DESE Reading & Literacy Instruction 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following best describes phonemic awareness in early literacy instruction?
- The ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words (Correct answer)
- The ability to decode written text using letter-sound relationships
- The ability to understand the meaning of words in context
- The ability to read fluently at an appropriate pace
Correct answer: The ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual phonemes (sounds) in spoken words, and is a foundational pre-reading skill.
Question 2: According to the science of reading, which instructional approach is most effective for teaching beginning readers to decode words?
- Whole language instruction emphasizing meaning-making
- Balanced literacy with leveled readers
- Systematic and explicit phonics instruction (Correct answer)
- Language experience approach using student-generated text
Correct answer: Systematic and explicit phonics instruction
Research consistently supports systematic and explicit phonics instruction as the most effective approach for teaching decoding skills to beginning readers.
Question 3: A teacher notices a student can read words accurately but reads very slowly and in a choppy manner. Which reading component should the teacher target for intervention?
- Phonemic awareness
- Reading fluency (Correct answer)
- Vocabulary development
- Reading comprehension
Correct answer: Reading fluency
Fluency encompasses reading accuracy, rate, and prosody; a student who reads accurately but slowly and without expression needs fluency intervention.
Question 4: Which strategy is most effective for building academic vocabulary in content-area reading?
- Having students look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary independently
- Pre-teaching key vocabulary words before reading a text (Correct answer)
- Encouraging students to skip unknown words and use context only
- Assigning weekly spelling lists of content-area terms
Correct answer: Pre-teaching key vocabulary words before reading a text
Pre-teaching key vocabulary before reading activates prior knowledge and allows students to engage more deeply with the text's meaning.
Question 5: What does the Simple View of Reading propose about reading comprehension?
- Reading comprehension equals decoding plus listening comprehension (Correct answer)
- Reading comprehension is primarily dependent on background knowledge
- Reading comprehension develops naturally through extensive reading practice
- Reading comprehension equals fluency plus vocabulary knowledge
Correct answer: Reading comprehension equals decoding plus listening comprehension
The Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) states that Reading Comprehension = Decoding × Linguistic Comprehension, highlighting that both components are necessary.
Question 6: When a DESE-licensed teacher uses a 'think-aloud' strategy during reading instruction, what is the primary purpose?
- To model metacognitive reading strategies so students can internalize them (Correct answer)
- To assess student comprehension through oral questioning
- To build oral language skills through teacher modeling
- To differentiate instruction for English Language Learners
Correct answer: To model metacognitive reading strategies so students can internalize them
Think-alouds make the invisible thinking processes of skilled readers visible and explicit, allowing students to observe and eventually internalize those strategies.
Question 7: Which assessment tool is most appropriate for monitoring a student's oral reading fluency progress over time?
- Running record with miscue analysis
- Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) oral reading fluency probes (Correct answer)
- Informal reading inventory with graded passages
- Standardized achievement test in reading
Correct answer: Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) oral reading fluency probes
CBM oral reading fluency probes are brief, standardized, and designed for frequent progress monitoring because they are sensitive to small gains in reading rate and accuracy.
DESE Reading & Literacy Instruction 1
Which of the following best describes phonemic awareness in early literacy instruction?