CDT Structured Literacy & Multisensory Instruction 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student consistently reads 'ship' as 'sip,' omitting the 'h.' Which structured literacy skill gap does this most directly indicate?
- Deficient rapid automatized naming
- Incomplete mastery of the digraph 'sh' (Correct answer)
- Poor syllable division skills
- Weak morphological awareness
Correct answer: Incomplete mastery of the digraph 'sh'
Omitting the 'h' in 'sh' reveals the student has not yet automatized the digraph as a single phoneme unit representing /ʃ/.
Question 2: In a structured literacy scope and sequence, 'morphology' instruction is typically introduced:
- Before phoneme awareness to build vocabulary
- After students have solid phonics and decoding skills (Correct answer)
- Simultaneously with letter-sound introduction in kindergarten
- Only with students who have mastered fluency benchmarks
Correct answer: After students have solid phonics and decoding skills
Morphology instruction (prefixes, suffixes, roots) is introduced after students have automatized basic phonics so they can apply structural analysis to multisyllabic words.
Question 3: Which of the following is an example of an explicit phonics instruction technique used in structured literacy?
- Asking students to guess an unknown word from picture clues
- Using context clues to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words
- Directly teaching that the letter 'a' in a CVC word says /æ/ (Correct answer)
- Encouraging students to skip difficult words and read on
Correct answer: Directly teaching that the letter 'a' in a CVC word says /æ/
Explicit instruction means the teacher directly states the rule or correspondence without expecting the student to infer it — saying 'a in a closed syllable says /æ/' is explicit.
Question 4: A CDT is planning a lesson on the 'silent-e' (VCe) syllable pattern. According to structured literacy principles, the FIRST step should be:
- Having students read a passage containing many VCe words
- Reviewing and confirming mastery of the closed syllable pattern as a prerequisite (Correct answer)
- Introducing the concept through a poem about magic 'e'
- Testing students with a pre-assessment of all vowel patterns simultaneously
Correct answer: Reviewing and confirming mastery of the closed syllable pattern as a prerequisite
Before teaching VCe, students must have solid mastery of closed syllable/short vowel patterns so contrast instruction can be effective and meaningful.
Question 5: The term 'diagnostic teaching' in structured literacy refers to:
- Administering standardized tests at the start of the school year
- Continuously assessing student responses within lessons to adjust instruction (Correct answer)
- Referring students to psychologists for formal evaluation
- Using running records to measure oral reading fluency
Correct answer: Continuously assessing student responses within lessons to adjust instruction
Diagnostic teaching means the teacher constantly observes and analyzes student errors during instruction and adjusts pacing, review, and approach in real time.
Question 6: Which multisensory technique specifically reinforces the auditory pathway during phoneme blending activities?
- Tracing letters in sand while naming them
- Listening to the teacher model blending and repeating aloud (Correct answer)
- Writing letters on a whiteboard from memory
- Using colored tiles to represent individual phonemes visually
Correct answer: Listening to the teacher model blending and repeating aloud
Listening to a model and repeating aloud primarily engages the auditory pathway by focusing attention on the sounds themselves.
Question 7: A student can decode real words accurately but struggles with nonsense words like 'blim' or 'frag.' What does this pattern most likely indicate?
- Strong phonological decoding with good use of context reliance
- Possible over-reliance on sight-word memory rather than phonics decoding (Correct answer)
- A visual processing disorder affecting letter recognition
- Below-average rapid automatized naming speed
Correct answer: Possible over-reliance on sight-word memory rather than phonics decoding
Difficulty with nonsense words while succeeding on real words suggests the student is using memorized word forms rather than applying phoneme-grapheme decoding rules.
CDT Structured Literacy & Multisensory Instruction 3
A student consistently reads 'ship' as 'sip,' omitting the 'h.' Which structured literacy skill gap does this most directly indicate?