CCA2 - HOTS : DR

Ms. Evans observes that a group of her first-grade students consistently guess unfamiliar words using initial letters or pictures rather than attempting to sound them out. She needs to select a proven instructional method to build their foundational skill of correlating printed letters with spoken sounds. Which instructional approach should Ms. Evans prioritize to systematically address the students' deficit in relating letters to sounds?

• Implement the whole language approach, using context clues to guess words in meaningful texts.

• Focus on the phonics approach, systematically teaching letter-sound correspondences and blending.

• Utilize contextual reading, encouraging students to derive word meaning from surrounding sentences.

• Adopt balanced literacy only, assuming the current mix is sufficient without explicit strategy change.

A school district is evaluating two new reading programs: Program A, which uses authentic novels and stresses reading for meaning, and Program B, which emphasizes systematic, daily drills of phonics rules. If the district chooses Program A, which aligns with the primary goal of the whole language approach, which potential weakness must they be prepared to mitigate?

• Students may not appreciate reading as a meaningful and enjoyable experience.

• Students might struggle to master the explicit decoding of unfamiliar, rule-breaking words.

• Teachers will lack engaging, high-quality texts to use in their daily lessons.

• Overall reading comprehension scores for all students will significantly increase immediately.

A curriculum design committee is tasked with creating a reading program that integrates the necessity of foundational skills with the importance of reading engaging, meaningful texts for comprehension. Which program design principle best fulfills the criteria for creating an effective balanced literacy model?

• Exclusively focus instruction on authentic literature to ensure reading is always meaningful.

• Structure the program to combine explicit foundational skill instruction with rich literature experiences.

• Remove all direct skill instruction, relying only on students to discover phonics rules during reading.

• Use a primarily phonics-only curriculum, integrating literature solely as a supplemental activity.

A third-grade student can read most of the words in a text but consistently stumbles and pauses at any new, multi-syllable word, indicating a mental roadblock. The student's difficulty with new words indicates a weakness in which essential reading subskill?

• The ability to comprehend the overall purpose and main idea of the text.

• The mechanical process of decoding, or translating written symbols into spoken sounds.

• The capacity to memorize a large list of high-frequency words instantly.

• The skill of reading the same passage multiple times for improved speed.

A kindergarten teacher must evaluate a student to determine readiness for more structured reading instruction, moving beyond simple picture book engagement. Which observed student behavior provides the strongest evidence to categorize the student as an emergent reader?

• The student consistently reads short, familiar picture books independently and fluently.

• The student is starting to grasp the alphabetic principle, realizing print carries a specific message.

• The student can read a complex, unfamiliar novel with excellent expression.

• The student has completely mastered all foundational reading skills and is ready for advanced poetry.

Mr. Patel needs a diagnostic tool to pinpoint the specific errors a student makes while reading aloud (e.g., substitutions, omissions) to tailor intervention effectively. Which assessment tool should Mr. Patel use to analyze the student's reading behaviors, including accuracy, rate, and error patterns in oral reading?

• A standardized multiple-choice comprehension test to re-evaluate understanding.

• A running record of the student's oral reading to analyze specific error types and fluency.

• A written summary assignment to check the student's ability to recall main events.

• A basic sight word list to verify the student's memorization capacity.

A high-achieving student can accurately decode all words in a passage and understands the meaning but reads slowly, without expression, and in a choppy, monotone voice. Which reading component should the teacher evaluate and target for improvement to enhance the student's reading efficiency and overall comprehension?

• Phonics instruction, as the student is struggling to sound out words correctly.

• Reading fluency, focusing on rate and prosody for smoother, more expressive reading.

• Phonemic awareness, since the student is unable to hear the individual sounds in words.

• Vocabulary instruction, because the student clearly doesn't know the meaning of the words.

A teacher is designing a post-reading activity for a complex informational text to ensure students have constructed a deep, integrated understanding, not just surface-level recall. Which activity best ensures the students are demonstrating true reading comprehension beyond simple factual recall?

• Have students take turns reading the text aloud for accuracy and speed.

• Require students to answer literal questions and summarize the main events.

• Ask students to evaluate the author's argument and synthesize a counter-argument with textual evidence.

• Have students practice sounding out all the challenging vocabulary words in the passage.

A third-grade classroom has a vast range of reading levels. The teacher aims to provide targeted, explicit strategy instruction to small groups of students who share an identical instructional need. Which organizational structure should the teacher implement to efficiently provide this differentiated, focused instruction?

• Assign all students the same whole-class novel and grade their independent work.

• Conduct a guided reading lesson with a small group at a similar instructional level.

• Require all students to complete the same computer-based fluency practice program.

• Implement a strategy where all students partner-read different texts aloud to each other.

After reading a lengthy fairy tale, students struggle to keep track of the main character's journey, the shifting settings, and the final resolution of the conflict. Which reading strategy is best suited to help students visually and structurally analyze the key narrative elements and their sequence in the story?

• Using a phonics drill to review the letter-sound patterns found in the text.

• Employing a story map to graphically organize the characters, setting, plot, and conflict.

• Requiring students to practice reading the most difficult sentences aloud repeatedly.

• Creating a personal dictionary of all the high-frequency sight words in the text.