NYSTCE ATAS NYSTCE Literacy 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A teaching assistant reads a picture book aloud and pauses to ask 'What do you think will happen next?' This is an example of:
- Retelling
- Making predictions (Correct answer)
- Summarizing
- Visualizing
Correct answer: Making predictions
Asking what will happen next prompts students to use prior knowledge and text clues to make predictions.
Question 2: Which word contains a closed syllable?
- table
- go
- cat (Correct answer)
- pie
Correct answer: cat
'Cat' is a closed syllable because the vowel is followed by a consonant and makes a short vowel sound.
Question 3: A student consistently struggles to retell story events in order. The teaching assistant should use which support?
- Increase independent reading level
- Provide a graphic organizer with beginning, middle, and end boxes (Correct answer)
- Focus on phonics drills
- Assign more vocabulary flashcards
Correct answer: Provide a graphic organizer with beginning, middle, and end boxes
A story sequence graphic organizer gives students a visual scaffold to organize and retell narrative events in order.
Question 4: The term 'alphabetic principle' refers to:
- Knowing the names of all 26 letters
- Understanding that letters represent sounds in spoken language (Correct answer)
- Ability to alphabetize a list of words
- Knowledge of dictionary guide words
Correct answer: Understanding that letters represent sounds in spoken language
The alphabetic principle is the understanding that written letters (graphemes) systematically represent spoken sounds (phonemes).
Question 5: Which is the most effective way for a teaching assistant to build a student's academic vocabulary?
- Have the student copy definitions from a dictionary
- Provide multiple exposures to words in rich contexts across subjects (Correct answer)
- Assign 20 new words per week to memorize
- Focus only on words the student can already decode
Correct answer: Provide multiple exposures to words in rich contexts across subjects
Research shows that multiple, contextual exposures across disciplines lead to deep, lasting vocabulary acquisition.
Question 6: A student reads a poem and identifies that lines 1 and 3 rhyme, and lines 2 and 4 rhyme. The student is analyzing:
- Meter
- Rhyme scheme (Correct answer)
- Alliteration
- Imagery
Correct answer: Rhyme scheme
Identifying which lines rhyme with each other is the analysis of a poem's rhyme scheme.
Question 7: Which instructional strategy is most appropriate when a student decodes words accurately in isolation but struggles with comprehension of connected text?
- More phonics practice with letter tiles
- Teach comprehension strategies such as questioning and summarizing (Correct answer)
- Reduce the reading level until decoding errors disappear
- Focus on handwriting fluency
Correct answer: Teach comprehension strategies such as questioning and summarizing
When decoding is intact but comprehension fails, explicit instruction in comprehension strategies is the appropriate intervention.
NYSTCE ATAS NYSTCE Literacy 5
A teaching assistant reads a picture book aloud and pauses to ask 'What do you think will happen next?' This is an example of: