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?

• Assign complex reading assignments
• Focus on teaching advanced grammar rules
• Gaining some basic familiarity with the sound system of the student's primary language

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.

• Teach the student to identify the individual letters in the word.

• Teach the student to recognize the word as a whole.

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

• Ask the student to identify the sound at the beginning of a word.

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

• Ask the student to identify the sound at the end of a word.

Which of the following informal assessments would be the most appropriate to use to assess an individual student's phonemic awareness?

• Asking the student to identify the sound at the beginning, medial, or final of a spoken word (example: what sound do you hear at the end of “step”?)

• Asking the student to identify the letters in a word.

• Asking the student to read a passage aloud.

What strategy is the best to use to teach phonemic awareness?

• Teach the student to recognize whole words.

• Teach the student to identify letters in words.

• Say the individual sounds of a word.

• Say the pronunciation of CAT.

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

• Conducting a formal phonemic awareness assessment with the student.

• Teaching the student to recognize whole words.

• Teaching the student to identify letters in words.

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?

• They can read complex texts with understanding.

• They can read quickly and accurately.

• Vocabulary and academic language continue to be significant factors that disrupt student 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 did a dictation activity with a different set of words that follow the same pattern and the student wrote down the word. This activity demonstrates the teacher's awareness of the importance of?

• using listening activities to give students opportunities to apply phonics knowledge to new words.

• using speaking activities to give students opportunities to apply phonics knowledge to new words.

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

A first grade teacher provides students with explicit, systematic phonics instruction to promote their reading development. When designing activities to teach letter sound correspondence, the teacher should:

• Provide reading opportunities for students to practice sounds in context after studying the sounds in isolation.

• Provide speaking opportunities for students to practice sounds in context after studying the sounds in isolation.

• Provide listening opportunities for students to practice sounds in context after studying the sounds in isolation.

Prosody has which of these characteristics?

• Variations in volume and speed

• Variations in pitch and intonation

• Variations in tone and rhythm

• Variations in stress and pause