CEA CEA Literacy & Numeracy Instruction 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the five pillars of reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel focuses on understanding the relationship between letters and sounds?
- Fluency
- Vocabulary
- Phonics (Correct answer)
- Comprehension
Correct answer: Phonics
Phonics instruction teaches the systematic relationship between written letters (graphemes) and spoken sounds (phonemes) to build decoding skills.
Question 2: An educational assistant is helping a second grader who reads word by word very slowly. Which skill should be targeted FIRST?
- Reading comprehension strategies
- Oral reading fluency (Correct answer)
- Vocabulary expansion
- Phonemic awareness
Correct answer: Oral reading fluency
Slow, word-by-word reading indicates a fluency deficit; building oral reading fluency through repeated reading practice is the priority intervention.
Question 3: What does 'phonemic awareness' refer to in early literacy development?
- Knowing the names of all 26 letters of the alphabet
- The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words (Correct answer)
- Understanding the meaning of common prefixes and suffixes
- Reading high-frequency sight words automatically
Correct answer: The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words
Phonemic awareness is an oral skill involving the ability to focus on and manipulate individual phonemes in spoken language without reference to print.
Question 4: When an educational assistant uses a 'think-aloud' strategy while reading with a student, the primary goal is to:
- Model metacognitive comprehension strategies by verbalizing thought processes (Correct answer)
- Assess the student's independent reading level
- Introduce new vocabulary words before reading
- Improve the student's reading rate
Correct answer: Model metacognitive comprehension strategies by verbalizing thought processes
Think-alouds make the internal cognitive process visible, modeling how proficient readers monitor understanding and apply strategies.
Question 5: A student consistently reverses letters such as 'b' and 'd' when writing. Which intervention is MOST evidence-based for this issue?
- Penalizing the student for reversals to increase attention
- Explicit, multisensory instruction linking letter name, sound, and formation (Correct answer)
- Placing a mirror in front of the student while writing
- Switching the student to keyboarding exclusively
Correct answer: Explicit, multisensory instruction linking letter name, sound, and formation
Multisensory approaches that connect letter names, sounds, and physical formation (e.g., Orton-Gillingham methods) are evidence-based for addressing letter reversals.
Question 6: Which strategy BEST supports a student's vocabulary development while reading an informational text?
- Skipping unknown words to maintain reading pace
- Using context clues and word parts (morphology) to infer meaning (Correct answer)
- Memorizing a list of definitions the night before reading
- Reading the text aloud faster to improve fluency
Correct answer: Using context clues and word parts (morphology) to infer meaning
Using context clues and morphological analysis (prefixes, roots, suffixes) teaches transferable strategies for independently unlocking new word meanings.
CEA CEA Literacy & Numeracy Instruction 1
Which of the five pillars of reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel focuses on understanding the relationship between letters and sounds?