question 39
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0009) Middle school students should be aware of and use safe practices in social and personal media communications. These safe practices are intended to protect students' personal safety as well as to protect their personal information. An avatar is an alternate identity that conceals an online site user's true identity from other users.
Question 40
40. A teacher notices that one member of a small group is not completing assigned tasks for a collaborative project. Which of the following approaches would be most effective for the teacher to take first to address the situation?
- posting a chart detailing group members' assigned tasks and corresponding due dates
- asking another group member to help the student complete the assigned tasks
- suggesting that the student work on the project independently rather than collaboratively
- convening the group and asking each member to describe their assigned tasks
Answer to question 40
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0009) The teacher should first explore possible explanations for the student's failure to do the assigned tasks. The teacher should determine whether group members understand their roles and assignments and whether some assigned tasks depend upon completion of other tasks. If the teacher determines that the student's performance is lacking, hearing each group member describe his or her assigned task will help the student understand how individual performance affects the group effort.
Acknowledgments
Exerpt from The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich. Copyright © 2000 Louise Erdrich, used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.