LETRS Unit 3

Which of the following letter names and corresponding sounds are easiest to learn and why?

"d", "j", "p", "z", because their corresponding sounds come first in the letter names

About how many words should be used within a lesson to provide practice with a give sound-symbol correspondence?

15-30

How many phonemes are in the word "quick"?

4

How many phonemes are in the word "flax"?

5

Students are reading a decodable text that uses only pattern words or high-frequency words students have been taught. What level of reading accuracy is reasonable to expect?

95%

"Thud" has three phonemes. With which phonemes might a Spanish-speaking EL have difficulty?

All the phonemes (unvoiced /th/ spelled 'th", /u/ spelled "u", and /d/ spelled "d") could cause difficulty.

What is the difference between a digraph and a blend?

Blends represent more than one sound; digraphs represent one sound.

Which text type mainly includes words that follow patterns previously taught in phonics lessons?

Decodable

Short e Key Word

Edge

Asking questions during reading is not recommended, because this is can distract students.

False

Good instruction primarily emphasizes teaching irregular high-frequency words.

False

Leveled texts are ranked on objective readability criteria, gradually becoming more difficult as students progress through the levels.

False

Nearly all high-frequency words in English are irregular.

False

Pattern words that are easy to read are also easy for students to spell.

False

Teachers who take a code-emphasis approach to instruction generally do not discuss the meanings of words being taught.

False

When using word lists, teachers should always call on individual students to read the words.

False

Word chain activities should use real words only.

False

Word chains using minimally contrasting pairs can be done as a teacher-led activity, group work, or an independent practice activity.

False

After blending activities are introduced, these activities need to be modeled only once or twice a week.

False. These activities should be modeled daily.

Complete this sentence: Vowel teams in English can have up to ___ letters.

Four

Which grouping of letters best supports instruction in letter formation and why?

Group all letters that begin with a downstroke (b, n) together

When teaching letter formation, which strategy can be used to group letters together for instruction?

Group letters with similar overall shapes and/or first strokes.

Which of the following should be a major instructional focus for students at the consolidated alphabetic phase?

Have students decode two- and three-syllable words and learn to plan before writing, and compose according to the plan.

Which is the best way to assess students' ability to recognize real words in print?

Have students do timed and untimed readings of graded word lists; sight words should be recognized within one second.

Kasey has solid phonemic awareness and knows all 26 letters. Her phonetic spellings of speech sounds are logical, but she is just learning to spell words. Which phase best describes her?

Later Alphabetic

Why is the letter "x" referred to as an odd letter?

Letter "x" can represent two phonemes.

Which text type does NOT support weak readers' skills even though students are often assigned it based on tests?

Leveled

Short o Key Word

October

Over the course of a week of phonics instruction, which step in the Transfer to Text Process is the first that can be phased out?

Practice reading skills words in isolation before reading them in a passage.

Which text type includes phrases repeated frequently with only one or two words that change?

Predictable

Why didn't the teacher use "ship" as a key word instead of "snake"?

She is not teaching the digraph "sh" and the first sound in "ship" is /sh/ not /s/.

Which is the most consistent pattern in the way English uses vowel graphemes?

Single letters are used to spell short vowel phonemes.

Which is the most effective order of instruction for teaching a new letter formation?

Skywrite with wide arm motions; write as teacher describes; practice

When and how should letter names be taught?

Teach one new letter every 1-2 days.

What makes the vowel-r combination difficult for students to learn to read and spell?

The sounds made by the vowel and the "r" overlap and influence each other.

Which word group might a teacher include in a lesson focused on reviewing consonant digraphs?

Thorn, show, chase

In the exercise shown, why was a "ringer" word included in the first list?

To help students distinguish among vowels in CVC words

If a teacher follows a systematic process for transferring phonics skills to text, it's reasonable to expect students to read a decodable passage independently after a week of instruction.

True

Instead of having students move their hands like a snake for the sound /s/, the teacher could ask students to point to a picture of a snake.

True

Knowledge of letter names in kindergarten is an excellent predictor of later reading success.

True

Open sort activities are most appropriate for advanced students who already know how to look for an orthographic pattern.

True

Roughly half of all words in English can be spelled correctly based on established sound-symbol correspondences.

True

Sentence dictation routines should include reminders about basic writing conventions (capitalization and end punctuation).

True

Students should establish a habit of trying to blend all the sounds in a word before they "adjust" or "flex" the pronunciation to make a real word.

True

Students with solid phonics skills tend to recognize sight words more quickly, regardless of how regular the words' spelling are.

True

When students are "graduating" to the next Ehri's phases, their approach to reading will be qualitatively different than the previous phase.

