Literacy and Assessment

Question 1

Letter Recognition

Answer 1

the ability to name the letters in the alphabet and identify the characteristics of each letter

Letter recognition requires direct instruction that connects the letter shape to the letter name.

Question 2

Embedded Phonics Approach

Answer 2

an approach to phonics instruction that involves implicitly teaching through reading or in context

A student learns to decode the word “snake” when reading a short story about a boy who goes hiking.

Question 3

Early Reader (Stage of Reading Development)

Answer 3

Early readers begin understanding that reading from the printed page needs to make sense – both from the pictures and from the print

Question 4

Running Record

Answer 4

A reading assessment administered as a student reads aloud and a teacher listens

Teachers may record miscues, note strategies used, observe fluency, and time for WPM to determine the next steps of action for a student’s reading instruction, including whether or not a student should move up a text level for guided reading.

Question 5

Miscue - Pause

Answer 5

when the reader stops briefly either before or in the middle of a word

An English language learner pauses before pronouncing the word, “rural,” because “r” sounds are difficult for him.

Question 6

Alphabetic Knowledge

Answer 6

The ability to recognize, name, and write letters.

Question 7

Phonological Awareness

Answer 7

the understanding and ability to hear individual words, syllables, and sounds in spoken language apart from print

Question 8

Phonemic Awareness / Sound Awareness

Answer 8

the ability to hear, identify, and re-create individual sounds in spoken words

A student can hear that”B” makes first sound in the word “blue”

Question 9

Active Participants

Answer 9

students who pay attention with their whole bodies

Question 10

Alphabetic Writing System

Answer 10

a writing system in which there is a symbol for each consonant and vowel

The English language uses an alphabetic writing system, but not all languages are represented in that way.

Question 11

Alphabetic Principle

Answer 11

The understanding that there is a logical/systematic relationship between the sounds of spoken English and the letters and letter–patterns of written English.

Question 12

Capitalization

Answer 12

the action of starting a word with a capital letter to signify a certain characteristic

The rules of capitalization differ in each language; for example, Spanish does not capitalize the days of the week, whereas English does.

Question 13

Receptive Language

Answer 13

the ability to understand meaning from language

Question 14

Alphabet

Answer 14

a set of basic written symbols, or letters, that represent the phonemes of a language

The English alphabet consists of 26 letters, each with one or more sounds.

Question 15

Grapheme

Answer 15

A symbol, letter, or the combination of letters that represents a single sound.

“ph” makes a “f” sound

Question 16

Summative Assessments

Answer 16

Assessment of learning. Given at specific points in time in order to determine what students know and don’t know. Summative assessments are generally formal.

State assessments, district benchmarks, semester or six weeks tests, and end of unit or chapter

Question 17

Reading Fluency

Answer 17

The ability to read with appropriate speed, accuracy, and prosody

Question 18

Directionality

Answer 18

the direction in which a language is read

The directionality of written English is from left to right.

Question 19

Expressive Language

Answer 19

the ability to express meaning through language

Question 20

Emergent Reader (Stage of Reading Development)

Answer 20

when children understand that written language has meaning and gives messages

Question 21

Analogy-Based Phonics Approach

Answer 21

which students use knowledge of word patterns to decode new words

In an analogy-based phonics approach, to decode the unknown word “zap,” students would think of the word “map.”

Question 22

Formative Assessments

Answer 22

Assessment for learning. Usually mid-instruction assessment with the purpose of assessing student progress and informing the teacher so instruction can be altered as needed.

graphic organizers, games

Question 23

Miscue - Self-Correction

Answer 23

when the reader recognizes and corrects an error

A student notices that what he just read doesn’t make sense and goes back to correct his error.

Question 24

Word Analysis

Answer 24

breaking down words into morphemes, or the smallest units of meaning

Word analysis can be useful as a decoding tool and can help to determine word meaning.

Question 25

Syllabic Writing System

Answer 25

a writing system in which each character represents a syllable

Some languages, such as Japanese, use a syllabic writing system.

Question 26

Curriculum-Based Assessments

Answer 26

testing the curriculum being taught

Question 27

Positive Language Transfer

Answer 27

occurs when L1 knowledge facilitates the acquisition of L2

Positive language transfer occurs when students use what they know about sentence structure in their native language to help them understand sentence structure in the language they are acquiring.

Question 28

Spelling-Based Phonics Approach

Answer 28

an approach to phonics instruction that involves spelling rules and phonemes

In a spelling-based phonics approach, students learn the sounds of each letter and put the sounds together to create a word.

Question 29

Miscue - Repetition

Answer 29

when the reader repeats a word or group of words in the text

When reading, a student stumbles on his words and goes back to the beginning to restart the sentence.

Question 30

Universal Screener

Answer 30

An assessment administered to all students to gather data and form groups, such as intervention groups

Question 31

Phoneme

Answer 31

the smallest individual sounds in a word

The word “bit” has three phonemes – b – i – t.

