MKAS Early Literacy Development & Phonological Awareness 3 β Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student can delete the /s/ from 'smile' to say 'mile.' This demonstrates which phonological skill?
- Phoneme blending
- Phoneme substitution
- Phoneme deletion (Correct answer)
- Phoneme isolation
Correct answer: Phoneme deletion
Removing a phoneme from a word to produce a new word is phoneme deletion.
Question 2: Which sequence correctly orders phonological awareness skills from simplest to most complex?
- Phoneme segmentation β rhyme recognition β syllable blending
- Rhyme recognition β syllable segmentation β phoneme manipulation (Correct answer)
- Phoneme blending β onset-rime β rhyme production
- Syllable counting β phoneme deletion β rhyme recognition
Correct answer: Rhyme recognition β syllable segmentation β phoneme manipulation
Research shows rhyme recognition develops earliest, followed by syllable work, then full phoneme manipulation.
Question 3: A teacher says 'I'm thinking of a word that starts with /m/ and rhymes with 'bike.'' Students answer 'Mike.' This activity targets:
- Phoneme deletion
- Phoneme blending with onset-rime (Correct answer)
- Syllable segmentation
- Consonant cluster awareness
Correct answer: Phoneme blending with onset-rime
Combining an onset (/m/) with a rime (-ike) to produce a word integrates phoneme blending and onset-rime knowledge.
Question 4: Environmental print (logos, signs, labels) supports early literacy primarily by:
- Teaching letter-by-letter decoding
- Building awareness that print carries meaning (Correct answer)
- Developing phoneme segmentation skills
- Improving handwriting fluency
Correct answer: Building awareness that print carries meaning
Environmental print helps young children understand that written symbols represent meaningful language.
Question 5: Which intervention is most appropriate for a first grader who cannot isolate the initial phoneme in spoken words?
- Assigning independent reading of decodable books
- Explicit phoneme isolation practice using picture sorts by beginning sound (Correct answer)
- Teaching multisyllabic word strategies
- Focusing exclusively on sight word memorization
Correct answer: Explicit phoneme isolation practice using picture sorts by beginning sound
Explicit instruction with picture sorts directly targets initial phoneme isolation before connecting to print.
Question 6: Which word pair is an example of a minimal pair that differs by one phoneme?
- cat / car
- run / ran
- ship / chip (Correct answer)
- bat / bath
Correct answer: ship / chip
'Ship' (/Κ/) and 'chip' (/tΚ/) differ only in their initial phoneme, making them a minimal pair.
Question 7: A teacher uses Elkonin (sound) boxes by having students push a chip into a box for each sound in 'chat.' How many boxes are needed?
- Two
- Three (Correct answer)
- Four
- Five
Correct answer: Three
'Chat' has three phonemes: /ch/ /a/ /t/, so three boxes are needed.
MKAS Early Literacy Development & Phonological Awareness 3
A student can delete the /s/ from 'smile' to say 'mile.' This demonstrates which phonological skill?