Reading Teacher (Grades K–12)
Subtest 2 Sample Items
Recommendation for individuals using a screenreader: please set your punctuation settings to "most."
Expand All | Collapse All
Question 1
1. A middle school English learner who recently arrived in the United States has intermediate-level oral language proficiency in English but limited literacy skills in English or the primary language. The reading teacher decides that a key component of the student's beginning reading instruction should focus on promoting the student's development of phonemic awareness. The best research-based rationale for this instructional decision is that phonemic awareness skills will:
- strengthen the student's oral language vocabulary, which is prerequisite for comprehending words in
print after they have been decoded.
- provide the student with a foundation for developing the phonics skill of sequentially sounding out
and blending the letters of regular words.
- help the student perceive morphological boundaries within words, which supports the ability to comprehend
morphologically complex words.
- improve the student's pronunciation and articulation of English words, which enhances the development
of a large sight-word vocabulary.
Answer to question 1
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0009) The writing system
of English is alphabetic, which means that the symbols used to write English (i.e., letters) are based
on the sounds of speech. Phonemic awareness is a specific type of phonological awareness that involves
the ability to distinguish and manipulate the separate phonemes (sounds) in a spoken word. Phonemic
awareness skills along with letter recognition provide the foundation for the important beginning reading
skill of sequentially sounding out and blending the sounds of letters in words.
Question 2
2. Which of the following strategies is likely to be most effective in promoting the reading development of a first-grade struggling reader whose assessment results indicate the student struggles with letter recognition?
- providing remedial instruction in letter formation skills
- reinforcing the alphabetic principle with writing practice using phonetic spelling
- using multisensory practice such as tracing and naming letters
- beginning reading lessons with an oral preview and review of the alphabet
Answer to question 2
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0009) A first-grade student
who is having difficulty with letter recognition needs intensive practice associating the shape of a
target letter with the letter's name. Multisensory practice involving tracing a letter's shape (often
reproduced in a variety of textures) while saying the letter's name has proven effective in improving
students' automatic letter recognition, which is a foundational component of beginning reading.
Question 3
3. Several students in a kindergarten class have not developed the concept of the directionality of
print. Which of the following teacher strategies is likely to be most effective in addressing the students'
needs?
- teaching the students how to distinguish between a letter, a word, and a sentence in print
- explicitly explaining to the students that sentences must begin with a capital letter
- teaching the students to use invented spelling to write down their own ideas in print
- explicitly pointing to each word in a "big book" while reading the text aloud to the students
Answer to question 3
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0009) The concept of the directionality of print involves learning that, in English, words are read from left to right and from the top of a page to the bottom. Pointing to each word in a "big book" while reading the text aloud to students models this process explicitly. Repeated modeling of the left-to-right and top-to-bottom motion during daily read-alouds reinforces students' understanding of the concept of directionality of print.
Question 4
4. During a one-on-one reading lesson, a reading teacher points to the letter t on an alphabet
chart that is on the wall. The teacher says, "This is the letter t. It makes the sound /t/.
Can you find something in the classroom that starts with /t/? Say the name of something that starts
with /t/, then point to the letter t on the alphabet chart." Which of the following components
of emergent literacy does this activity most directly promote?
- letter recognition automaticity
- basic print concepts
- letter-sound correspondence
- phonemic awareness
Answer to question 4
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0009) The connection of sounds
to letters represents basic letter-sound correspondence, the first step in beginning phonics instruction.
In this activity the student is required to think about the sound a letter makes, identify an object
that has that letter's initial sound, connect that sound to the letter, and then point to the letter.
Question 5
5. A reading teacher is teaching a lesson on recognizing similar final sounds of single-syllable words.
The teacher holds up a picture of a cap and says, "This is a cap. The last sound in cap is
/p/. What is the last sound in cap?" The students respond with the appropriate /p/ sound. This
same procedure is followed with pictures of a pig, a rug, and a mop. The students are able to repeat
the last sound in each word accurately. The teacher then points to the pig, rug, and mop pictures and
asks, "Which word has the same last sound as cap—pig, rug, or mop?"
Several students have difficulty matching the two objects that have the same final sound. Which of the
following modifications to this lesson would likely best support the needs of these students?
