Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL of Reading (90) Practice Test 1 INTRODUCTION This document is a printable version of the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure®

7/09

MassachusettsTests for Educator Licensure® (MTEL®)

www.mtel.nesinc.comCopyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s). All rights reserved.Evaluation Systems, Pearson, P.O. Box 226, Amherst, MA 01004Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure and MTEL are trademarks, in the U.S. and/or other countries, of theMassachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s).Pearson and its logo are trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries of Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s).

Foundations of Reading (90) Practice Test

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1

Purpose of the Practice Test .............................................................................................................1

Taking the Practice Test ...................................................................................................................1

Incorporating the Practice Test in Your Study Plan .........................................................................1

Foundations of Reading Practice Test ..............................................................................................2

General Test Directions .............................................................................................................3

Multiple-Choice Answer Sheet..................................................................................................4

Multiple-Choice Questions ........................................................................................................5

Directions for the Open-Response Item Assignments .............................................................37

Open-Response Item Assignments and Response Sheets........................................................38

Practice Test Results ......................................................................................................................46

Practice Test Results Overview ...............................................................................................47

Multiple-Choice Question Answer Key Worksheet ................................................................48

Multiple-Choice Question Practice Test Evaluation Chart......................................................51

Open-Response Item Evaluation Information..........................................................................53

Open-Response Item Scoring Rubric, Sample Responses, and Analyses ...............................54

Practice Test Score Calculation ...............................................................................................65

Acknowledgments ..........................................................................................................................67


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INTRODUCTION

This document is a printable version of the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure® (MTEL®) Foundationsof Reading (90) Online Practice Test.

This practice test is a sample test consisting of 100 multiple-choice questions and 2 open-response itemassignments. An Answer Key Worksheet, Answer Sheet, and Evaluation Chart by test objective are included forthe multiple-choice questions. Blank Response Sheets, Evaluation Information, and Sample Responses andAnalyses, as well as a Scoring Rubric, are included for the open-response items. Lastly, there is a Practice TestScore Calculation worksheet.

PURPOSE OF THE PRACTICE TEST

The practice test is designed to provide an additional resource to help you effectively prepare for the MTELFoundations of Reading (90) test. The primary purpose of the practice test is to help you become familiar withthe structure and content of the test. It is also intended to help you identify areas in which to focus your studies.Education faculty and administrators of teacher preparation programs may also find this practice test useful asthey help students prepare for the official test.

TAKING THE PRACTICE TEST

In order to maximize the benefits of the practice test, it is recommended that you take this test under conditionssimilar to the conditions under which the official MTEL tests are administered. Try to take the practice test in aquiet atmosphere with few interruptions and limit yourself to the four-hour time period* allotted for the officialtest administration. You will find your results to be more useful if you refer to the answer key only after you havecompleted the practice test.

INCORPORATING THE PRACTICE TEST IN YOUR STUDY PLAN

Although the primary means of preparing for the MTEL is your college education, adequate preparation prior totaking or retaking the MTEL test is strongly recommended. How much preparation and study you need dependson how comfortable and knowledgeable you are with the content of the test.

The first step in preparing to take the MTEL is to identify what information the test will address by reviewing theobjectives for your field. A complete, up-to-date list of the Test Objectives is included in the Test InformationBooklet for each test field. The test objectives are the core of the testing program and a helpful study tool.Before taking or retaking the official test, focus your study time on those objectives for which you wish tostrengthen your knowledge.

This practice test may be used as one indicator of potential strengths and weaknesses in your knowledge of thecontent on the official test. However, because of potential differences in format and difficulty between thepractice test and an official MTEL Foundations of Reading (90) test, it is not possible to predict precisely howyou might score on an official MTEL Foundations of Reading (90) test. Keep in mind that the subareas for whichthe test weighting is greatest will receive emphasis on this test. Refer to the Test Information Booklet foradditional information about how to prepare for the test.

* For the Communication and Literacy Skills test, candidates may take one or both subtests during the four-hoursession.


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FOUNDATIONS OF READINGPRACTICE TEST


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GENERAL TEST DIRECTIONS

This practice test consists of two sections: (1) a multiple-choice question section and (2) an open-response itemassignment section. Each multiple-choice question on the practice test has four answer choices. Read eachquestion carefully and choose the ONE best answer. Record each answer on the answer sheet provided.

