EC-6 (391): English Language Arts and Reading (Communication) (Conventions)

Which of the following statements is true in regards to a student's progression through the stages of spelling development?

While there are specific, predictable stages of spelling development, there is no set time period or age range in which a student will enter into or advance through each stage.

Which lesson could Mrs. Swanson use to help her sixth-grade students learn to write complex sentences?

a lesson where students take example compound sentences and turn them into complex sentences

When teaching a lesson on including direct quotes in student writing, Mr. Keating reminds students to include a dialogue tag when incorporating direct quotes. Which of the following describes a dialogue tag?

a phrase, like he said or she said

A language arts teacher is providing instruction on the proper use of capitalization. Each student will write a three-paragraph essay and then exchange their papers with other students for peer editing. What is the best tool for the teacher to provide to students for peer edits?

Conduct a mini-lesson on capitalization rules and how to use proofreading symbols for capitalizations; then, post the proofreading symbols on the board while students make peer edits.

A fourth-grade teacher is working on promoting writing development for her students, most of whom are in the proficient writing stage. While her students are capable of writing and spelling with accuracy, they moan anytime she mentions a new writing assignment. What is one strategy the teacher could use to promote her student's interest in writing while continuing to hone their writing skills?

Creating writing assignments that are meaningful to students, such as writing emails, letters, or to-do lists.

A student receives the following comment on his progress report. Mateo is consistently using capital letters while writing, though some are incorrectly formed, and occasionally using the correct letter that corresponds with the initial phoneme of the word he is writing. When I ask him what his paper says, he will "read" the writing back to me. Based on these comments, Mateo is most likely in which stage of writing development?

Emergent

A first-grade teacher wants to help her students develop word-recognition skills as well as increase their ability to create simple sentences. Which activity would help achieve this goal?

Have students create and read sentences using a set of sight-word flash cards.

A sixth-grade teacher is determined to help her students become more proficient spellers. Which of the following strategies would be least effective in promoting students' spelling abilities?

Have students write all their spelling words at least thirty times.

To best develop sentence-building and syntax skills, a second-grade teacher would implement which of the following?

Have word banks categorized by parts of speech to create sentences.

What is one way in which written discourse differs from spoken discourse?

In order to understand written discourse, a person must be literate.

How does instruction regarding word families support spelling instruction?

It demonstrates that in words containing the same sounds made by a group of letters, the sounds will often be represented with the same spelling.

Which of the following does NOT accurately describe the impact of learning conventional spelling on writing development?

It helps students understand grammatical rules.

A kindergarten teacher is working to develop her student's fine motor skills for writing. Which of the following activities is most appropriate for this goal at this age level?

Practice writing words and letters on blank guided writing paper.

Mr. Otwinowski is working with his sixth-grade students on why dialogue needs to be punctuated in written text. Which activity would best illustrate the need for dialogue punctuation in written text?

Present students with multiple sentences that could be misunderstood without dialogue punctuation.

Mrs. Gomez wants to promote writing skills among her pre-K students. She communicates with parents about various at-home activities they can do with their children to promote writing skills. Which of the following activities would best promote writing skills among students?

Provide opportunities for activities such as coloring, painting, writing, drawing, etc.

Which of the following is the most appropriate way for a teacher to help students develop an understanding of parts of speech?

Show example words and example sentences to help analyze/explain how each part of speech functions within a sentence.

A sixth-grade teacher is demonstrating to her students the importance of conventional spelling and its relationship to success in reading and writing. Which of the following is a good strategy for her to use with her students?

Show examples of how spelling mistakes can confuse the meaning of sentences.

A student struggles to grasp his pencil correctly, resulting in oversized letters, pencil breaks, and difficulty writing for extended periods of time. Which of the following would most benefit this student?

Station time focusing on arts and craft activities.

Which of the following describes what happens in the conventional stage of writing?

Students learn to adjust their writing for specific purposes and audiences.

Which of the following describes what happens in the transitional stage of writing?

Students learn to explain different purposes for writing.

Which of the following statements about the stages of writing development is most accurate?

Students learn to write in foreseeable phases, but the pace and mastery of learning will be different for each student.

A teacher is working with a small group of students in the conventional stage of writing development. She has provided students with a list of simple sentences and is asking them to use their knowledge of sentence structure to combine the original simple sentences into compound or complex sentences. What would be an appropriate extension activity for this group of students to further their writing development?

Take one new sentence and use it as a starting point for a short paragraph.

Ms. Sanders is frustrated by students consistently using "u" instead of "you" and other shorthand in their writing. Which of the following would be the most effective way to encourage change in her classroom?

Teach a lesson about formal and informal writing, comparing academic writing to text message writing.

Which of the following writing samples best represents a student in the proficient stage of writing development?

The blue sky met the ground at rolling hills. Tasha felt glad to see land.

The following is a student's spelling assessment given at the beginning of kindergarten. Which of the following statements best describes this student's current stage of spelling development?

The student has not yet begun to connect letters to sounds and is choosing random letters to represent the sounds.

The following writing sample is indicative of a student in which stage of writing development?

Transitional Stage

An author who has strong skills in clarity of writing will be able to do which of the following? Select all answers that apply.

Use precise language specific to his audience. Organize information and use transitional words.

Precise language usage is generally more important for written communication than verbal communication. Which of the following is NOT a reason why?

Visual cues are available to help the reader determine tone and meaning with written text.

A first-grade student wrote the following sentences: I did not no what she said becuz it was lowd. I had to ask her to times! Which of the following best describes this student's current stage of writing?

conventional

The following student writing sample demonstrates which stage of writing development? My favrite moovie is Frozen II. I like how the rain deer sing and when Elsa rides the water horse. She has really pretty cloths two. All the peeple are happy at the end and that makes me happy.

conventional

A first-grade student wrote three sentences describing a picture she drew. She used simple and complex sentences, correctly capitalized the first letter of each sentence, and used periods at the ends of each sentence. However, the student failed to use apostrophes or commas and misspelled several words. Which of the following most closely describes the student's stage of writing development?

conventional stage

Which of the following methods would be effective in helping students correctly punctuate compound sentences?

edit a student-written paragraph to create compound sentences from simple ones

A young child is writing strings of letters that do not spell any actual words. This child is in which stage of writing development?

emergent stage

A kindergarten student is in the semiphonetic stage of spelling development and is hesitant to write longer pieces because she is concerned about misspelling words. The teacher should take which of the following steps to encourage further development of the student's reading and writing skills?

encouraging her to keep sounding out words and spelling to the best of her abilities

A student is currently in the transitional stage of writing development. Which activity would be most appropriate for this student?

generating lists of family members and favorite places

When considering fine motor skills and writing, students need to be taught which of the following? Select all answers that apply.

how to properly space letters and words where on the paper to begin writing how to hold a pencil

Before beginning a unit on writing compound sentences with his second-grade class, Mr. Stevenson needs to assess whether his students can do which of the following? Select all answers that apply.

identify simple sentences identify conjunctions

Transitional words and phrases are helpful in both spoken and written communication because they: Select all answers that apply.

indicate the flow of time and events. link ideas to each other.

A teacher asks her first-grade class to write a sentence that describes the day's weather. Of the provided examples, which is showing the earliest stage of writing development?

it is sny tda

A student writes the following sentence to accompany a picture they drew of ducks swimming in a pond. My park has to yelo duks and I lik to fed them. This sentence demonstrates that the student has not yet developed which spelling skill?

knowledge of common word structures and spelling rules

A child in the transitional stage of writing would be unlikely to benefit from which of the following lessons or activities?

making different letter shapes using playdough

A first-grade teacher is looking at the daily journal entry of a student, Micah. Micah has written, "Yesrda i win to the prk" and has drawn a picture of himself on a slide. Which of the following spelling stages is Micah in?

phonemic

Which of the following stages of spelling development is primarily characterized by letter-sound correspondence?

phonetic

A first-grade student writes the following sentence on the board: "Mi mom maks soop for us wen it is kold outsid." Which of the following does the student's sentence best demonstrate?

phonetic spelling

The following sentence was written by a kindergarten student. I am betr at soker than mi frend. Which of the following best describes this student's stage of spelling development?

phonetic spelling

Jenny is in pre-K and writes random mock letters. What stage of writing best describes Jenny's current skill level?

pre-conventional

A four-year-old likes to mimic her mother writing a shopping list, but the child is actually only making scribbled shapes on a paper, occasionally making a mark that looks like a letter. Which of the following does this child's writing best demonstrate?

precommunicative spelling

Writing development has predictable stages. Which of the following answer options best describes the stages of writing development?

preconventional, emergent, transitional, conventional, and proficient

A student who is able to write with mostly correct spelling and has an increasingly broad vocabulary is most likely in which stage of writing development?

proficient stage

All of these factors impact a person's ability to comprehend written and spoken language except:

proper punctuation usage.

In a kindergarten class, most of Ms. Sloan's students are currently in the emergent stage of writing development. Which of the following would be the most appropriate skill for her to work on with these students?

provide specific direction in letter formation

Which of the following would not be in the conventional process of spelling stages?

revising

A first-grade student writes the following sentence on the board: "Mi dg lks mi hnd" but means "my dog licks my hand." Which of the following does the student's sentence best demonstrate?

semiphonetic spelling

Which activity would best help students master common vowel spelling patterns?

sorting words based on spelling patterns

While reviewing student work, a teacher notices that a student is scribbling a dark circle between groups of letters. This student is most likely practicing with what characteristic of the transitional writing stage?

spacing

A teacher provides her fourth-grade students with word magnets, asking them to arrange the magnets on the whiteboard to create complete sentences. She also provides them with dry erase markers to add punctuation as necessary. This activity is best suited to support the development of which skill?

syntax

A fourth-grade student spells the word "although" as "althow". This student is in which stage of spelling development?

transitional

A teacher provides her students with a list of word pairs where one word is spelled correctly and the other option is spelled phonetically. For example, "tough" and "touff." Students are asked to select which word is correct. In order for students to successfully choose the correct spelling, they would most likely need to be in which stage of spelling development?

transitional

In which of the following stages of spelling development does the child start to leave behind their phonetic dependence and rely on visual and morphemic strategies?

transitional

A second-grade student writes the following sentence on the board: "My dog nose triks and is my best freind, but my sister prefers our pet cat." Which of the following does the student's sentence best demonstrate?

transitional spelling

A first-grade teacher introduces a game to her students. Each pair gets a spinner, a copy of the chart below, and a letter bank. Students take turns spinning the dial and complete a word in one of the columns according to what number the spinner lands on. The teacher completed the first row as an example. This activity will help students develop word analysis skills by showing them how to:

use orthographic skills to recognize letter patterns and practice phoneme substitution in words containing short vowels.

Mrs. Kulasa is working with a small group of students who are in the second stage of writing development. These emergent stage students should be given an activity that develops their ability to:

write strings of letters in a row.

Mrs. Meyers is teaching a lesson to students who are in the second stage of writing development. The writing activity she has planned for her students should focus on developing their ability to:

write strings of letters in a row.