LETRS Unit 1: The Challenge of Learning to Read

One main characteristic of dyslexia is difficulty with word recognition.

True

According to the Simple View of Reading model, which is more important to reading comprehension—word recognition or language comprehension? a. Word recognition is much more important. b. Language comprehension is much more important. c. Word recognition is slightly more important. d. Both are equally important.

Both are equally important.

A core problem in the processing system that works with the sounds of oral language

Comprehension Deficit

The term "dyslexia" should not be used in IEP documents.

False

According to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which of the following is true? a. Every state is about the same, on average. b. Approximately 50 percent of fourth-graders are "proficient" or "advanced." c. There is a steady increase in reading scores across all groups. d. Gaps persist between certain subgroups of students.

Gaps persist between certain subgroups of students.

The word-recognition component of the Reading Rope includes which subskills? Select all that apply. a. decoding b. verbal reasoning c. phonological awareness d. sight recognition

a. decoding c. phonological awareness d. sight recognition

About 10-15 percent of poor readers can decode and read individual words quickly and well and can spell accurately—yet struggle to comprehend the meanings of passages. This profile is typical of students with which coexisting disorder?

autism and autism spectrum disorders

Reading comprehension is not a single construct. Rather, the ability to understand what you read relies on multiple components. Once readers become more skilled in word recognition, which of the following components increase in their importance? a. spelling and phonemic awareness b. orthographic knowledge and background knowledge c. cognates and syllable awareness d. background knowledge and vocabulary

background knowledge and vocabulary

Many students at risk for reading problems enter school without exposure to the academic language used in books or preschool experience. These students are most likely to make progress closing the reading and language gap if their classroom instruction emphasizes which of the following?

both foundational reading skills and oral language development

Which of the following statements best explains why The Four-Part Processing Model is useful? a. It demonstrates why instruction should target reading comprehension. b. It emphasizes the importance of instruction in language comprehension. c. It represents the complex mental activity involved in word recognition. d. It illustrates that phonics is more important than comprehension.

c. It represents the complex mental activity involved in word recognition.

Why is it important to build students' fast and accurate word recognition and spelling? a. so that students can carefully sound out phonemes in a word b. so that students understand that words are read from left to right c. so that students don't have to laboriously sound out words d. so that students use more cognitive "desk space"

c. so that students don't have to laboriously sound out words

A research-based curriculum alone can turn schools around.

false

Children who can't read by age 9 never will.

false

Dyslexia affects far more boys than girls.

false

Dyslexia is seeing things backward.

false

Large-scale studies have shown that about half of first-graders who struggle with reading will catch up by third grade without any special interventions.

false

Many screening measures can be considered diagnostic since they provide extremely detailed data about a students skills in particular literacy domains.

false

You can't identify dyslexic children before they enter school.

false

What does the ability to recognize many words "by sight" during fluent reading depend on?

phonemic awareness and the ability to map graphemes to phonemes

Dyslexic is a term often applied to a large subset of poor readers. These readers' difficulties with accurate, fluent word recognition originate primarily with deficits in which of the following?

phonological processing

Dyslexic students who are said to have a "double deficit" have weaknesses in which two areas?

phonological processing and naming-speed processing

A kindergarten teacher is having students listen to three spoken words and identify the two words that end with the same sound. The teacher is focusing on which language system?

phonology

In any first-grade classroom in a typical school in the United States, approximately one-third of students are likely to score in the "basic" or "below basic" range. The largest proportion of those students is likely to show which characteristics?

primary difficulties with phonology, decoding, and word recognition

Cody is in first grade. He almost never raises his hand to participate in class discussions. When called on, he replies very briefly. He tends to use vague words like stuff and rarely uses full sentences. During decoding exercises, he reads words accurately and easily recognizes common patterns; he is a good speller. When he reads stories aloud, he reads fairly accurately but in an expressionless monotone. Which assessment would be most likely to yield valuable information about Cody?

reading a story to him and having him orally retell it

For an assessment to be useful in a school setting, which three psychometric criteria are the most important?

reliable, valid, efficient

A second-grade teacher, in preparation for reading a new text about honeybees, asks the students to brainstorm all the meanings they know for the word comb. The teacher is primarily focusing on which language system?

semantics

Which of the following is not an area of inquiry to include in a comprehensive diagnostic assessment of a potential reading disorder?

social interactions

A student with dyslexia may also be intellectually gifted.

true

All but 2-5 percent of children can learn to read.

true

Around 10-15 percent of the population have dyslexia.

true

During reading, our eyes process each word letter by letter. a. true b. false

true

Dyslexia may be inherited.

true

School improvement requires long-term commitment.

true

Which statement best describes the relative importance of oral reading fluency and verbal comprehension as factors in reading comprehension? a. As children get older, verbal comprehension becomes more important than oral reading fluency. b. Oral reading fluency and verbal comprehension are equally important throughout childhood and adolescence. c. As children get older, verbal comprehension matters less, and oral reading fluency becomes more important. d. Although oral reading fluency and verbal comprehension are both important, a child with problems in one domain can usually use the other domain to compensate.

