FoRC Phonics & Decoding Instruction 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following words contains an r-controlled vowel?
- slate
- fern (Correct answer)
- beat
- float
Correct answer: fern
'Fern' contains the 'er' pattern, an r-controlled vowel where the /r/ modifies the vowel sound so it is neither clearly long nor short.
Question 2: A closed syllable is best characterized by:
- A vowel followed by a consonant-e ending
- A vowel at the end of the syllable that says its long sound
- A vowel followed by one or more consonants producing a short vowel sound (Correct answer)
- Two vowels together that produce one sound
Correct answer: A vowel followed by one or more consonants producing a short vowel sound
In a closed syllable, the vowel is 'closed in' by one or more consonants, resulting in a short vowel sound (e.g., 'hat,' 'slim').
Question 3: When decoding the word 'blend,' a student correctly identifies 'bl' as two separate sounds that are pronounced together. This initial consonant cluster is called:
- A digraph
- A consonant blend (Correct answer)
- A diphthong
- A trigraph
Correct answer: A consonant blend
A consonant blend consists of two or more consonants in which each consonant retains its individual sound while the sounds are smoothly combined.
Question 4: Which approach to phonics instruction starts with whole words and then breaks them apart to identify patterns, rather than building up from individual sounds?
- Synthetic phonics
- Embedded phonics
- Analytic phonics (Correct answer)
- Explicit phonics
Correct answer: Analytic phonics
Analytic phonics begins with known whole words and has students analyze them to discover the letter-sound patterns within, working from whole to part.
Question 5: A student reads 'hop' correctly but reads 'hope' as /hɒp/. The most likely instructional focus should be:
- Short vowel CVC words
- The vowel-consonant-e (VCe) pattern and its effect on the preceding vowel (Correct answer)
- Consonant digraphs
- R-controlled vowel patterns
Correct answer: The vowel-consonant-e (VCe) pattern and its effect on the preceding vowel
The student is not applying the VCe rule, which signals that the vowel before the consonant says its long sound when a silent 'e' follows.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes a 'vowel team'?
- A vowel sound modified by the letter r
- Two or more letters that work together to represent a single vowel sound (Correct answer)
- A vowel that appears at the end of an open syllable
- A vowel followed by a silent consonant-e
Correct answer: Two or more letters that work together to represent a single vowel sound
A vowel team is two or more adjacent letters that together represent one vowel sound, such as 'oa' in 'boat' or 'ea' in 'read.'
Question 7: The 'floss rule' (or FLoSS rule) in phonics states that:
- Two vowels together produce a long vowel sound
- After a short vowel in a one-syllable word, double the final f, l, or s (Correct answer)
- Open syllables end in a long vowel sound
- The letter c makes the /s/ sound before e, i, or y
Correct answer: After a short vowel in a one-syllable word, double the final f, l, or s
The floss rule states that the letters f, l, s (and sometimes z) are doubled at the end of a one-syllable word following a short vowel (e.g., 'off,' 'hill,' 'miss').
FoRC Phonics & Decoding Instruction 2
Which of the following words contains an r-controlled vowel?