- writing the four words on the board and circling the letters in each word while slowly repeating them
aloud
- limiting the options by offering the students a choice of only the correct word and one incorrect word
- having the students focus on the differences between the medial sounds in each word
- changing the two distractors so that the words end with two different sounds (e.g., pig, jam)
Answer to question 5
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0009) Generally, the fewer
the distractors, the easier a multiple-choice question is. Offering students only two options—the
correct response plus one distractor—enables students to more easily focus; they have to attend
to and keep in mind only two sounds rather than three. Therefore, this is a good intervention strategy
for students who are experiencing difficulty. Once students can choose the correct response between
two options, a third option can be introduced.
Question 6
6. In a research-based, systematic phonics approach to beginning reading instruction, students are taught
how to sound out and blend the sounds of letters to form words at which of the following points in the
sequence of instruction?
- as soon as they have mastered the most common letter-sound correspondences for a small number of useful
letters
- when they can name most letters in the alphabet and write their first names using both upper- and lowercase
letters appropriately
- as soon as they are able to demonstrate mastery of the first 15 words from a list of the most frequently
appearing words in texts
- when they demonstrate knowledge and skills in fundamental print concepts, including letter formation
skills
Answer to question 6
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0010) Teaching phonics is
a means to an end. The purpose of phonics instruction is to enable students to decode and read words.
Students should therefore first be taught letter-sound correspondences for the most commonly occurring
and easy-to-blend consonants (e.g., m, s, t) along with a vowel sound (e.g., /ă/, /ĕ/)
to enable them to start reading words (e.g., mat, sat, Sam) as soon as possible.
Question 7
7. Several fourth-grade students frequently misread and misspell certain types of words, such as reading
hoping as hopping and writing robbed as robed. Which of the following
interventions would best address the students' demonstrated needs?
- providing explicit review and reinforcement to the students in orthographic rules related to adding
inflectional morphemes to words
- modeling for the students how to conduct word sorts and providing them with guided practice performing
word sorts focused on various long-o spelling patterns
- preparing lists of grade-level sight words of increasing difficulty and using the lists to conduct
regular review sessions with the students
- implementing a systematic review designed to improve the students' structural analysis skills and their
knowledge of common English roots and derivational affixes
Answer to question 7
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0010) The students in this
scenario are demonstrating difficulty recognizing that the addition of an inflection (e.g., -ing,
-ed) can affect the spelling of a base word. Typically, in spoken English, adding an inflection
does not change the pronunciation of the base word. In written English, however, the spelling of the
base word may change to maintain this consistency in pronunciation, and there are orthographic rules
governing these changes (e.g., when adding an inflection that begins in a vowel to a CVCe word, the
final e is dropped before adding the inflection; when adding an inflection that begins with
a vowel to a word that contains a short vowel sound and ends with a single consonant, the final consonant
is doubled to maintain the short vowel sound). These orthographic rules are generally taught in second
grade, yet the fourth-grade students in this scenario are still misreading and misspelling words that
follow these orthographic patterns, so they require targeted, intensive instruction to promote their
automaticity reading such words and their mastery spelling them.
Question 8
8. Which of the following words would be appropriate to use as an example of a word containing a diphthong
in a targeted decoding intervention with middle school students?
- archaic
- biology
- council
- amoeba
Answer to question 8
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0010) A diphthong is a vowel sound with a perceptible change of quality during a single syllable. Common English diphthongs include ou (as in house or council), ow (as in cow), oi (as in boil), and oy (as in boy).
Question 9
9. In a sequence of research-based, systematic phonics instruction, which of the following regular word
patterns would be most appropriate to introduce next to a group of first-grade students who
have demonstrated mastery decoding regular CVC words?
- CVVC words in which the vowel team is short, such as head
- CVCC words in which the first consonant is a continuous sound, such as lamp
- CCVV words in which the first consonant is a stop and the vowel team is long, such as glue
- VCCC words in which the consonants represent a single phoneme, such as itch
Answer to question 9
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0010) In systematic phonics
instruction, phonics elements are introduced according to the increasing complexity or difficulty of
linguistic units. In general, consonants in English tend to be more consistent than vowels are in their
letter-sound correspondences, so phonics instruction begins by focusing on simple words that contain
a single vowel (that makes a short vowel sound) followed by a single consonant for which the students
have already mastered its letter-sound correspondence. Once students have mastered decoding a variety
of simple VC and CVC words and have mastered the letter-sound correspondences for additional consonants,
the teacher can introduce single-short-vowel words that begin with a single consonant and end with a
common, consistent consonant digraph or blend. It is helpful to select words for initial instruction
in a new pattern that begin with a continuous sound (e.g., l, m, n, s, f ). This allows the
teacher to provide a clear model for students how to sound out the new pattern because the teacher can
slowly sound out the whole word continuously without any stops until the final letter (e.g., "lllaaammmp").
Question 10
10. An eighth-grade student struggles with decoding multisyllable words in content-area and other informational texts. Given this evidence, which of the following components would be most important to include in an intervention designed to address the student's literacy needs?
- word lists of higher-academic words to read
- word games to increase appreciation of words
- word sorts to categorize words morphologically
- word logs in which to record and define words
Answer to question 10
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0010) Word sorts require students to analyze words in order to categorize them. They help students focus their attention on words; in the case of multisyllable words, they may focus on morphological elements (i.e., affixes, base words, and roots). In a closed sort, the teacher provides the criterion for sorting (e.g., "Sort these words by the prefixes they have"). In an open sort, students determine the criterion they will use. Through sorting, students form generalizations about words and can apply these generalizations when they come across similar words in their reading.
Question 11
11. Echo reading would be most appropriate to use as part of an instructional intervention designed
to improve which of the following dimensions of a student's reading fluency?
- automaticity
- accuracy
- rate
- prosody
Answer to question 11
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0011) In echo reading, the teacher reads a text with appropriate expression and intonation, pausing after each phrase or sentence so that the student can repeat and mimic the reading. The focus of this strategy is to develop the student's awareness of and ability to apply elements of prosodic reading such as proper phrasing, intonation, and expression.
Question 12
12. A second-grade student enjoys teacher read-alouds and responds successfully to teacher questions after listening to texts. The student also reads aloud accurately but very slowly, pausing frequently to decode regular words and high-frequency sight words already taught, then typically demonstrates poor comprehension when responding to teacher questions afterward. Which of the following strategies is likely to be most effective in addressing the student's difficulties in fluency and reading comprehension?
- developing the student's oral vocabulary through frequent teacher read-alouds followed by guided discussions
- providing the student with remedial instruction in basic phonics skills and irregular grade-level sight
words
- developing the student's knowledge of common academic language structures through explicit grammar
instruction
- providing the student with regular practice and feedback as the student reads and rereads a variety of independent-level texts
Answer to question 12
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0011) Key indicators of reading fluency are accuracy, rate, and prosody. When a student is experiencing difficulty achieving reading fluency, it is important to determine which of these indicators is the cause and what factor(s) might be directly involved so that the teacher can plan an effective intervention that targets the source of the student's difficulty. This student reads accurately but slowly, so the student's rate is likely the key issue. Students need practice reading and rereading a variety of texts at the appropriate level to build automaticity. Teacher monitoring and feedback of the student's oral reading is also a critical part of the intervention because automaticity cannot be achieved if accuracy is compromised.
Question 13
13. A sixth-grade student who is experiencing reading comprehension difficulties scores below grade-level benchmarks in reading fluency and phonics and above grade-level benchmarks in oral vocabulary. Given the information provided, which of the following interventions is likely to be most effective in addressing the student's needs in fluency?
- modeling for the student how fluent reading should sound and feel
- modifying the student's assigned texts by adding cued phrasing and intonation
- conducting timed exercises in which the student reads lists of sight words
- providing the student with explicit instruction to address gaps in decoding skills
Answer to question 13
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0011) Key indicators of reading fluency are accuracy, rate, and prosody. When a student is experiencing difficulty achieving reading fluency, it is important to determine which aspect of fluency to target first in an intervention. Assessments indicate this student struggles with phonics skills, which has an immediate, direct effect on the student's accuracy. Without proficiency in accuracy, the student's rate, prosody, and ability to comprehend what is read is impeded by reading errors. Therefore, the teacher should address the student's accuracy difficulties first by providing explicit instruction to address gaps in the student's decoding skills.
Question 14
14. A fifth-grade student with grade-level decoding skills has difficulty answering comprehension questions
about texts after independent reading. As part of an effort to diagnose the cause of the student's difficulty,
the teacher administers an oral fluency assessment. Which of the following statements explains the best
rationale for the teacher's actions?
- The ability to comprehend the content of a text is essential to reading it fluently.
- Difficulty reading aloud fluently reveals that the student may struggle with attention focus.
- When students cannot read a text fluently, they are less able to attend to its meaning.
- Students may better understand text when they can read it aloud fluently rather than silently.
Answer to question 14
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0011) Fluency comprises the
ability to read words accurately (accuracy), at an appropriate pace (rate), with the phrasing and rhythm
of spoken language (prosody). Fluent readers do not need to devote the entirety of their cognitive ability
to decoding words in a text; they can therefore devote their attention to comprehending its meaning.
Question 15
15. After determining that several seventh-grade students struggle with higher-level decoding skills, a reading teacher provides systematic and explicit instruction on reading multisyllable words. This type of instruction also promotes students' reading proficiency by improving their fluency most directly in which of the following areas?
- accuracy
- rhythm
- intonation
- expression
Answer to question 15
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0011) Accuracy is the ability to decode or recognize words correctly and is one of the components of fluency. Most of the words that students in the upper grades encounter are words of two or more syllables. Students at the seventh-grade level who have difficulty accurately decoding multisyllable words require explicit instruction in strategies for breaking words apart into syllables and morphemes—word parts with meanings (e.g., prefixes, suffixes)—and reconstructing the parts into meaningful words.
Question 16
16. Daily independent reading in a range of genres benefits students' academic success primarily by:
- promoting their metacognitive awareness.
- facilitating their use of comprehension strategies.
- expanding and improving their phonics skills.
- enriching their vocabulary and background knowledge.
Answer to question 16
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0012) Research shows that
the academic vocabulary necessary for success in school is largely obtained through printed text rather
than from other media. Academic vocabulary refers to words that are commonly used in texts to explain
concepts but are used infrequently in conversation. Background knowledge, what students have learned
both formally in the classroom and informally through life experiences, aids in reading in the content
areas and is essential for academic success. Providing students with the opportunity to read in a range
of genres daily and independently both increases their exposure to academic vocabulary and broadens
their background knowledge.
Question 17
17. Which of the following independent word-learning strategies would be most effective for a middle school student to use to quickly determine the meaning of the underlined word in the sentence below?
She considered his behavior at the party start underline indefensible end underline.
- analyzing the morphological components of the word
- inferring the word's meaning from semantic clues in the sentence
- identifying the word's syntactic function in the sentence
- using reference materials such as a dictionary to look up the word
Answer to question 17
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0012) Structural analysis
is a powerful word-learning strategy because many multisyllable words in English contain recognizable
morphemes. The word indefensible is an excellent example of a word comprising distinct morphemes
that can be analyzed to determine the word's meaning. Both the prefix in-, meaning not,
and the suffix -ible, meaning to be able to or can be, are common derivational
morphemes that should be taught as part of explicit instruction in the use of structural analysis as
a word-learning strategy.
Question 18
18. Tenth-grade students will be reading a literary text that includes some idiomatic expressions that
are likely to be unfamiliar to them. Which of the following instructional strategies would be most effective
for the teacher to use to promote the students' ability to comprehend idiomatic expressions in their
reading?
- demonstrating how to apply word identification strategies to decode each word in an expression and
then to check if the words are known words
- teaching the meaning of an expression as a unit and providing examples of how to use the expression
in a variety of contexts
- modeling how to use a thesaurus to identify synonyms of the words in the expression and then to construct
a definition in their own words
- explaining that an expression is the sum of its parts and modeling how to analyze the parts to determine
the meaning of the whole
Answer to question 18
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0012) The meaning of an idiomatic
expression such as "the cat's out of the bag" cannot be determined by analyzing the literal meanings
of the individual words it comprises. It must be taught as a unit. Providing the students with multiple
examples of the expression in context will deepen and extend the students' understanding of its meaning
and uses and promote retention of the expression.
Question 19
19. Which of the following rationales best explains why promoting students' word consciousness and love for words is considered a significant part of an effective vocabulary curriculum?
- Developing a strong mental image of a word's shape and letter sequence promotes students' retention of the word's spelling in long-term memory.
- Students who are explicitly taught morphemic analysis skills are more successful at inferring the meanings of new morphologically complex words.
- Having a heightened awareness of and interest in words and their meanings motivates students to expand and extend their vocabulary knowledge.
- Contextual analysis such as analyzing semantic and syntactic clues in a text can be a helpful vocabulary-learning strategy.
Answer to question 19
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0012) Many researchers agree that promoting word consciousness is an integral part of effective vocabulary programs. Word consciousness is not a vocabulary-learning strategy but refers to developing students' word awareness and interest in words. Word consciousness integrates thinking about words (metacognition), being motivated to learn new words, and having a deep interest in or love of words. Since motivation is at the heart of learning and students have tens of thousands of words to learn during their school years, fostering a positive disposition toward words is essential.