As children get older, verbal comprehension becomes more important than oral reading fluency.

Considering the Simple View of Reading, what would be the BEST course of action for a third-grade teacher with concerns about several students who have not achieved fluency?

Determine if the students need remediation in word recognition, language comprehension, or both.

In comparison to other alphabetic languages, what feature of the English writing system makes English more difficult for young students to read and spell?

It is morphophonemic.

Which is a common limitation of screening measures?

The imprecision of the measures results in false positives—children identified as lacking sufficient reading skills even though they will later develop adequate reading skills.

What is the primary purpose of progress-monitoring assessments?

They help teachers determine if a particular instructional approach is working to bring a student closer to a target level of reading skill.

Which of these is an example of morphology? a. We use polite phrases like excuse me and thank you when addressing someone of higher social status. b. We recognize that the nonsense word hufflelumps could be a real word in English, but ngapkez could not. c. We tend to structure paragraphs with a main idea supported by details. d. We know the words unique, uniform, united, and universe all contain the root uni, meaning "one."

We know the words unique, uniform, united, and universe all contain the root uni, meaning "one."

If a student needs work on phonics and decoding, what kind of informal diagnostic assessment would provide the most useful information on how to help this student with these skills?

a word-reading survey to show which sound-symbol correspondences the student knows and which ones still need practice

What adds to the challenge of becoming literate? Select all that apply. a. All meaning resides in the written words alone; there is no additional physical context or gestures, facial expressions, etc., to support meaning. b. Reading and writing require learning new forms of language, such as changes to sentence structure, discourse, and presentation of vocabulary and semantics. c. Written sentences are often less grammatical than spoken ones. d. Nothing; children already have been exposed to literature from an early age.

a. All meaning resides in the written words alone; there is no additional physical context or gestures, facial expressions, etc., to support meaning. AND b. Reading and writing require learning new forms of language, such as changes to sentence structure, discourse, and presentation of vocabulary and semantics.

Which scenario describes a child in the prealphabetic phase? a. a child who responds "Meow!" when asked, "What is the first sound in cat?" b. a child who sees the word fast and sounds it out accurately c. a child who sees the word inactive and figures out that it means "not active" d. a child who comes across the new word house but reads it as horse

a. a child who responds "Meow!" when asked, "What is the first sound in cat?"

Which of these literacy skills have students typically mastered by the end of third grade? Select all that apply.

a. phoneme-grapheme correspondences c. inflectional morphology d. fluent recognition of word families (rime patterns)

A significant shortcoming of the Three-Cueing Systems model, compared to the Four-Part Processing Model, is that it obscures the role of ________________ in word recognition. a. phonological processing b. orthographic processing c. semantic (meaning) processing d. context

a. phonological processing

What are some symptoms of children who have trouble with phonological processing? Select all that apply. a. slow to blend sounds in words together b. cannot keep track of different definitions for multiple-meaning words c. difficulty remembering sounds for letters d. trouble spelling speech sounds for words

a. slow to blend sounds in words together c. difficulty remembering sounds for letters d. trouble spelling speech sounds for words

The phonological processor allows us to do which of the following? Select all that apply. a. "take in" the visual input of a written word b. break down words into phonemes c. learn the sounds of a foreign language

b. break down words into phonemes c. learn the sounds of a foreign language

How many letters does the eye normally take in at each fixation point before moving on to the next fixation point? a. five letters total b. however many letters are in each word c. 7-9 to the right and 3-4 to the left d. 3-4 to the right and 7-9 to the left

c. 7-9 to the right and 3-4 to the left

Which best describes the activity of the reading brain in proficient readers, compared to beginning readers? a. It is more consciously planned. b. It involves more different regions. c. It is more automatic. d. It is about the same.

c. It is more automatic.

