CDT Phonological Awareness & Phonics Instruction 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A grapheme is best defined as:
- A unit of meaning within a word, such as a prefix or suffix
- A single speech sound produced in isolation
- A letter or combination of letters that represents a single phoneme (Correct answer)
- A type of syllable structure used in reading instruction
Correct answer: A letter or combination of letters that represents a single phoneme
A grapheme is a letter or group of letters (such as 'sh,' 'ch,' or 'igh') that together represent one phoneme in the writing system.
Question 2: Analytic (whole-to-part) phonics instruction:
- Teaches individual letter sounds in isolation before introducing whole words
- Begins with whole words already known to students and then identifies common phonics patterns within them (Correct answer)
- Uses nonsense words exclusively to isolate letter-sound relationships
- Focuses exclusively on vowel patterns and ignores consonant instruction
Correct answer: Begins with whole words already known to students and then identifies common phonics patterns within them
Analytic phonics starts with whole words that students already recognize and then analyzes the phonics patterns contained within those words, moving from whole to part.
Question 3: Digraphs are defined as:
- Two vowels that blend together to form a single long vowel sound
- Two consecutive consonants that each retain their individual sounds
- Two letters — consonants or vowels — that together represent one phoneme (Correct answer)
- Words that contain exactly two syllables
Correct answer: Two letters — consonants or vowels — that together represent one phoneme
Digraphs are two letters that together represent a single phoneme, such as 'sh,' 'ch,' 'th,' 'ph,' or the vowel digraph 'ea.'
Question 4: Phoneme segmentation drills primarily help students:
- Recognize common sight words by their visual shape
- Break spoken words into their individual phonemes and identify each one (Correct answer)
- Read connected passages with fluency and appropriate expression
- Understand the meanings of prefixes, suffixes, and root words
Correct answer: Break spoken words into their individual phonemes and identify each one
Phoneme segmentation drills build the ability to identify and separate all individual sounds within spoken words, a critical foundation for both reading (decoding) and spelling (encoding).
Question 5: An open syllable is one that:
- Contains a vowel followed by two or more consonants
- Ends with a vowel sound, which typically produces the long vowel sound (Correct answer)
- Contains a vowel-consonant-silent e pattern
- Has no discernible vowel sound within it
Correct answer: Ends with a vowel sound, which typically produces the long vowel sound
An open syllable ends with a vowel that is not closed off by a consonant in that syllable; the vowel typically says its long sound, as in 'me,' 'no,' or 'ba-' in 'baby.'
Question 6: Phoneme substitution involves:
- Adding a new phoneme to the beginning or end of an existing word
- Deleting a phoneme from a word to form a shorter word
- Replacing one phoneme in a word with a different phoneme to create a new word (Correct answer)
- Counting the total number of phonemes contained in a word
Correct answer: Replacing one phoneme in a word with a different phoneme to create a new word
Phoneme substitution means replacing one phoneme in a word with another phoneme, such as changing /k/ to /b/ in 'cat' to produce 'bat.'
Question 7: Research consistently shows that students with dyslexia benefit most from:
- Whole language immersion programs emphasizing meaning and context
- Implicit phonics discovery learning embedded in authentic reading
- Explicit, systematic phonics instruction integrated with multisensory techniques (Correct answer)
- Extensive silent reading practice to build independent fluency
Correct answer: Explicit, systematic phonics instruction integrated with multisensory techniques
Extensive research — including findings from the National Reading Panel and structured literacy frameworks — consistently supports that explicit, systematic phonics instruction combined with multisensory approaches is most effective for students with dyslexia.
CDT Phonological Awareness & Phonics Instruction 2
A grapheme is best defined as: