Reading Comprehension & Decoding Skills Flashcards

A student reads 'The ancient mariner navigated by celestial bodies.' What does 'celestial bodies' most likely mean?

Answer: Stars, moons, and planets

Celestial bodies refer to stars, planets, moons, and other objects in the sky used for navigation.

Which decoding strategy is most useful when a student encounters the word 'unhappiness'?

Answer: Breaking it into morphemes: un- + happy + -ness

Morphemic analysis—identifying prefixes, root words, and suffixes—is the most efficient strategy for decoding complex words.

A passage states: 'Despite the storm, the crew remained resolute.' What is the meaning of 'resolute'?

Answer: Determined and unwavering

Resolute means admirably determined and purposeful, especially in the face of difficulty.

In the WIAT, Pseudoword Decoding asks students to read nonsense words aloud. What skill does this task primarily assess?

Answer: Phonics and letter-sound correspondence

Pseudoword decoding isolates phonics skills by removing the possibility of recognizing real words from memory.

A reader encounters: 'The politician's rhetoric was persuasive but hollow.' What does 'hollow' imply about the rhetoric?

Answer: It lacked genuine substance or sincerity

Hollow in this context means empty of real meaning or sincere feeling, despite being convincing on the surface.

Which syllable type is represented by the vowel pattern in the word 'cake'?

Answer: Silent-e (magic e) syllable

A silent-e syllable has a long vowel followed by a consonant and a silent 'e,' as in 'cake.'

A text reads: 'She inferred from his curt reply that he was displeased.' What does 'inferred' mean?

Answer: Concluded based on indirect evidence

To infer means to reach a conclusion from evidence or reasoning rather than from explicit statements.

A student reads a passage about climate change and is asked: 'What is the author's main purpose?' The passage presents facts and statistics with no opinion. What is the most likely purpose?

Answer: To inform readers about climate change data

A text that presents facts and statistics without opinion has an informational or expository purpose.

The word 'transport' contains the Latin root 'port.' Which word shares this same root meaning 'carry'?

Answer: portable

Portable shares the Latin root 'port' meaning to carry, as in something that can be carried.

Which sentence contains a word used with a connotative (implied) rather than denotative (literal) meaning?

Answer: She has a heart of gold.

Heart of gold is a figurative expression implying kindness, not a literal anatomical or mineral description.

On the WIAT Reading Comprehension subtest, a student must retell a passage after reading it silently. Which skill is primarily being measured?

Answer: Recall of explicit and implicit text information

Retelling tasks assess how well students comprehend and remember both stated and implied information from a passage.

A student decodes 'knight' correctly. Which phonics concept is most relevant?

Answer: Silent letter combinations (kn-, -ght)

Knight contains two silent letter patterns: the silent 'k' in 'kn' and the silent letters in '-ght.'

A passage describes a character who 'wore a perpetual frown and spoke in clipped tones.' What can the reader infer about this character?

Answer: The character is unfriendly or stern

A perpetual frown and clipped speech are textual clues suggesting a cold, stern, or unfriendly personality.

Which of the following is an example of an open syllable?

Answer: 'me' in 'me-lon'

An open syllable ends in a vowel, which typically makes the vowel long, as in the 'me' in melon.

A student reads: 'The CEO's decision was both lauded and criticized.' What does 'lauded' mean?

Answer: Praised highly

To laud means to praise enthusiastically, so 'lauded' means the decision received strong approval.

Which text structure is used in a passage that explains why deforestation occurs and what results from it?

Answer: Cause and effect

A passage explaining why something happens and its outcomes uses cause-and-effect text structure.

A student struggles to read 'photograph' but can read 'photo' and 'graph' separately. What decoding strategy should be taught?

Answer: Breaking compound words and multisyllabic words into known parts

Teaching students to identify and blend known morphemes or syllable units helps decode longer, unfamiliar words.

In reading assessment, 'word attack skills' refers to:

Answer: Strategies used to decode unfamiliar words

Word attack skills encompass phonics, structural analysis, and other strategies used to decode words the reader hasn't seen before.

A passage ends: 'History has shown us that empires, however powerful, are ultimately transient.' What does 'transient' mean?

Answer: Temporary and short-lived

Transient means lasting only a short time; here it contrasts with how powerful empires appear to be.

Which reading comprehension question type requires a student to go BEYOND the text to answer?

Answer: An inferential question

Inferential questions require readers to use clues from the text combined with their own reasoning to reach conclusions not explicitly stated.