1. Which of the following best describes why phonological awareness is predictive of beginning reading success?
A. It is an auditory skill in which understanding of letter-sound relationships is developed. Correct
B. It is a visual skill in which letter recognition skills are developed.
C. It is a speaking skill in which oral production of letter sounds is developed.
D. It is a fine motor skill in which letter formation skills are developed.
Explanation
Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the sound structures of spoken language, such as words, syllables, and phonemes. It is fundamentally an auditory skill that does not involve print. This auditory foundation is crucial for mapping sounds to letters, which is the basis of phonics instruction and decoding. Developing an understanding of these sound relationships allows children to break the code of written language. Visual skills, speaking skills for oral production, and fine motor skills for letter formation are related to other aspects of literacy development but are not the core predictive reason phonological awareness is linked to reading success.
2. Which THREE of the following words contain diphthongs?
A. Boy Correct
B. Mother
C. Buy
D. Apple
E. Coin
Explanation
A diphthong is a complex vowel sound that begins with one vowel sound and glides into another within the same syllable. The word 'boy' contains the diphthong /ɔɪ/. The word 'buy' contains the diphthong /aɪ/. The word 'coin' contains the diphthong /ɔɪ/. 'Mother' contains a single vowel sound, the schwa /ə/ in the second syllable. 'Apple' contains the short vowel sound /æ/ and a syllabic /l/ or schwa sound.
3. Which TWO of the following words feature an open syllabication pattern?
A. Happen
B. Robot Correct
C. Sunlight
D. Artist
E. Silent
Explanation
An open syllable ends with a vowel that usually makes a long sound. 'Robot' is divided as ro-bot, with the first syllable 'ro' being open. 'Silent' is divided as si-lent, with the first syllable 'si' being open. 'Happen' is divided as hap-pen, with both syllables closed. 'Sunlight' is divided as sun-light, with both syllables closed. 'Artist' is divided as art-ist, with the first syllable closed.
4. Which of the following best demonstrates student knowledge of sound matching?
A. A student is able to see an illustration of an object ending in "g" and identify the ending sound as /g/.
B. A student is able to hear the sounds/d//o//g/ and can identify the word as "dog" when asked.
C. A student is able to identify the initial sound of the word "top" as /t/ and can point to an object identified by a word with the same initial sound. Correct
D. A student can remove the /b/ sound from the word "bat" and identify the resulting word as "at."
Explanation
Sound matching is a phonological awareness skill where students identify words that share the same beginning, middle, or ending sound. The correct option requires the student to isolate the initial phoneme /t/ and then match it to another word starting with the same sound, demonstrating the ability to compare and match sounds across different words. The first option involves identifying a sound from a visual cue (grapheme), which is a phonics skill. The second option involves blending phonemes to form a word. The fourth option involves phoneme deletion, which is a more advanced manipulation skill.
5. Which of the following statements best explains the impact of fluency on comprehension?
A. Students who read at a very fast rate are more likely to comprehend what they read.
B. Students who decode slowly exhibit better overall comprehension.
C. Students who fluently reread familiar books repeatedly demonstrate greater comprehension.
D. Students who attend to punctuation and decode words fluently have increased comprehension. Correct
Explanation
Fluency encompasses accuracy, rate, and prosody (expression). When students decode words accurately and automatically (fluently), their cognitive resources are freed from the arduous task of decoding and can be allocated to the more important task of comprehending the text. Attending to punctuation is a key aspect of prosody, which aids in parsing sentences into meaningful phrases and understanding the author's intent. Reading very fast can sometimes hinder comprehension if it sacrifices accuracy and prosody. Slow decoding often impedes comprehension as working memory is overwhelmed. Rereading familiar books builds fluency but does not necessarily generalize to improved comprehension of new, unfamiliar texts.