RICA Subtest 1

The primary formats for phonemic awareness are:

• oral blending and segmentation.

• identifying spelling patterns and vowels.

• sequencing and classifying.

• orthography and word analysis.

A kindergarten teacher implements the following lesson:

Teacher: What are the sounds in the word "sit"?
Student: /s/ /i/ /t/
Teacher: Good. The new word is "pit". What sound changed "sit" to "pit"?
Student: /p/

The phonemic awareness lesson above is an example of:

• substituting a medial vowel.

• substituting an initial consonant sound.

• syllable blending.

• phoneme counting.

As an additional support to her five students struggling with the phonemic awareness lesson during whole group instruction, a kindergarten teacher uses Elkonin boxes with colored tiles. As the teacher says a word, the student moves a tile in a box for each sound they hear in the target word. The teacher calls on each student to tell her the sounds they hear in the word while touching the colored tiles. This strategy should enhance understanding of identifying sounds because:

• it uses an auditory technique that allows the student to hear the sounds louder during instruction.

• it uses a pre-teaching technique that prepares the student to identify sounds orally.

•  it enhances the lesson by making it more fun for students, using colors and grids.

• it uses a kinesthetic technique that allows the student to use a hands-on approach for identifying sounds in a word.

An example of a phonemic awareness assessment is:

• medial phoneme substitution.

• word sort.

• matching prefixes and their meanings.

• matching uppercase and lowercase letters, using word cards.

During the first week of school, a kindergarten teacher assesses each student by asking a series of questions after handing them a book:

• Where is the front cover of the book?

• Use your finger to show me where I will begin reading on this page.

• Use your finger to show me the direction I need to read.

• Point to the title of the book.

• Show me how to turn the page.

• Where is the beginning of the story?

• Where is the end of the story?

The teacher implemented this assessment to determine the students’ skills in the area of:

• phonics.

• concepts about print.

• phonemic awareness.

• alphabetic principle.

A kindergarten teacher conducts small group instruction with six students that is designed using letter cards. The lesson is introduced in the following way:

Teacher: In my hand I have a deck of letter cards for the alphabet that have two letters, plus a line that indicates that a letter is missing. As I flip the cards in the deck, I want you to name the missing letters on each card.  

ex: a b & d e __

 

The intervention lesson will support students becoming more proficient in the area of:

• letter naming.

• letter formation.

• phonemic awareness.

• letter and sound correspondence.

A kindergarten teacher notices that two of his students are having difficulty identifying the letters p and q. The best strategy for helping the students distinguish the two letters is:

• using flashcards to repeat letter names.

• having the students look for the letters in a "big book."

• practicing letter formation during hands-on activities, such as tracing letters in sand.

• having the students copy the letters five times each for homework.

A first grade teacher is designing lessons to focus on the alphabetic principle for small group instruction. An effective lesson will be:

• the teacher segments a CVC word. For each sound in the word the students place a corresponding letter card on the mat. After placing the letters on the mat, the students blend the sounds to say the word.

• the students sequence the alphabet on a graphic organizer.

• the students participate in sight word activities.

• the teacher recites the alphabet song with her students daily.

A kindergarten student writes about his trip over winter vacation while working in the writing center during Independent Workshop. The entry states:

I wnt to the mntns and plyd in the sno. It ws fn.

The student’s writing displays an example of:

•  conventional spelling.

• sound spelling.

•  phonetic spelling.

• transitional spelling.

A kindergarten teacher groups her students in pairs and gives them each an alphabet card. (One has an uppercase letter; the second student has the same lowercase letter.) She provides each pair with a tic-tac-toe grid and they have to play tic-tac-toe, writing the letter they were assigned.

This activity allows the student to receive additional practice to master the skills related to:

• sound correspondence and phonics.

• decoding and sight words.

• letter recognition and letter formation.

• spelling and syllabication.