Test Questions
Vocabulary
Characteristics of Phonics Instruction
Failures of Phonics Instruction
Random
100

A kindergarten teacher is reading a big book to a group of children. The teacher periodically points to the beginning consonant of selected words and accentuates its initial phoneme as the teacher reads the word aloud. The teacher's practice is most likely to reinforce the children's:


  1. awareness of word boundaries in text.

  2. awareness of letter-sound correspondences.

  3. ability to segment the sounds of spoken words.

  4. ability to apply phonemic blending skills.



2. awareness of letter-sounds correspondences

100

Breaking a word you hear into sounds

Segmenting

100

Knowing the names, shapes, and sounds of letters

Alphabet Recognition

100

Name 1 common mistake when teaching phonics

•Inadequate Review/repetition

•Lack of "real world" applications

•Inappropriate reading material

•Ineffective use of "gradual release" method

•Time lost in transitions

•Limited teacher knowledge of phonics routines and linguistics

•Inappropriate pacing of lessons

•No comprehensive/cumulative mastery assessment tools

•Late transition to multisyllabic words

•Overdoing it

100

The average number of books read by an American every year

12

200

In the years since the report by the National Reading Panel (2000) was published, evidence- based research has conclusively documented that which of the following phonics approaches is most effective in promoting beginning readers' reading and spelling development?


  1. teaching students common phonograms or word families that share the same orthographic rime (i.e., ending letter sequence with a common pronunciation)

  2. introducing students to printed words that are likely to be in their oral vocabularies to support them in making effective guesses based on a text's context (e.g., the pictures)

  3. providing embedded phonics or "phonics in context," in which the teacher primarily offers support reading a word when a student cannot read a word in connected text

  4. focusing on grapheme-phoneme correspondences, in which students are taught explicitly to sound out each letter or letter combination in a word and blend the letter-sounds together


4. focusing on grapheme-phoneme correspondences, in which students are taught explicitly to sound out each letter or letter combination in a word and blend the letter-sounds together

200

Merging the sounds in a word together in order to pronounce it

Blending
200

Word building and word sorts are used to increase student's what?

Word Awareness 

200

What failure involves spending too much time on phonics while ignoring things like vocal and background knowledge?

Over-doing it

200

What is the literacy rate in the US?

99%

300

Which of the following sentences contains a pair of italicized words that differ from each other by one phoneme?

  1. He took off his cap before he lay down to take a nap.

  2. She walked down the lane to see the beautiful deep blue sea.

  3. They were distracted by the noise as the window shade retracted.

  4. After he bashed his toe, he sat down for a while and basked in the sun.


1. He took off his cap before he lay down to take a nap.

300

The smallest unit of sound in a word. There are around 44 of them in English.

Phoneme

300
Most common words in the English language

High Frequency Words

300
Name one way that phonics can be applied to "real life" experiences in the classroom?

Food packaging/labels, restaurant chains, books read in classes

300

What is the best selling book of all time?

the Bible

400

According to basic principles of evidence-based, systematic phonics instruction, which of the following common English letter combinations would be most appropriate for a first-grade teacher to introduce first?

A. ir 

B. kn 

C. th

D. oi


C. th

400

A way of writing down a phoneme. Can be one letter (s), two letters (ir), three letters (igh) or four letters in length (tough).

Grapheme

400

The understanding that words are made
up of a series of discrete sounds. 

Phonemic Awareness

400

Fill in the blanks: Who ever does the               does the              .

Thinking, learning

400

How many copies of Twilight have been sold world wide?

about 160 million

500


  1. A second-grade teacher is working with a small group of students to improve their oral reading fluency. As part of lesson planning, the teacher analyzes the students' oral reading errors and plans instruction to address phonics knowledge and skills not yet mastered. The teacher's actions are likely to benefit the students' reading fluency most directly by:

    1. encouraging the students to slow down and decode words letter by letter, a prerequisite of fluent oral reading.

    2. improving the students' reading accuracy, a key component of fluency.

    3. promoting the students' recall of a large number of grade-level words by sight, a prerequisite of fluent oral reading.

    4. focusing the students on increasing their reading rate, a key component of fluency.


2. improving the students' reading accuracy, a key component of fluency.

500

A grapheme made up of two letters that makes one sound (sh in fish)

Digraph

500

Saying and spelling words out loud

Dictation

500

How many weeks would new phonics skills be reviewed for? 

4-6 weeks

500

What literary "s" term is intended to be both critical and humorous while poking fun at an institution or idea?

Satire