Sample Question: 1. What is the capital of Massachusetts?

A. WorcesterB. New BedfordC. BostonD. Springfield

The correct answer to this question is C. You would indicate that on the answer sheet.

The open-response section of this practice test requires written responses. Directions for the open-response itemassignments appear immediately before those assignments.

You may work on the multiple-choice questions and open-response item assignments in any order that youchoose. You may wish to monitor how long it takes you to complete the practice test. When taking the actualMTEL Foundations of Reading (90) test, you will have one four-hour test session in which to complete the test.


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MULTIPLE-CHOICE ANSWER SHEET

QuestionNumber

YourResponse

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334

QuestionNumber

YourResponse

35363738394041424344454647484950515253545556575859606162636465666768

QuestionNumber

YourResponse

69707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100


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MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. Which of the following students isdemonstrating the specific type ofphonological awareness known asphonemic awareness?

A. a student who, after being showna letter of the alphabet, can orallyidentify its corresponding sound(s)

B. a student who listens to the wordssing, ring, fling, and hang and canidentify that hang is different

C. a student who, after hearing theword hat, can orally identify thatit ends with the sound /t/

D. a student who listens to the wordMassachusetts and can determinethat it contains four syllables

2. A kindergarten teacher could bestdetermine if a child has begun to developphonemic awareness by asking thechild to:

A. count the number of words the childhears in a sentence as the teachersays the sentence.

B. say the word cat, then say the firstsound the child hears in the word.

C. point to the correct letter on analphabet chart as the teacher namesspecific letters.

D. listen to the teacher say boat andcoat, then identify whether the twowords rhyme.

3. As students begin to read, the ability toblend phonemes orally contributes to theirreading development primarily because ithelps students:

A. recognize and understand sightwords in a text.

B. use knowledge of letter-soundcorrespondence to decode words.

C. guess the meaning of unfamiliarwords from their context.

D. divide written words into onsetsand rimes.

4. The ability to divide words containingmajor phonograms into onsets and rimeswould best help a first-grade readerdecode which of the following words?

A. itch

B. girl

C. learn

D. stick


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5. Phonemic awareness contributes mostto the development of phonics skills inbeginning readers by helping them:

A. recognize different ways in whichone sound can be represented inprint.

B. count the number of syllables in awritten word.

C. identify in spoken language separatesounds that can be mapped toletters.

D. understand the concept of a silentletter.

6. Which of the following first-gradestudents has attained the highest levelof phonemic awareness?

A. a student who, after hearing theword hot and the sound /ĭ/, cansubstitute /ĭ/ for /ŏ/ to make theword hit

B. a student who can orally segmentthe word wonderful intowon-der-ful

C. a student who, after hearing thewords fish and fun, can identifythat they both begin with the samephoneme, /f/

D. a student who can orally segmentthe word train into its onsetand rime

7. Asking students to listen to a word(e.g., same) and then tell the teacherall the sounds in the word is an exercisethat would be most appropriate forstudents who:

A. have a relatively low level ofphonological awareness.

B. are beginning to develop systematicphonics skills.

C. have a relatively high level ofphonemic awareness.

D. are beginning to master thealphabetic principle.

8. A kindergarten teacher asks a small groupof students to repeat after her. First, shesays the word grape and then pronouncesit as gr and ape. Next, she says theword take and then pronounces it as tand ake. This activity is likely to promotethe students' phonemic awarenessprimarily by:

A. helping them recognize distinctsyllables in oral language.

B. encouraging them to divide wordsinto onsets and rimes.

C. teaching them how to distinguishbetween consonants and vowels.

D. promoting their awareness of letter-sound correspondence.


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9. A teacher shows a student pictures offamiliar objects. As the teacher points tothe first picture, she asks the student toname the object in the picture. Next, sheasks the student to count on his fingers thenumber of sounds he makes as he says theword again. This activity is most likely topromote which of the following?

A. understanding of the alphabeticprinciple

B. phonemic awareness skills

C. development of letter-soundcorrespondence

D. word identification skills

10. Which of the following oral languageactivities would best promote thephonological processing skills of astudent who is an English LanguageLearner?