True

Words you shouldn't use as short vowel key words

Under, east, elevator, Alaska, in, ice, ambulance, earth, on, order, urban

Short u Key Word

Uptown

A school library has available a series of lavishly illustrated predictable texts written in verse. What are the most appropriate ways to use these in the classroom?

Use them as teacher read-alouds to enhance oral language and comprehension skills.

Which is the best definition of the term sight words?

any words a reader can recognize instantly and read

Short a Key Word

astronaut

Which guidelines should teachers follow when choosing key words for sound-spelling cards?

avoid words in which nasalization affects the way a vowel is pronounced such as angry for short a, avoid words in which a consonant appears as part of a blend, such as stop for /s/, and avoid words with phonemes that sound like letter names, like empty (m-t).

Which word group might a teacher include in a lesson focused on identification of consonant blends?

blink, frog, twist

Silent Letter Grapheme examples

bomb, knee, knight

Consonant Blend examples

broke, chimp, flame, star

VCe (Vowel-Consoant-e) examples

broke, flame, site

Which chain shows a progression of minimally contrasting pairs?

bud, bug, bag, big, pig, pug

Which group of words below is a word family?

cane, pane, lane, mane, Shane

CVCC word examples

champ, rags, camp

Consonant Digraph examples

chimp, girth, wash

CVC word examples

chip, shack, fish, net

Complete this sentence: A complex syllable is a syllable that contains a

consonant blend

Which word contains a consonant trigraph?

ditch (-tch)

Which key word is the best example of the short "e" sound-symbol correspondence?

echo

Which of the following are typical of meaning-emphasis approaches to instruction?

emphasis on reading leveled texts individually and use of context (such as illustrations) to read words in texts

Which group of words include only words that have consonant digraphs, and no words with blends?

father, shin, reach, rough, phone, bang

Which of the following sets includes ONLY consonant blends?

fl, br, nd

CCVCC word examples

flips, shrimp, brand

Of all the phonic correspondences represented in these words, which pattern is likely to be learned after the others?

gale

Non-floss rule words

gift, gas, his, gel

Vowel-r examples

girth, star, fur

Which set of words would work well for introducing blending routines?

group 1: kit, sad, map and group 2: fad, pop, bed. All CVC words.

Which of the following is NOT one of the strands in Scarborough's Reading Rope?

guided reading

Which text type includes words often seen in text, regardless of what patterns have been taught?

high-frequency

Short i Key Word

it

Vowel Team examples

knee, sail, knight

The ability to decode a new, previously unknown printed word, in or out of context, depends on

knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondences and the ability to blend phonemes and graphemes quickly.

Floss Rule Words

loss, stuff, full, fizz

Which of the following letter-sound correspondences should be taught early on?

m,s,t,a

Choose the word that works best with this sample word chain: chat, _____, map, gap.

mat

Which of the following word chains is NOT appropriate for instruction?

met, pen, hen, bun, ton

In a complete phonics lesson of 30-40 minutes, which activity would typically NOT be included?

partner reading of a trade book of high interest to the students

Which word chain would be the easiest one for students just beginning to learn word chaining?

pop, cop, mop, top, hop

Choose the word that works best with this sample word chain: mop, _____, ship, lip

shop

Which is an example of a consonant blend?

shr

Which set of words illustrates both the Floss Rule and the "-ck" Rule?

slick, kiss, cuff

Which of the following sets includes only words with vowel teams?

slight, drain, snow

Which pair of words has the same number of phonemes?

tax and flash

What reading skill is developed by working with word families?

the ability to process "chunks" of words (common rimes)

The term phonics may be used to refer to

the system of phoneme-grapheme correspondences that are the basis for an alphabetic orthography, an essential component of effective reading instruction and a strategy for decoding new words and storing them in orthographic memory.

How often should teachers introduce students to new irregular, high-frequency words?

three to five times per week

Regularly spelled words

three, day, bird, goose, mouse, maybe, go, have

Which of the following is typically done as an extended practice activity in phonics lessons?

timed reading of learned words

Why did the teacher have students scrape with their hands when they heard the sound /k/ in a word?

to help students pay attention to how they scrape their tongues when making the sound /k/

Which of the following word chains IS appropriate for instruction?

top, mop, map, tap, tip

Which activities are recommended to help students develop visual-motor skills before they learn to form letters?

tracing and drawing geometric shapes, drawing circles and lines on sandpaper, skywriting in the air with large movements

CCVC word examples

trash, thrash, blip, stop

Which activity is best for helping students distinguish between easily confused speech sounds such a /k/ and /g/?

word chain using minimally contrasting pairs

Which activities provide direct practice working with word meaning?

word webs and word classification

Irregularly spelled words

yacht, love, father, you