2. A first-grade teacher is planning a language
activity for a small group of students whose experience with books and
other written material has been extremely limited. Which of the following
activities would best promote these students’ understanding of both the
format and the function of print?
a. providing them with name labels that
they may attach to their desks, coat hooks, etc.
b. reading Big Books aloud to them, pointing
to each word as it is read.
c. providing them with copies of books
in which they can follow along as the teacher reads a story aloud
d. asking them to make up stories that
tell about the pictures in wordless books.
3. A second-grade teacher has made the following
notes about the reading performance of Melissa, one of her students.
Melissa’s oral reading speed and accuracy are about average for the class. Her errors, which tend to occur when she encounters polysyllabic, unfamiliar words, usually consist of substituting real words or nonsense words that are structurally similar to the printed words rather than words that are semantically or syntactically correct.
Melissa’s performance on oral and written comprehension questions
that are based on silent and oral reading selections is also average for
the class; however, her miscues, if numerous, sometimes seem to interfere
with her comprehension.
Based on the e teacher’s notes about Melissa’s reading performance, Melissa most likely needs instruction that will help her do which of the following?
I. increase her sight word repertoire
II. use her own background knowledge to
understand reading passages
III. improve her decoding strategies
IV. use context clues to determine unknown
words
V. use self-monitoring strategies to ask
herself comprehension questions about the material she is reading
a. I and II only
b. I, II and III only
c. II and III only
d. II, IV and V only
4. Each student in Ms. Burgess’s third-grade class
has been working on writing a story for the past week. Ms. Burgess
observes that several of her students are spending their daily writing
period adding on to their stories, making them longer but not necessarily
better, and doing no revision except occasional corrections of misspelled
words. She wants to encourage these students to take a broader, more
exploratory approach to revision- to review and evaluate their work and
then reshape it according to their new insight. Which of the following
teaching strategies would be most effective in achieving this goal?
a. asking students to think about what
parts of their story are most important and whether they have described
these parts clearly and effectively
b. encouraging each student to place an
appropriate limit on the length of his or her story based on the number
of characters and events the student intends to include
c. having students brainstorm words related
to the subject of the stories they are writing and decide which words might
be incorporated in their work
d. suggesting that students begin each
writing period by drawing an illustration that depicts the main story idea
they wish to convey that day and then resume work on their writing
5. Which of the following strategies would be
most appropriate for helping Brendan gain a better understanding of this
passage?
a. advise him to reread the story more
slowly and to pay particular attention to words like later and then that
can help him clarify the sequence of the events described.
b. ask him to write down the main events
of the story in outline form in the order in which they occurred
c. instruct him to rewrite the entire story
in his own words and to include as many details as possible from the original
d. ask him how he felt when he wanted something
a lot but didn’t get it; then have him read the story again
6. Another third-grade teacher plans to assign
this worksheet to all the students in the class. Which of the following
instructions would be most appropriate for the teacher to give to encourage
the students’ purposeful reading of the worksheet passage?
a. Quickly skim through the story, noting
the main idea, then reread the story for details.
b. Underline any important details in the
story as you read through it.
c. Skip words you don’t know and continue
reading to the end of the story.
d. Read through the questions on the worksheet
first, then read the story.
Read the worksheet below, completed by a third grader; then answer
the three questions that follow.
Name: Brendan W. Date: Nov. 6
Read the following passage and answer the questions.
The Birthday
Hank woke up very excited on Saturday morning
because it was his birthday. His family was planning a big party
for him, with lots of good food, balloons, and a cake with nine candles.
It wasn’t the party that Hank was most excited about, though. He
was sure this would be the day when he finally got the remote-control car
he wanted more than anything. He first saw the shiny red car in the
front window of Mitchell’s Toy Store a month ago. Since then, it
was all he could think about.
Later in the day, it finally came time
for Hank to open his presents. His parents gave him a basketball
and sneakers. From his sisters, he received a book about making paper
airplanes. His little brother gave him a special rock he had found.
Finally, there was only the present from his grandfather left to open.
This was his last hope. He ripped off the paper and opened the box.
Inside there was a T-shirt that said, “Number One Grandson.” Hank
almost groaned out loud, but instead he put a smile on his face and politely
thanked his grandfather for the shirt.
Then he said silently to himself, “Maybe next year.”
1. How does hank feel when he wakes up? Why does he feel this
way?
Excited cause its his birthday.
2. What does Hank want most for his birthday?
A remote-control car
3. What presents does Hank get for his birthday?
shirt that says Number One Grandson, basketball, ssneakers,
book, rock
4. How does Hank probably feel when he opens the present from his
grandfather and sees what is inside? What clue in the story tells
you he feels this way?
Happy. It says he smiles and says thank you.
7. Given Brendan’s responses to the questions
on the worksheet, which self-monitoring strategy would likely have been
most helpful for increasing his comprehension of this passage?
a. stopping after he had read the title
and setting a purpose for reading the selection
b. asking himself if he understood what
Hank meant by his statement in the last sentence.
c. going back and rereading any sentence
that contained an unfamiliar word to see if he could determine the word’s
meaning from its context.
d. reminding himself to read more slowly
when he came to portions of the text he found difficult to understand.
8. A second-grade teacher has just read a story
aloud to the class. Which of the following questions would best help
the teacher assess the students’ comprehension of the story and maximize
student participation in discussion?
a. Who were the main characters in the
story?
b. Is the story fiction, nonfiction, science
fiction, or fantasy, and how do you know that?
c. What was the setting of the story?
d. What were some interesting things that
happened in the story?
9. In an ongoing effort to strengthen his students’ oral communication skills, a fourth-grade teacher is planning to hold a discussion of the events that led to the battle of the Alamo. The teacher decides to assign students to play the parts of specific characters; that is, when they address the issues involved in the conflict, one student will be Santa Anna, a few will be defenders of the Alamo, one will be Sam Houston, others will be soldiers in the Mexican army. This teacher is most likely attempting to do which of the following?
I. help students realize that people’s points
of view affect their interpretations of information
II. promote students’ use of inferential
skills
III. help students learn to make mental
translations of written material
IV. promote students’ awareness that oral
communication can deepen their understanding of other people.
a. I and II only
b. I, II and III only
c. III and IV only
d. I, II, III and IV
10. After reading through a group of first-draft
stories about life in a rain-forest written by her third graders, Ms. Silber
decides her students could benefit from several sessions of the following
activity before beginning their second drafts. First she divides
student into groups. She then names a pair of words that re related
in meaning, such as jungle and forest. Each group begins by discussing
what each word in a word pair makes them think of and then comes up with
a unique definition for each word discussed. Finally, the whole class
meets to discuss the various definitions. This activity is most likely
designed to promote students’:
a. inclusion of context clues to increase
the clarity of their writing.
b. conscious consideration of word choices
in their writing.
c. ability to apply knowledge of root words
to enrich the vocabulary used in their writing.
d. recognition of the benefits of concise
writing.
11. A third-grade class has been reading folk
tales from around the world. Which related activity would likely
be most effective in promoting students’ multi-cultural awareness and appreciation?
a. reading aloud and then discussing descriptions
of the climate, landforms and cultural characteristics of each country
whose folk tales the class has read
b. holding a directed discussion in which
students are led to discover some of the common features among folk tales
as well as some of the unique features of each culture’s folk tales
c. after students have written their own
“folk tales,” having them read the folk tales from various countries and
decide which of the real folk tales each of their own “folk tales” is most
similar to
d. having each student choose a folk tale
from a different country to memorize and present to the rest of the class,
followed by a question-and-answer period during which classmates may ask
the student questions about the meaning and significance of the folk tale.