RICA Subtest #1

A first grade teacher considers ways to help a new student who is beginning English learner development skills and phonemic awareness and knowledge of English sounds. Which of the following steps will be most important for the teacher to take first?

• Collecting a set of simple rhyming poems in English to practice reciting with the student

• Preparing a list of simple English words with different vowel sounds for the student to study

• Gaining some basic familiarity with the sound system of the student's primary “native” language

• Making a study tape for the student by recording an oral reading of high-frequency English words

A first-grade teacher leads a small group of beginning readers in a lesson focused on decoding simple words composed of letters that students have learned to sound out in isolation.  The teacher begins by writing the word “sat” on the board.  In keeping the research-based practices, the most appropriate step for the teacher to take next in this lesson would be to:

• Teach the student to blend the sounds in the word sat slowly and continuously without pausing.

• Ask the students to suggest words they know that rhyme with sat and write these words on the board.

  
  

• Teach students to first silently scan all the letters in the word sat and then pronounce the word aloud. 

• Have the students practice identifying the word sat in a variety of connected texts.

Which of the following strategies would best help a kindergarten teacher assess a student’s ability to blend phonemes?

• Say the words set, pet, and mp, then ask the child which one sounds different.

• Say the sounds /s/, /e/, and /t/ separately, then ask the child to say them as one word.

• Say the words sat, set, and sit, then ask the child to say them with /m/ in place of /s/.

• Say the word set, then ask the child to tap once for each sound the word contains

What strategy is best used to teach phonemic awareness? 

• Saying the alphabet aloud

  
  

• Sing “Old McDonald”

• Break apart words from a list 

• Say the individual sounds of a word

A student who joins a first-grade classroom in October performs poorly on a phonemic-awareness activity. To address this student’s reading needs, which of the following steps would be most important for the teacher to take first?

• Engaging the student in a variety of beginning phonics games and activities.

• Consulting informally with the special education teacher to see if the student might benefit from an individualized education program.

• Conducting formal phonemic- awareness assessments with the student

• Making immediate plans for a sequence of differentiated instruction for the student in phonemic-awareness skills.

Which of the following statements best explain why students continue to need systemic, explicit instruction to support and promote fluency even after they have achieved automaticity?

• Vocabulary and academic language continue to be significant factors that disrupt students' fluency. 

• Students need continued guided practice in basic phonics patterns and elements

•  Students need continued guided practice in basic word identification skills

• High-frequency irregular sight words continue to be significant factors that disrupt students fluency

A Third grade teacher develops a word list from a small group of students that includes words representing complex phonics patterns. After reviewing the list with students the teacher allowed a NEW set of words that follow the same pattern and the student wrote down the word. This activity demonstrates the teachers awareness of the importance of?

• Developing students recognition of common syllable patterns to support accurate reading and writing

• Helping students understand use of invented spelling to reinforce their phonics skills and foster self expression

• Helping students understand how the morphology of words relate to spelling patterns.

• Using writing activities to give students opportunities to apply phonics knowledge to new words

Prosody has which of these characteristics?

• Reading with excitement and correct intonation like teachers do. A good strategy is choral reading

• Variation in pitch and intonation

• Pronunciation of phonemes

• Sounding of natural speech

Prosodic reading both supports and is supported by reader’s  ...

• Word consciousness and enjoyment of words

  
  

• Ability to recognize the internal structure of words

• Active comprehension processes

• Phonemic-awareness skills

Which of the following questions focuses most directly on a student’s ability to read with prosody?

• Can the student writing accurate description of the main idea and supporting details of a passage after reading the passage aloud

• Can the student demonstrate evaluative comprehension when responding to questions about a passage after reading it aloud?

• Can the student connect elements in a passage to other sources, including personal experiences, after reading the passage aloud?

• Can the student accurately read aloud a grade-appropriate passage in a manner thats sounds like natural speech?