A. Read aloud in English and ask thestudent to guess the meaning ofunfamiliar words.

B. Identify phonemes that are usedin spoken English but not in thestudent's primary language.

C. Help identify words that sound thesame in English and in the student'sprimary language.

D. Give feedback immediately after thestudent makes pronunciation errorsin spoken English.

11. A preschool child picks up an unfamiliarbook, opens it to the end, points to thetext, and begins to "pretend read" thestory. These behaviors suggest that thechild most likely:

A. has well-developed book-handlingskills.

B. knows where individual wordsbegin and end.

C. has developed an understanding thatprint carries meaning.

D. understands the concept of printdirectionality.

12. A preschool child draws a stick figureand makes some unintelligible scribblesaround it. When she shows it to herteacher, she points to the scribbles andsays, "This says 'I love mommy.'" Thisbehavior suggests that the child mostlikely:

A. is ready to learn the concept ofletter-sound correspondence.

B. is beginning to develop awarenessthat words are made of distinctphonemes.

C. has a basic understanding of thealphabetic principle.

D. has grasped the idea that thefunction of print is distinct fromthat of pictures.


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13. At the end of each school day, a preschoolteacher encourages the children to talkabout the day's events. As the childrendescribe each event, the teacher writes iton large block paper. Afterward, theteacher reads the list back to the class.This activity would contribute to thechildren's literacy development primarilyby promoting their:

A. basic understanding of thealphabetic principle.

B. awareness that speech can berepresented by writing.

C. basic understanding of wordboundaries.

D. awareness of the relationshipbetween syllables and thespoken word.

14. A kindergarten teacher hangs labels onkey objects in the classroom, puts upposters that include words and captions,and always has a big book on display forthe children's use. This kind of classroomenvironment is most likely to helppromote children's:

A. recognition that words arecomposed of separate sounds.

B. recognition of high-frequency sightwords.

C. development of automaticity inword recognition.

D. development of an awarenessof print.

15. A preschool teacher is reading a storyto his class. As he reads, he holds thebook so the children can see the wordsand pictures while his finger followsthe line of print. This activity wouldcontribute to the children's readingdevelopment primarily by:

A. promoting their development ofletter recognition skills.

B. helping them recognize phonemesthat occur frequently in print.

C. developing their awareness of left-to-right directionality.

D. promoting their understanding ofletter-sound correspondence.

16. Pointing out the title, beginning, middle,and end of a book to a group of preschoolchildren before reading the book aloudto them contributes to their readingdevelopment primarily by promoting their:

A. understanding of text directionality.

B. development of book-handlingskills.

C. understanding of the concept ofschema.

D. development of literalcomprehension strategies.


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17. Which of the following strategieswould be most effective in promotingkindergarten children's ability to recognizeand name letters of the alphabet?

A. The teacher says the name of a letterwhile the children each trace itsshape on a cutout letter.

B. The teacher posts the entire alphabetaround the room in several differentformats.

C. The teacher reads aloud to thechildren from books that containmostly words that follow regularphonics patterns.

D. The teacher emphasizes the initialsounds of words when reading to thechildren.

18. Having kindergarten children practicetracing the letters of the alphabet in sandis most appropriate for children who arehaving difficulty:

A. internalizing the alphabeticprinciple.

B. recognizing that print carriesmeaning.

C. understanding the relationshipbetween spoken and writtenlanguage.

D. developing letter formationskills.

19. A preschool teacher shows a group ofchildren pictures of everyday objects.Below each picture is printed the letterof the alphabet that corresponds to theword's initial sound. As the teacher pointsto each picture, she names the object, thenshe points to the letter underneath it andsays the sound it makes. The teacherinvites the children to repeat the soundwith her. This activity is likely tocontribute to the children's readingdevelopment primarily by:

A. illustrating the concept of wordboundaries.

B. focusing on auditory discriminationskills.

C. introducing the concept of onsetand rime.

D. demonstrating that phonemes arerepresented by letters.

20. A teacher holds up a series of familiarobjects, asking students to name eachobject and isolate the final sound theyhear. This type of activity would bemost appropriate for a student who:

A. needs more development withphonemic awareness skills.

B. needs to increase reading fluencyand comprehension.

C. lacks automaticity in wordrecognition.

D. has difficulty sounding outphonetically regular one-syllablewords.


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21. A kindergarten teacher wants to promotestudents' understanding of the alphabeticprinciple. Which of the following wouldbe the most effective first step in asequence of instruction designed toachieve this goal?