Question 20
20. Research has shown that a significant predictor of a student's reading comprehension in the middle
and secondary grades is the student's:
- vocabulary knowledge in kindergarten and first grade.
- social-affective development as a toddler.
- auditory memory in the middle elementary grades.
- visual acuity in the preschool years.
Answer to question 20
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0012) Research has shown that a young student's vocabulary knowledge is a strong predictor of their reading comprehension in later school years. Other studies indicate that lack of vocabulary knowledge is an important factor underlying the school failure of disadvantaged students. Fortunately, research also indicates that effective vocabulary programs can improve the reading comprehension of students of all backgrounds.
Question 21
21. Which of the following reading response skills relies on the reader's evaluative comprehension of a literary text?
- describing a story's setting and characters
- recalling the sequence of important events in a story
- discussing the credibility of a story's ending
- using mental imagery to understand descriptive passages in a story
Answer to question 21
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0013) Evaluation involves judgment of worth or credibility. An evaluative response to a fictional text means the reader formulates an opinion about the text, given the reader's understanding of it, then constructs a response to provide an explanation that supports the reader's opinion. Judging whether the ending of a story is credible or makes sense within the context of its entirety requires the reader to apply evaluative comprehension to make that determination.
Question 22
22. A think-aloud strategy would be most appropriate for a reading teacher to use to demonstrate which of the following reading comprehension strategies to students?
- creating a visual representation of a text after reading
- identifying a text's organizational structure
- self-monitoring for understanding of a text during reading
- summarizing a text's main ideas and details
Answer to question 22
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0013) A think-aloud is an effective strategy for demonstrating through verbalization the metacognitive processes effective readers use during reading, such as posing and answering one's own questions about a text and self-monitoring for comprehension. Use of a think-aloud coupled with explicit explanation and reinforced with guided practice can help students learn how to use metacognitive comprehension strategies effectively.
Question 23
23. Which of the following teacher questions about a text would be most effective in promoting high
school students' development of inferential comprehension?
- When did the main character first state her feelings about the antagonist?
- What conclusions can you draw about the main character based on her actions in chapter 1?
- What reason did the main character give to her parents for why she wanted to go on walks?
- How is the main character's behavior described in chapter 2 different than that of the antagonist?
Answer to question 23
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0013) Inferential reading
comprehension involves inferring ideas not explicitly stated in a text. Asking students to draw conclusions
about a character based on the character's actions requires the students to interpret possible causes
and meanings of the character's actions and make judgments about the character's personality without
the help of explicit exposition in the text. Asking the students to base their inferences on specific
events in the text helps guide the students in making inferences that are plausible.
Question 24
24. Which of the following teacher practices would be most effective in promoting English learners' comprehension of a text prior to reading?
- reinforcing word identification skills the students can use to decode words in the text
- activating and/or building the students' background knowledge about the text's topic
- conducting an informal oral fluency exercise using an extended excerpt from the text
- reviewing lists of high-frequency, grade-level sight words that may appear in the text
Answer to question 24
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0013) When students have well-developed contextual schemata related to a text, they are more likely to be able to negotiate meaning and repair comprehension during reading. When a teacher activates and/or builds students' background knowledge related to a text, it helps them focus on the schemata needed to support effective comprehension. While all students can benefit from a teacher's activating their prior knowledge before reading, English learners who have more limited language resources to bring to the reading task benefit greatly from this teacher practice.
Question 25
25. A teacher is asking high school students close-reading questions to foster their comprehension and analysis of a text. In which of the following ways should the teacher differentiate this activity for several developing-level English learners (ELsE L s) in the class?
- by allowing the ELsE L s greater time to formulate answers and respond
- by elaborating on the ELsE L s' answers to model appropriate English
- by asking the ELsE L s about related concepts as multi-part questions
- by pairing the ELsE L s with students who share the same home language
Answer to question 25
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0013) It is important for ELsE L s to have as many opportunities as possible to practice speaking English. However, research has shown that some teachers permit ELsE L s to remain silent during discussions or to participate less often, perhaps so as not to make them feel uncomfortable. For an EL, however, answering a question requires the steps of considering a response and then thinking about how to express it in a secondary language, which requires more time. Research has also shown that teachers may not allow enough wait time for ELsE L s to take these steps, thereby limiting their chances for practicing English.
