Reading Theory
According to Scarborough's Reading Rope, what happens when a student has strong language comprehension but weak word recognition strands?
A. They will read fluently but understand nothing
B. They will struggle to decode words, limiting reading comprehension
C. They will naturally memorize words through exposure to high-quality literature
D. They will compensate using "context clues" to make up for it
B. They will struggle to decode words/pull print from the page and that limits reading comprehension.
A student spells the word "ship" as "sip". Which specific literacy skill requires targeted intervention?
A. Morphological Awareness (meaningful parts)
B. Phoneme-Grapheme mapping of digraphs
C. Vocab Acquisition
D. Syllable Division
B. Student is missing the connection that "Sh" work together as digraph for one sound.
You want to use a formative assessment strategy that allows every student in small group to show their answer simultaneously, no shouting out. Which is best?
A. Choral Reading
B. Elkonin Boxes
C. Language Stems
D. Pinch Cards
D.Pinch cards allow for students to respond at the same time, no shouting. Choral Response would also work, but only when taught no hands raised, and think time before all answer together. Best for whole group.
Why is the traditional "Three-Cueing system" (asking students to look at picture, guess the word or use context) considered a poor practice?
It pulls students' eyes away from the word, hindering orthographic mapping for LT storage.
What process allows a reader to store a printed word in long-term memory for effortless, instant retrieval?
A. Rote memorization
B. Sight Word Drilling
C. Orthographic Mapping
D. Contextual Guessing
C. Orthographic mapping links phonemes to graphemes (sounds to letters) to lock words into LT memory
If a Kindergarten student is using Elkonin boxes to segment the spoken word "chat", how many tokens, or counters, will they push into boxes?
3
You are introducing a complex text about insects. Which strategy provides the best scaffolding to get struggling readers to participate?
A. Asking them to read the passage first in front of the class
B. Providing a stem like, "Based on the text, an insect has..."
C. Handing them a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words
D. Skipping print text and letting them look at pictures and diagrams
C. Language stems stimulate language and activate prior knowledge; allow students to express vocab (then gradually take prompt away)
If a 3rd grade teacher wants to improve ORF, oral reading fluency, which practices should be AVOIDED?
A. Choral Reading
B. Round Robin Reading
C. Partner Reading
D. Echo Reading
B. Instead of a focus on text, decoding and making meaning, students are anxiously awaiting their turn, leading to minimal practice.
When practicing high-frequency "Heart Words" (words with irregular spellings like 'said', what is the most effective instructional sequence?
A. Having students write the words 10x until they memorize it visually
B. Pointing out the irregular sound pattern then explicitly teaching the irregular "heart" part
C. Flashcard drilling at high speed without breaking down sounds
D. Encouraging students to look at the first letter and guess the rest
B. Even irregular sound-spelling words are mostly regular; isolating specific untaught spelling helps students map that "heart" part effectively.
What is the difference between and phoneme and a grapheme?
Phoneme: Smallest unit of sound in a spoken word
Grapheme: letter or letter cluster representing that sound.
What foundational tool could you use to help students segment, blend, map the word before using it in decodable text?
A. Elkonin boxes and chaining
B. Rainbow writing
C. Flashcards
D. Predictable reading
A. Elkonin boxes for sound, chaining for spelling practice and manipulation of phonemes
A classroom aide is about to use Popcorn Reading (randomly calling on students). Explain why this debunked strategy should be replaced with Partner Reading.
With partner reading, you are tracking, correcting, focusing on what you hear and see while actively participating in your own reading process.
True or False:
The Science of Reading is a specific curriculum that schools must purchase.
False. The SoR is a vast, interdisciplinary body of evidence-based research about how reading works in the brain and how it should be taught.
What is a language stem or prompt that you could give a student who is stuck decoding the word "flat."
Let's do the first 2 letters, which is a blend. What is the vowel? What sounds to they make?
If a student is struggling to segment and blend, you should try what?
Continuous blending but NOT with stop sounds. Ex/Cat is harder to blend than SAT or MAT
Give an example of an evidence-based alternative to sending home a weekly random list of 20 words for students to memorize for a Friday quiz.
Explicit Vocab instruction (3-5) even within a Read Aloud, targeted words that students use with multiple repetitions, and use in a sentence with part of speech.