NYSTCE ATAS - NYSTCE Assessment of Teaching Assistant Skills Applying Reading Instructional Support Questions and Answers

Question 1

A teaching assistant is working with a small group of first-grade students on phonemic awareness.
Which of the following activities would be MOST effective for developing the skill of phoneme segmentation?

Accepted Answer

Saying the word 'map' and asking students to say each sound they hear in the word separately (/m/ /a/ /p/).

Answer

Asking students to identify if 'cat' and 'hat' rhyme.

Answer

Having students say the word 'boat,' then say it again without the /b/ sound.

Answer

Showing students the letter 's' and asking them what sound it makes.

Question 2

A teacher asks a teaching assistant to support a student who reads in a slow, word-by-word manner, which is impacting their comprehension. Which instructional strategy should the teaching assistant use to BEST address this student's reading fluency?

Accepted Answer

Using repeated oral readings of a familiar passage.

Answer

Asking the student to summarize the main idea of the passage after reading.

Answer

Pre-teaching all the difficult vocabulary words found in the text.

Answer

Having the student look up the definitions of unknown words.

Question 3

While working with a student on a reading assignment, a teaching assistant notices the student struggles to understand the meaning of the text. To scaffold comprehension, which of the following is the BEST initial step?

Accepted Answer

Activating the student's prior knowledge by asking questions related to the topic of the text.

Answer

Telling the student the main idea of the story immediately.

Answer

Asking the student to reread the entire passage aloud.

Answer

Giving the student a quiz on the key details after they finish reading.

Question 4

A teaching assistant is instructed to help a group of students learn new vocabulary words before they read a chapter in a science textbook. Which of the following is the MOST effective and engaging technique?

Accepted Answer

Providing a student-friendly definition, showing a picture, and using the word in a relatable sentence.

Answer

Having students copy the words and their dictionary definitions five times each.

Answer

Asking students to find the new words in the glossary and write them down.

Answer

Giving students a pre-test on the words to see what they already know.

Question 5

A teaching assistant is leading a guided reading group. The teacher has asked the assistant to focus on improving the students' prosody (reading with expression). Which of the following activities would best support this goal?

Accepted Answer

Using 'character voice cards' to encourage students to read dialogue in different voices.

Answer

Timing the students to see how many words they can read correctly in one minute.

Answer

Having students practice reading a list of sight words on flashcards.

Answer

Asking students to clap out the syllables for each word in a sentence.

Question 6

Which of the following describes a teaching assistant's appropriate role in supporting a student's use of decoding strategies when encountering an unfamiliar word?

Accepted Answer

Prompting the student to look at the picture for a clue and then sound out the first letter.

Answer

Immediately telling the student the correct word to keep the reading pace.

Answer

Advising the student to skip the word and continue reading the rest of the sentence.

Answer

Telling the student to write the word down and look it up in the dictionary later.