Question 26
26. A reading teacher wants to enhance students' understanding of a variety of traditional literary
genres. In one lesson, the teacher plans an activity in which students will collaboratively write an
original fable based on a plot summary provided by the teacher. Which of the following plot summaries
would be most appropriate for this purpose?
- Lazy lions trick their prey into wearing a coat of bold stripes, only to discover that stripes provide the animal protective camouflage.
- A penniless young farmer completes a series of extraordinary tasks, proving himself worthy of a beautiful princess.
- A mountain climber thinks she has rescued an injured hiker, then learns the hiker disappeared on the mountain a hundred years earlier.
- Three mice and a house cat form an unlikely alliance, joining forces to save the family home from being demolished.
Answer to question 26
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0014) The story elements of literary genres include character(s), plot, and theme. In a fable, the characters are traditionally animals that speak and act as humans, and the results of their actions illustrate a moral, the theme of the fable. The plot summary in which lazy lions trick their prey into wearing a coat of bold stripes, only to discover that stripes provide the animal with protective camouflage, provides the elements the students need to write a fable. The animals have human characteristics, and their actions result in a moral: Duplicitous behavior often backfires.
Question 27
27. A middle school reading teacher introduces a small group of struggling readers to a poem by first reading the poem aloud to the students, using appropriate intonation and phrasing. The teacher then highlights the metaphors that occur in the poem and, using guided discussion, helps the students use information explicitly stated in the poem to try to determine the meaning of each of the highlighted metaphors. Finally, the teacher again models an expressive reading of the poem and has the students repeat it chorally. This lesson best demonstrates the teacher's awareness of the importance of promoting students' comprehension of literary texts by enhancing their:
- development of oral reading fluency.
- ability to analyze key story elements underlying narrative prose.
- knowledge of academic language structures.
- ability to interpret stylistic elements characteristic of a genre.
Answer to question 27
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0014) Poetry presents a particular challenge to readers because of its frequent use of stylistic elements such as figurative language (e.g., metaphors, similes) and sound patterns (e.g., meter, rhythm, alliteration, rhyme). By modeling for students how to read the poem with appropriate intonation and by helping them analyze the figurative language in the poem, the teacher helps the students develop strategies for constructing meaning more effectively in this literary genre.
Question 28
28. Which of the following instructional activities would be most effective in promoting upper elementary students' comprehension of a literary text by enhancing their critical thinking about the text?
- having the students create a story map describing the main characters, setting, and plot
- asking the students to develop a time line of the key events in the story
- helping the students retell an important story scene from the perspective of the antagonist
- encouraging the students to relate the story to a personal experience
Answer to question 28
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0014) Retelling a story from the perspective of the antagonist requires the reader to analyze the information the text either states or implies about that character. The reader can then use that information to go beyond the viewpoint presented by the author and try to deduce how that character would likely perceive the major elements of the story (e.g., other main characters, setting, events).
Question 29
29. A reading teacher is asking comprehension questions about a story a third-grade student has just
finished reading. Which of the following questions would be most appropriate for the teacher to use
to promote the student's analysis of a key story element?
- What motivated the main character to complete the goal?
- What section of the story was most difficult to understand?
- What symbolism did the author use to convey the story's theme?
- What connecting words did the author use to link events in the story?
Answer to question 29
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0014) At the third-grade
level, appropriate story elements to focus on include setting, characters, and plot. Asking a student
to analyze the motivations of the main character in the story promotes the student's literary analysis
skills and critical thinking about the text.
Question 30
30. Tenth-grade students have read John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, which deals
with the plight of a group of migrants who travel from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression
and the harsh treatment they receive upon reaching California. The teacher forms literature circles
to promote students' critical analysis and reflection on the issues of social justice raised in the
book. Which of the following discussion topics would be most appropriate to use to elicit a response
to these issues?
- How does this story relate to your study of economic systems in social studies?
- How were the police used in the story to protect the economic and power status quo?
- How does the main character in the story align with your idea of a downtrodden hero?
- How is the pursuit of the American Dream developed as a theme of the story?
Answer to question 30
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0014) Reader response involves
making meaning of a text by reflecting on its content and then responding to it, either through discussion
or writing. A response may be critical, personal, or creative. In this case, a discussion topic addressing
protection of an unjust status quo would best help promote the students' critical analysis and reflection
on social justice issues from the book.