Question 32

Passive Participants

Answer 32

students who let their minds wander elsewhere

Question 33

Formal Assessments

Answer 33

a usually post-instruction assessment with the purpose of assessing student knowledge, retention, and application. Often involve the use of a standardized rubric or scoring guide based on several criteria.

chapter tests, semester tests

Question 34

Norm-Referenced Tests

Answer 34

Tests that compare an individual’s performance/achievement to a group called the “norm group.”

An IQ test

Question 35

Exit Slips

Answer 35

A short formative assessment given by a teacher after completing a lesson to determine the degree to which students have learned the material taught in the lesson.

Question 36

Miscue - Omission

Answer 36

when the reader skips over a word or group of words in the text

A reader who struggles with eye tracking skills omits an entire line when reading a text aloud.

Question 37

Miscue

Answer 37

an incorrect guess of a word when reading

Suzy read “The snow was extra.” instead of “The snow was exciting.”

Question 38

Automaticity

Answer 38

the ability to read words effortlessly

Question 39

Early Fluent / Fluent / Proficient Reader (Stage of Reading Development)

Answer 39

readers recognize many words and can apply phonics and word analysis skills to figure out unfamiliar words

Question 40

Diagnostic Assessment

Answer 40

assessment used to “diagnose” a specific difficulty a student is having

If a student is struggling to read a grade level passage, the teacher could perform a diagnostic assessment to determine what is causing the student’s difficulty.

Question 41

Language Interference

Answer 41

differences between a learner’s native language and the language being learned, which can cause confusion in the acquisition of the new language

When a learner applies knowledge from one language incorrectly to another language resulting in word, syntax or pronunciation errors.

Question 42

Portfolio

Answer 42

A collection of student’s work and achievements that is used to assess past accomplishments and future potential; can include finished work in a variety of media and can contain materials from several courses over time

Question 43

Miscue - Insertion

Answer 43

when the reader adds a word or group of words to the text

An enthusastic reader adds the word “very” into a dialogue when reading.

Question 44

Miscue - Substitution

Answer 44

when the reader replaces the word in the text with a different word

A reader reads, “She completed from A, B and C” instead of, “She completed form A, B and C”

Question 45

Performance-Based Assessment

Answer 45

A kind of assessment that requires students to show mastery of specific skills by demonstrating, producing, or performing something

designing and performing experiments, building models, writing poems or shorts stories, and developing portfolios

Question 46

Entry-Level Assessment

Answer 46

an assessment that occurs at the beginning of instruction, which is used to determine students’ current skill levels and allows the teacher to adjust instruction accordingly

A teacher provides an entry-level asssesment when starting a new unit to determine how much she needs to review some foundational skills before moving on to more advanced skills.

Question 47

Diagnostic Assessment / Pre-Assessment

Answer 47

Assessment administered before instruction to determine students’ strengths and weaknesses

Question 48

Punctuation

Answer 48

marks, such as period, comma, and parentheses, used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify meaning.

period

Question 49

Ongoing Curriculum Based Assessment

Answer 49

a type of assessment used to track student progress throughout instruction

Ongoing curriculum-based assessments can be used to assess the effectiveness of an instructional plan

Question 50

Informal Assessments

Answer 50

More flexible than formal assessments and can be adjusted to fit the situation and particular needs of the student being tested

observations during a lesson

Question 51

Progress Monitoring

Answer 51

periodic assessments to monitor student growth and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction

The teacher prepared a progress monitoring assessment to see how much each student had improved and learn if his new instructional approach was effective.

Question 52

Criterion-Referenced Tests

Answer 52

Tests in which a standard has been set for the test taker to achieve in order to pass the test.

A multiple choice or short answer test on the content of a unit of study in which a 70% is needed to pass.

Question 53

Synthetic Phonics Approach

Answer 53

an accelerated approach to phonics instruction that explicitly teaches how to convert letters into sounds (phonemes) and then blend the sounds to form words.

A teacher first teaches the sounds of each letter and then focuses on how to blend the sounds together to pronounce whole words

Question 54

Analytic Phonics Approach

Answer 54

a common approach to phonics instruction in which students are taught to recognize whole words by sight and then to break down words into smaller units of sound

The analytic phonics method teaches students about spelling and letter patterns and their sounds. For example, if the student knows “man” and “ran”, then the word “tan” should be easy to read.

Question 55

Logographic Writing System

Answer 55

a writing system in which characters represent words or phrases

Some languages, such as Chinese, use a logographic writing system.

Question 56

Decoding

Answer 56

In reading out loud, being able to sound out words by breaking them into simple forms. In reading for comprehension, the understanding of how to read each letter or letter pattern in a word to determine the word’s meaning

Question 57

Print Concepts

Answer 57

The general rules governing text

text is read from left to right and top to bottom