RICA Word Analysis 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student can orally blend phonemes into words but cannot yet map those phonemes to letters. This student needs instruction in:
- Phonological awareness at the phoneme level
- The alphabetic principle and letter-sound correspondences (Correct answer)
- Fluency-building with decodable texts
- Morphological analysis of multisyllabic words
Correct answer: The alphabetic principle and letter-sound correspondences
Phonemic awareness is oral/auditory; the next step is connecting those sounds to letters, which is the alphabetic principle.
Question 2: The word 'unhappiness' can be segmented into which morphemes?
- un- / happy / -ness (Correct answer)
- un- / hap / -pi / -ness
- un- / happ / -i / -ness
- unhappy / -ness
Correct answer: un- / happy / -ness
'Unhappiness' consists of the prefix 'un-', the root 'happy,' and the suffix '-ness,' totaling three morphemes.
Question 3: Which of the following words contains a vowel team (vowel digraph) pattern?
- cape
- train (Correct answer)
- stripe
- blend
Correct answer: train
'Train' contains the vowel team 'ai,' where two vowels work together to represent one sound.
Question 4: A student decodes 'fantastic' correctly as /fænˈtæstɪk/. Which skill did the student most likely use to tackle this multisyllabic word?
- Sight word recognition
- Syllable division and applying phonics to each syllable (Correct answer)
- Context clues from surrounding sentences
- Morphological analysis of Greek roots
Correct answer: Syllable division and applying phonics to each syllable
Breaking multisyllabic words into syllables (fan-tas-tic) and decoding each part is a key strategy for reading longer words.
Question 5: Which of the following pairs demonstrates the concept of a 'vowel-r' (r-controlled) syllable?
- cake / lake
- bird / park (Correct answer)
- she / be
- night / light
Correct answer: bird / park
In r-controlled syllables, the vowel sound is influenced by a following 'r,' as in 'bird' (/ɜːr/) and 'park' (/ɑːr/).
Question 6: A kindergarten teacher claps syllables in words with students. This activity primarily builds:
- Phonemic awareness at the phoneme level
- Phonological awareness at the syllable level (Correct answer)
- Orthographic mapping
- Morphological knowledge
Correct answer: Phonological awareness at the syllable level
Clapping syllables develops phonological awareness at the syllable level, which is a broader unit than the phoneme.
Question 7: A student spells 'action' as 'acshun.' This spelling reveals the student does not yet know:
- The -tion suffix represents the /ʃən/ sound and is spelled consistently (Correct answer)
- The schwa rule for unstressed syllables
- The soft-c rule
- The silent-e rule in multisyllabic words
Correct answer: The -tion suffix represents the /ʃən/ sound and is spelled consistently
The -tion suffix is a morpheme that is always spelled '-tion' even though it sounds like /ʃən/.
RICA Word Analysis 4
A student can orally blend phonemes into words but cannot yet map those phonemes to letters.
This student needs instruction in: