Foundations of Reading: Objective VI

56. A second-grade teacher is reading aloud a literary text to the class. Which of the following post- reading activities would be most likely to promote the students' comprehension of the story by enhancing their literary analysis skills?

• encouraging the students to identify the key vocabulary words in the story

• discussing with the students how the characters in the story respond to major events and challenges

• asking the students to reread the story silently and respond to several literal comprehension questions

• having the students free write about the story in their reading response journals

57. A fifth-grade teacher plans to use the passage below in a lesson focused on analyzing literary texts. The teacher is planning text-based questions to use in a post-reading discussion about the passage. Which of the following organizing questions would most effectively prompt students' higher-order analysis of this passage?

• Who says "What matters most is the team winning" and how can you tell?

• How does the narrator describe the character named Zander and the character referred to as Coach?

• How does the author use dialogue to advance the plot?

• How are the narrator's relationships with Zander and Coach similar and yet different?

58. Which of the following strategies would be most appropriate to use to promote second-grade students' ability to analyze key ideas and details in a literary text?

• explicitly teaching students the key features and conventions of different literary genres

• prompting students to evaluate the significance of a story's setting with respect to its theme

• asking students text-dependent who, what, where, when, why, and how questions about story elements

• encouraging students to clarify their understanding of a story by reflecting on their personal experiences

59. A fourth-grade teacher is planning a lesson focused on promoting students' recognition of distinguishing features of prose, poetry, and drama. The teacher plans to begin the lesson by having students follow along as the teacher reads aloud three short passages—a chapter from a novel, a narrative poem, and a scene from a play. Afterward, the teacher plans to lead a whole- class discussion about the passages. Which of the following post-reading activities would be most effective in helping the students prepare for the discussion and achieve the lesson's objective?

• having students meet in small groups of four or five to consider the question, "Which of the three passages affected you most powerfully?"

• asking students to take notes in their literature journals while they reread the three passages silently and then review their notes before the discussion

• having pairs of students use a graphic organizer to compare how major story elements such as setting, characters, and plot are conveyed in the three passages

• asking individual students to freewrite for two minutes in response to the prompt, "Which of the three passages did you like best, and why?"

60. A second-grade class includes several expanding-level (advanced) English learners. The teacher typically previews a variety of texts to help select appropriate passages for English language arts instruction. Following is an excerpt from one of the texts the teacher is considering.

The English learners are most likely to need support with which of the following comprehension challenges in this passage?

• decoding irregularly spelled words such as wouldn't and know

• interpreting punctuation and usage associated with written dialogue

• recognizing less commonly used words such as blinked and shrugged

• understanding idiomatic meanings of some words and phrases

61. A fourth-grade class will be comparing the treatment of a similar theme, "family ties," in stories from different countries. After students read the stories independently, the teacher plans to lead close rereadings focused on the influence of culture on the target theme. Which of the following teaching preparation strategies would be most essential and effective for achieving the goals of this lesson?

• dividing the stories into coherent parts (e.g., beginning, middle, end) and composing a summary of key ideas or information conveyed in each section

• identifying passages key to comprehending the basic plot of each story and particular words or phrases the authors use that might be unfamiliar to students

• defining the key story elements in each story (e.g., time, place, characters) and identifying similarities and differences between these aspects of the stories

• identifying passages in each story that are essential to understanding the author's perspective and key words or other stylistic choices that convey certain values

62. Which of the following activities would be most effective for a teacher to use to promote students' strategic reading of literary texts?

• giving students bookmarks that list reading comprehension strategies with brief descriptions of their features and steps for their use

• leading students in frequent small-group discussions and close readings focused on relevant strategies (e.g., skimming, rereading) to use for different academic tasks and purposes

• reminding students to practice newly learned strategies (e.g., scanning for specific details) during independent reading and then enter the strategies they used in their reading logs

• pairing students with a classmate after a reading assignment and asking them to share which reading comprehension strategies they used

63. Fourth-grade students silently read an assigned text for part of the English language arts block and then meet for a small-group discussion of the text in another part of the block. During the silent reading portion, the teacher instructs students to use stick-on notes to bookmark passages where they make predictions, ask or answer questions, or encounter an unfamiliar word. In addition to anchoring the group discussions in the text, this practice benefits students primarily by increasing their:

• silent reading fluency.

• metacognitive awareness while reading.

• level of reading enjoyment.

• ability to concentrate during reading.

64. Some children in a kindergarten class have had limited prior exposure to storybooks read aloud and/or limited prior experiences discussing narrative texts. Their teacher wants to develop their knowledge of story structure. According to evidence-based best practices, which of the following instructional approaches is most likely to accelerate the children's understanding of the causal nature of story events?

• teaching story elements explicitly, such as main character, goal or problem, and resolution, as part of the daily read-aloud

• rereading favorite stories to children and letting them dress up like the characters

• having children practice putting photocopies of pictures taken from storybooks in the order in which they occurred in the book

• asking text-dependent questions about the key details in story events

65. A group of fifth-grade students finishes reading a novel written in the first person. The teacher has the students work together to write a new account of a key scene as it might be reported by a different major character. Which of the following questions would be the most appropriate focus of a group discussion following the writing activity?

• How does the narrative point of view in a story shape a reader's understanding of events?

• How do key structural elements in a narrative work affect the emotional impact of a story?

• How does the author use figurative language to foreshadow the resolution in a narrative?

• How do descriptive and expository writing affect a reader differently in a narrative text?