STR PRACTICE TEST REVIEW

Most students in a kindergarten class can identify two words that rhyme. Which of the following phonemic skills is the most appropriate for the teacher to address next?

• Naming the beginning sounds in words

• Blending the initial consonant sounds in words

• Pronouncing all the sounds in words with two or three phonemes

• Blending the final consonant sounds in words

Answer explanation

Option A is correct because this is the next phase in phonemic development. (Readers have to identify individual phonemes before they can blend).

Which of the following activities will contribute most to improvement in students' oral reading fluency?

• Students read timed passages aloud while the teacher keeps charts of their progress

• Students read a text aloud while a partner listens and takes notes

• Students read instructional-level text in a small group and discuss what they read

• Students read a text multiple times and receive guided oral feedback from the teacher

Answer explanation

Option D is correct because reading a text multiple times allows students to practice their prosody, while feedback from the teacher provides additional information to develop that skill. Timing students focuses on rate and discussing and/or taking notes focuses on comprehension.

A teacher takes a running record in May on Jeremiah, a second-grade student, using a self-selected book. Jeremiah read 66 words correct per minute (WCPM) with 95 percent accuracy and correctly answered 2 out of 4 comprehension questions about the text. The following is a list of words miscalled by Jeremiah during the running record:

tattle

decision

adventure

giggle

motion

nature

simple

According to the list of mispronounced words, Jeremiah will benefit most from instruction in which of the following word-identification strategies?

• Detecting the synctactic placement of nouns

• Recognizing final stable syllable patterns

• Tapping the sound made by each grapheme

• Identifying commonly used inflectional endings

Answer explanation

Option B is correct because all of the words mispronounced contain a final stable syllable (-le, -tion, or -ture)

A teacher takes a running record in May on Jeremiah, a second-grade student, using a self-selected book. Jeremiah read 66 words correct per minute (WCPM) with 95 percent accuracy and correctly answered 2 out of 4 comprehension questions about the text. The following is a list of words miscalled by Jeremiah during the running record:

tattle

decision

adventure

giggle

motion

nature

simple

The fluency data show that it is most beneficial for Jeremiah to select books that

• are at the same level.

• interest him more.

• are at a higher level.

• he has read many times.

Answer explanation

Option A is correct because Jeremiah read at the bottom of the independent range and his WCPM is below expectations for second grade. You can't discern from the data what his interest in the text is, and he needs to read more words correct at this level before moving to a more difficult level. Also, while reading familiar texts can help WCPM, it does not appropriately challenge the student to promote growth.

A teacher takes a running record in May on Jeremiah, a second-grade student, using a self-selected book. Jeremiah read 66 words correct per minute (WCPM) with 95 percent accuracy and correctly answered 2 out of 4 comprehension questions about the text. The following is a list of words miscalled by Jeremiah during the running record:

tattle

decision

adventure

giggle

motion

nature

simple

According to the assessment data, Jeremiah's teacher can infer that his comprehension of the text is primarily affected by his

• word-identification skills

• background knowledge

• oral reading rate

• vocabulary development

Answer explanation

Option C is correct because his oral-reading rate of 66 WCPM is below the expectation of 90 WCPM for 2nd grade. He recognizes 95% of the words so word-identification is not a problem and the data tells us nothing with regard to his background knowledge or vocabulary development.

Which of the following activities should a teacher assign to assess a student's level of graphophonemic knowledge?

• Reciting the alphabet in order

• Copying written text onto paper

• Differentiating between words and letters

• Decoding unfamiliar regular words

Answer explanation

Option D is correct b/c graphophonemic awareness is a student's understanding of the relationship between written letters and their corresponding sounds. Reciting the alphabet in order requires knowledge of letter names, not relationships to sounds ; copying written text onto paper requires only knowledge of shapes of letters, not sounds; and differentiating between letters & words doesn't necessarily require knowledge of sounds/letters.

Which of the following is most important for a teacher to consider when selecting texts for developing students' decoding ability during small-group guided-reading instruction?

• Reading comprehension

• Individual learning styles

• Accuracy in reading leveled text

• Personal reading interests

Answer explanation

Option C is correct because teachers should select appropriate leveled texts, depending on the students' reading accuracy, so that the texts contain an appropriate number of words for students to decode.

When reading a narrative, a third-grade teacher has students record the important elements on a story map. The activity primarily improves students' comprehension of the text by

• Promoting personal connections to the text

• Supporting evaluative-level understanding

• Requiring the activation of prior knowledge

• Focusing on the structure of the text

Answer explanation

Option D is correct bc a story map helps student s outline the structure of the text, which helps to improve comprehension. Story maps don't promote personal connections or require activation of prior knowledge or evaluative-level understanding.

A fifth-grade teacher plans to integrate reader's theater into reading instruction. A primary reason the practice will improve students' reading fluency is that it provides students with

• a text appropriate for their instructional reading level

• a model of fluent reading using proper intonation

• an opportunity to practice their decoding strategies

• an authentic purpose for reading a text multiple times

Answer explanation

Option D is correct because to implement reader's theater, students are asked to practice reading a script many times for an oral presentation. This provides an authentic reason for rereading, which is an excellent fluency-building activity. A is incorrect because fluency is better developed through reading independent-level texts, B is incorrect because fluent reading with proper intonation is best modeled by a teacher readaloud, and C is incorrect because students should not have to spend a lot of time decoding text that they are trying to read fluently.

A first-grade student has been identified as having dyslexia and has begun intervention. Which of the following approaches to instruction would be most effective to enhance the student's reading development?

• allowing the student to use colored overlays on all classroom texts to ameliorate the visual difficulties caused by dyslexia

• using reading materials with the student for instruction and guided practice that utilize specialized fonts designed for people with dyslexia

• arranging for the student to spend time each day on the classroom computer using a working-memory training program

• providing the student with systematic, explicit multimodal instruction in all the essential, evidence-based components of reading

Answer explanation

Option D is correct because research supports a language-based, multimodal approach to instruction that is systematic and explicit; addresses all five components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension); and integrates spelling and writing instruction with reading instruction.