Which scenario describes a child in the consolidated alphabetic phase? a. a child who sounds out the word prehistoric by letter-sound combinations, then blends it as a whole word b. a child who sees the word creative and reads it as native c. a child who comes across the word pony but reads it as horse d. a child who sees the word inactive and figures out that it means "not active"

d. a child who sees the word inactive and figures out that it means "not active"

What skill is most important for a student just learning to read? a. quick identification of sight words b. recognition of letter names c. understanding of prefixes and suffixes d. accurate decoding

d. accurate decoding

Some very smart people have dyslexia.

true

Students who are slow at word reading and text reading, but can segment and blend sounds orally, typically have better outcomes than students with phonological processing deficits.

true

Dyslexia is mainly a reversal issue that involves seeing letters and/or numbers backward.

False

Which is a characteristic of discourse in spoken language? a. It generally uses complete, well-formed sentences. b. It does not use paragraphs and tends to be disorganized. c. It may use unusual or topic-specific vocabulary. d. Its sounds are coarticulated in words.

It does not use paragraphs and tends to be disorganized.

What characteristic makes English a "deep" alphabetic orthography? a. Its spelling system is entirely phonetic. b. Its spelling system shares many word roots with other languages. c. Its spelling system represents meaningful parts (morphemes) as well as sounds. d. Its spelling patterns have not been completely stable over time.

Its spelling system represents meaningful parts (morphemes) as well as sounds.

What is one important distinction between the Four-Part Processing Model for Word Recognition and the Three-Cueing Systems model?

NOT ......The Three-Cueing Systems model omits semantic processing.

What is the value of data provided by screening measures?

NOT.... They can demonstrate the reliability of test results on repeated administrations.

Difficulty with the speed and accuracy of printed word recognition; also sometimes called a naming-speed problem or fluency problem

Orthographic Processing Deficit

Which statement most accurately describes how the human brain has evolved to process spoken and written language? a. Our brains have evolved to process spoken language much more easily than alphabetic writing. b. Our brains have evolved to process spoken and written language equally well. c. Our brains process spoken language and pictorial writing equally well, but have not evolved to process alphabetic writing. d. Our brains process spoken language extremely well, and we process alphabetic writing surprisingly well given that it is a relatively recent achievement.

Our brains have evolved to process spoken language much more easily than alphabetic writing.

Vocabulary weaknesses, generalized language learning disorders, and learning difficulties that affect abstract reasoning and logical thinking

Phonological Deficit

Which of the following statements is FALSE with regard to an effective implementation of a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS)?

Reading problems can be treated as easily in third grade as in first grade.

Experiments that use modern eye-movement technology to investigate what the eye "sees" when a proficient reader scans and comprehends a text have made what important discovery?

Skilled readers perceive all letters when they read.

How does the language system of pragmatics help us to understand why written language is more structured than spoken language? a. Written language is highly structured because we expect certain types of writing, such as stories, to follow established organizational conventions. b. Social context and nonverbal gestures help the listener understand spoken language, so there is less need for it to be highly structured. c. We must process written language in a highly structured way—reading letters that represent specific sounds and decoding them by reading from left to right. d. Spoken language is less structured because we tend to use sentences that are incomplete, run-ons, or otherwise ungrammatical.

Social context and nonverbal gestures help the listener understand spoken language, so there is less need for it to be highly structured.

Dyslexic students may achieve higher scores on comprehension tests that do not involve reading.

True

Which of these does the language-comprehension component of the Reading Rope emphasize? a. the importance of vocabulary development and of understanding language structures b. the extent to which language comprehension depends on students' ability to recognize words easily c. the need for students to read quickly without being concerned with perfect accuracy d. the benefits of teaching different skills in isolation

a. the importance of vocabulary development and of understanding language structures

The phonological processor is what allows us to recognize the rising intonation of a question. a. true b. false

a. true

Good readers do not require a large storehouse of sight words in their memory if they have highly developed phonographic skills. a. true b. false

b. false

The Four-Part Processing Model helps us understand _________________. a. which part of the brain handles word recognition. b. how multiple parts of the brain must work together in order for word recognition to occur. c. how multiple parts of the brain must work together in order for language comprehension to occur. d. that reading comprehension is the product of word recognition and language comprehension.

b. how multiple parts of the brain must work together in order for word recognition to occur.

The area known as the visual word form area or "brain's letterbox" is located in the _____________ lobe and is essential to the _____________ processor. a. frontal; phonological b. occipital; orthographic c. temporal; meaning d. parietal; orthographic

b. occipital; orthographic

The primary area of difficulty for students who fall behind in their reading development is: a. comprehension. b. underdeveloped foundational reading skills. c. hand dominance. d. all of the above.

b. underdeveloped foundational reading skills.

One important goal of beginning reading instruction is the development of a sight vocabulary that enables the student to recognize a word instantly, without having to decode it. What types of words should make up a student's sight word vocabulary?

both regular and irregular words