CALT CALT Reading Fluency and Decoding Development 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following syllable types is defined as a syllable with a short vowel sound spelled with a single vowel letter followed by one or more consonants?
- Open syllable
- Closed syllable (Correct answer)
- Vowel-consonant-e syllable
- Vowel team syllable
Correct answer: Closed syllable
A closed syllable ends in one or more consonants that 'close in' the vowel, producing a short vowel sound (e.g., 'cat,' 'nap,' 'script').
Question 2: A student reads 'magic' as /ˈmæ.dʒɪk/ correctly but reads 'tragic' as /ˈtræ.gɪk/ (hard g). This error most likely reflects:
- A phonological memory deficit
- Incomplete mastery of the soft g rule in the context of vowels i, e, and y (Correct answer)
- An error in vowel team recognition
- Difficulty with multisyllabic word blending
Correct answer: Incomplete mastery of the soft g rule in the context of vowels i, e, and y
The soft g rule states that g is typically pronounced /dʒ/ before i, e, or y; the student has not generalized this rule to 'tragic.'
Question 3: During decodable text reading, a CALT corrects a student's oral reading error immediately. This practice aligns with which principle of structured literacy?
- Diagnostic teaching — correcting errors prevents the consolidation of incorrect phoneme-grapheme mappings (Correct answer)
- Mastery learning — the student must re-read the passage before moving on
- Scaffolded instruction — reducing cognitive load through immediate support
- Fluency building — prosody is prioritized over accuracy
Correct answer: Diagnostic teaching — correcting errors prevents the consolidation of incorrect phoneme-grapheme mappings
Immediate error correction in structured literacy prevents incorrect responses from being practiced and entrenched, a core diagnostic-prescriptive teaching principle.
Question 4: Which of the following words contains a vowel-r (r-controlled) syllable?
- Reptile
- Startle (Correct answer)
- Castle
- Tickle
Correct answer: Startle
The word 'startle' contains the vowel-r syllable 'star,' where the /r/ modifies the vowel sound, creating the /ɑr/ sound.
Question 5: Ehri's theory of orthographic mapping explains how fluent readers store words in long-term memory by:
- Memorizing whole words as visual shapes
- Connecting the phonemes in a word to its graphemes through phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge (Correct answer)
- Practicing words until they are recognized through pure visual memory
- Reading words aloud repeatedly until speed is achieved
Correct answer: Connecting the phonemes in a word to its graphemes through phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge
Orthographic mapping occurs when a reader bonds a word's phonological representation to its letter sequence, allowing instant, effortless retrieval from memory.
Question 6: A student's nonsense word reading score is significantly lower than their real word reading score. This pattern most likely indicates:
- Strong phonological decoding skills that are masking a sight word deficit
- Reliance on sight word memory rather than phonological decoding strategies (Correct answer)
- Superior visual processing that compensates for phonological weaknesses
- Advanced reading skills beyond grade-level expectations
Correct answer: Reliance on sight word memory rather than phonological decoding strategies
When real word reading outperforms nonsense word reading, it suggests the student memorizes real words as whole units rather than applying phoneme-grapheme decoding rules.
CALT CALT Reading Fluency and Decoding Development 2
Which of the following syllable types is defined as a syllable with a short vowel sound spelled with a single vowel letter followed by one or more consonants?