Question 31
31. After completing content-area reading assignments, a high school student is able to identify several isolated ideas and details from the reading but demonstrates significant difficulty summarizing how the ideas or details relate to one another. Which of the following strategies would be most appropriate for addressing this student's demonstrated needs?
- explicitly teaching a range of question-and-answer relationships
- providing direct instruction in informational text structures
- regularly providing practice in making personal responses to texts
- reviewing definitions of content-specific vocabulary after reading
Answer to question 31
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0015) Text structure refers to the way ideas are organized within a piece of writing. Informational texts generally follow specific text structures (e.g., cause/effect, chronology or sequence, comparison/contrast, problem/solution). Knowing these structures and being able to identify which structure type a particular piece of text is following better enables the student to identify the main ideas and supporting details and see how they relate to one another.
Question 32
32. A reading teacher wants to promote the analysis and research skills of middle school students by helping them develop the ability to evaluate informational texts with respect to the text's credibility. Which of the following approaches is likely to be most effective in achieving this goal?
- teaching the students skills for questioning and verifying the evidence an author presents in a text
- encouraging the students to use a text's organizational structure to enhance their comprehension of
the text
- showing the students how to use a graphic organizer to help interpret the information in a text
- having the students practice writing their own texts modeling the structures and style found in their textbooks
Answer to question 32
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0015) One of the key characteristics of a critical reader and thinker is that the person is continually going beyond the text and questioning what is read (e.g., What is the author's purpose or viewpoint? How does the information in the text connect to information that I already know? How can I verify the information the author has presented?). Explicitly teaching middle school students how to develop and answer these types of questions helps them become critical readers, which in turn can help them become more effective researchers.
Question 33
33. As part of a social studies history unit, a fifth-grade teacher has students read, discuss, and compare several texts, including a chapter about the Mayflower's voyage in their social studies textbook, a short fictional story about a cabin boy on the Mayflower, a poem about the Wampanoag people, and an excerpt from one of William Bradford's books. The teacher's approach to this instructional unit is likely to contribute most directly to the students' ability to comprehend informational texts and to their development of critical literacy by enhancing the students' ability to:
- analyze information from multiple texts and perspectives.
- distinguish common themes in texts from different cultures.
- discern the characteristics of different types of narrative texts.
- interpret multiple, complex academic language structures in texts.
Answer to question 33
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0015) Key components of critical literacy include challenging students to explore the world in a different way and helping them consider multiple perspectives or viewpoints when thinking about an idea, an action, or an event. In this scenario, the teacher has the students read, discuss, and compare informational and literary texts that are written about the same topic but focus on different perspectives—those of the passengers, a young crew member, the Wampanoag people, and Governor Bradford. This type of lesson also helps students challenge assumptions they may have previously held about an event, which is another important component of critical literacy.
Question 34
34. Explicitly teaching high school students who are struggling readers how to comprehend and analyze texts that follow a cause/effect text structure within a chronologically arranged format would be most appropriate for preparing them to read an informational text in which of the following disciplines?
- biology
- mathematics
- physics
- history
Answer to question 34
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0015) Some of the most common text structures for informational texts are descriptive, chronological, cause/effect, comparison/contrast, concept/definition, problem/solution, and sequential. The texts in a given content area or discipline tend to use certain text structures that lend themselves well to conveying the types of knowledge and skills taught in that discipline. For example, in the early and middle elementary school years, the focus of history instruction tends to be on developing students' knowledge of past peoples and events (who, what, when, where). Thus, history texts at these levels tend to use primarily descriptive and chronological text structures. As students progress through the elementary years and into middle school and high school, however, the focus of history instruction shifts increasingly to the study of causal relationships (why and how peoples and events interact and interrelate). Thus, while history texts still tend to arrange information chronologically, they present the information primarily through the use of a cause/effect text structure.
Question 35
35. A high school American literature class has read the text of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 civil
rights speech "I Have a Dream." The teacher assigns an essay to engage students in reflecting on the
issues of social justice raised in the speech. Which of the following research questions would be most
appropriate for students to ask in order to obtain the background information needed to respond to the
speech in this way?
- What was Dr. King's life history prior to giving his speech?
- What types of rhetoric did Dr. King use during his speech?
- What was the name of the city where Dr. King made his speech?
- What was the status of African Americans when Dr. King gave his speech?
