CEP Reading & Literacy Support 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following is a key component of phonemic awareness?
- Recognizing sight words by shape
- Manipulating individual sounds in spoken words (Correct answer)
- Understanding punctuation marks
- Matching letters to their names
Correct answer: Manipulating individual sounds in spoken words
Phonemic awareness involves the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual phonemes (sounds) in spoken words.
Question 2: When a paraprofessional uses an 'echo reading' strategy, what is the student asked to do?
- Read silently while the paraprofessional reads aloud
- Repeat the text aloud after the paraprofessional models it (Correct answer)
- Read the same passage on two consecutive days
- Write down words they do not recognize
Correct answer: Repeat the text aloud after the paraprofessional models it
In echo reading, the adult reads a sentence or phrase aloud first, then the student repeats (echoes) the same text, which supports fluency and expression.
Question 3: A student consistently skips unknown words while reading aloud. Which cueing strategy should the paraprofessional encourage first?
- Ask the student to re-read the entire paragraph
- Prompt the student to look at the beginning letter and think of a word that makes sense (Correct answer)
- Tell the student the word immediately to maintain fluency
- Have the student look up the word in a dictionary
Correct answer: Prompt the student to look at the beginning letter and think of a word that makes sense
Prompting a student to use the initial letter sound along with context clues is a balanced decoding strategy that builds independence.
Question 4: Which reading fluency component refers to reading with appropriate expression, phrasing, and rhythm?
- Accuracy
- Rate
- Prosody (Correct answer)
- Automaticity
Correct answer: Prosody
Prosody is the aspect of reading fluency that encompasses appropriate expression, intonation, phrasing, and rhythm that mirrors natural speech.
Question 5: A paraprofessional notices a student can decode words accurately but does not understand what was read. This difficulty is best described as a problem with:
- Phonics
- Reading comprehension (Correct answer)
- Phonemic awareness
- Alphabetic principle
Correct answer: Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is the ability to understand and make meaning from text; a student who decodes accurately but lacks understanding has a comprehension deficit.
Question 6: Which strategy is most effective for building a student's sight word vocabulary?
- Having the student sound out each sight word phonetically every time
- Repeated exposure and practice through flashcards, games, and connected text (Correct answer)
- Asking the student to copy sight words in a list once per week
- Introducing all Dolch sight words in a single lesson
Correct answer: Repeated exposure and practice through flashcards, games, and connected text
Sight words are learned through repeated, varied exposure because many cannot be decoded phonetically and must be recognized automatically.
Question 7: When supporting a struggling reader using the 'running record' technique, the paraprofessional is primarily assessing:
- The student's spelling accuracy on a written test
- The student's oral reading accuracy, error patterns, and self-correction behavior (Correct answer)
- How quickly the student can read a passage silently
- The student's ability to answer comprehension questions after reading
Correct answer: The student's oral reading accuracy, error patterns, and self-correction behavior
A running record is a formative assessment tool used to record a student's oral reading behaviors, including miscues and self-corrections, to inform instruction.
CEP Reading & Literacy Support 1
Which of the following is a key component of phonemic awareness?