Answer to question 35
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0015) Sufficient background knowledge about a topic is essential in order for a reader to reflect upon it. In this case, students would need to know about the status of African Americans in 1963 in order to understand the points Dr. King made in his speech regarding civil rights and social justice issues in the world at that time, and to subsequently write an essay personally reflecting on these issues.
Question 36
36. A high school student can comprehend grade-level content-area texts with teacher scaffolding but
has difficulty learning new content from reading assignments completed independently. Providing the
student with explicit instruction and practice in which of the following strategies would be most effective
in addressing the student's needs?
- scanning for key words
- taking two-column notes
- paraphrasing by using synonyms
- developing a written summary
Answer to question 36
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0016) A student who requires scaffolding to learn from a content-area text needs a system for learning content when reading texts independently. Two-column note taking is a system that has been used effectively by students for some time and involves teaching the student to record main ideas and details in one (wider) column and key words, comments, and/or questions corresponding to those notes in a second (narrower) column. The student is taught to use the text's topic sentences and supporting statements to develop the notes in the first column, then to reduce those ideas into key words, comments, and/or questions in the second column. The student is also taught to use the notes to recite, reflect, review, and finally recapitulate the content learned. Steps one and two help the student identify and clarify the content to be learned, while the additional steps reinforce the student's understanding and promote retention of the content.
Question 37
37. Which of the following utterances by kindergarten students whose primary language is standard American
English would be considered outside the typical progression for oral language development?
- "The boy had been walking home when he was bitten by that dog."
- "Those two mens with the funny hats are crazy!"
- "I have a cat and she has spots and she likes playing with my feet."
- "I breaked the dish, but I didn't mean to!"
Answer to question 37
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0016) By kindergarten, many children are beginning to understand the meaning of passive sentences ("he was bitten by that do"), but they typically do not yet use the passive voice in their speech. Also, kindergarten students do not typically fully understand the meaning of past perfect constructions ("he had been walking") or use them correctly in complex sentences ("he had been walking when he was bitten...").
Question 38
38. Which of the following instructional strategies would likely be most effective in enhancing and reinforcing middle school English learners' reading comprehension with respect to content-area texts?
- modeling for students how to look up unfamiliar content using online and text-based reference materials
- providing students with supplemental texts that can help them deepen and extend their content knowledge
- modeling for students how to read content-area texts aloud with speech-like phrasing and expression
- providing students with structured oral previews of content and vocabulary associated with assigned
readings
Answer to question 38
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0016) Adolescent English learners require additional language support and scaffolding to help them comprehend the often context-reduced information presented in content-area texts. An oral preview would provide students with key information about the text they will be reading, including introducing them to new terminology in the text, activating their prior knowledge with respect to the text's content, and helping them determine important details to look for in the text. Each of these steps helps students build the conceptual schema and academic language needed for effective reading comprehension.
Question 39
39. As a part of a lesson designed to reinforce students' comprehension, a first-grade teacher would
like to help students develop close listening skills. Which of the following introductory activities
would likely be most beneficial and engaging to use for this purpose?
- reading a "big book" with students and asking them questions regarding the text afterward
- instructing students to listen for specific words in a recorded song, then name those words after the song is played
- giving oral step-by-step instructions to students as they work on a large puzzle together
- having students play games like I Spy, Mother May I, and Red Light Green Light in a large group
Answer to question 39
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0016) The Minnesota K– to 12
Academic Standards in English Language Arts include listening as an important skill for students to
master in order to be college and career ready. At the first-grade level, students should develop close
listening skills in order to comprehend texts, because much of their early reading will include listening
to read-alouds. By having the students remain alert for specific words during songs and requiring them
to repeat those words afterward, the teacher is encouraging each child to pay close attention and listen
throughout the activity.
Question 40
40. Which of the following instructional strategies would likely be most effective in enhancing middle school students' comprehension of a grade-level piece of literary text?
- forming small groups and allowing the students freedom to explore the text together
- having the students preview questions about the text to engage them in the reading
- directing a discussion of the text by questioning the students about what the author is saying
- providing the students with graphic organizers to fill in after they read the text
Answer to question 40
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0016) Questioning the Author (QtA) is an approach designed to develop students' comprehension of a text through a teacher-led discussion. The teacher initiates a discussion with a question (e.g., What is the author saying here?) and then moves and guides the discussion along with follow-up questions (e.g., Does the author say this clearly? How does this connect with what the author said earlier?). QtA develops oral language as well as reading comprehension as the teacher guides the students through the text.