A. Talk with students about selectedconsonants using a series of postersthat each feature one consonant andcontain pictures of items whoseinitial phoneme demonstrates thatconsonant's sound.

B. Have students trace both lowercaseand uppercase letters of the alphabetand then practice reproducing theletters on their own.

C. Talk with students about thetitle, beginning, middle, and endof a story and point to these partswhile reading the story aloud froma big book.

D. Put labels on several familiarobjects in the classroom andregularly read the labels aloudto the students.

22. When learning letter-sound correspon-dence, beginning readers are likely torequire the most instruction in decodingwhich of the following?

A. ship

B. dime

C. hot

D. best

23. Which of the following best describes therelationship between word decoding andreading comprehension in a beginningreader's development?

A. Decoding skills and readingcomprehension skills tend todevelop independently of oneanother.

B. Reading comprehension skillsdirectly facilitate the developmentof decoding skills.

C. Development of decoding skills issecondary to the development ofreading fluency and comprehensionskills.

D. Rapid automatic decoding skillshelp facilitate development ofreading fluency and comprehension.

24. A teacher can most effectively supportfirst graders' development of rapidautomatic word recognition by firstteaching students how to:

A. apply consistent phonics generali-zations in common words.

B. use context cues to determine themeanings of words.

C. identify the constituent parts ofmultisyllable words.

D. look up unfamiliar words in thedictionary.


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25. Which of the following describes animplicit strategy for extending andreinforcing students' phonics skills?

A. encouraging students to look forparticular words and word parts inenvironmental print

B. having students sort sets of familiarwords into their designated wordfamilies

C. asking students to sound out newwords that follow a common regularspelling pattern

D. guiding students to spell newmultisyllable words using knownwords and word parts

26. Which of the following strategies wouldbe most effective in promoting secondgraders' decoding of multisyllable words?

A. giving students opportunities to readliterature that offers repeatedexposure to predictable text

B. prompting students to sound out theindividual phonemes that composemultisyllable words

C. encouraging students to compare theparts of new multisyllable wordswith known single-syllable words

D. reinforcing students' recognition ofhigh-frequency multisyllable wordsusing drills and flashcards

27. A second-grade teacher writes severalsentences on the board, covering up oneword in each sentence. She uncovers thefirst letter of the first covered word andasks students to guess the word beforeshe uncovers it completely. She thenfollows the same procedure with the nextsentence. In the example shown below,the students have completed sentences 1and 2 and are currently working onsentence 3.

1. Paul likes to play football.

2. Elephants are the largest landanimals.

3. We went to the m lastFriday.

This activity is most likely to promote thestudents' word identification skills byhelping them:

A. use syllabication as a decodingstrategy.

B. apply phonics generalizations todecode multisyllable words.

C. use semantic and syntactic cues tohelp identify words.

D. apply common consonant-vowelpatterns to decode unfamiliar words.


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28. A second-grade teacher administersspelling inventories periodically tohelp assess students' phonics knowledge.The following shows one student'sperformance on a spelling inventoryat the beginning of the school year andagain several months later.

Dictated Word Student Spelling

set set

star ster

drive driv

peach pech

turn tarn

join joyn

Dictated Word Student Spelling

set set

star star

drive drive

peach peche

turn turn

join joyn

The student's performance on the secondadministration of the spelling inventoryindicates that the student made the mostimprovement in which of the followingareas?

A. initial and final consonants

B. short vowels and diphthongs

C. digraphs and blends

D. long and r-controlled vowels

29. Which of the following provides thebest rationale for incorporating spellinginstruction into a first-grade readingprogram?

A. Spelling promotes phonemicawareness by teaching students tobreak words into onsets and rimes.

B. Spelling facilitates vocabularydevelopment by introducingstudents to new words.

C. Spelling simplifies the readingprocess by focusing students ona limited set of decoding rules.

D. Spelling supports word recognitionby helping students learn and retaincommon phonics patterns.

30. Which of the following statements bestdescribes how oral vocabulary knowledgeis related to the process of decodingwritten words?

A. A reader applies decoding skills tounfamiliar written words in order toincrease his or her oral vocabularyknowledge.

B. A reader's oral vocabularyknowledge allows the reader toderive meaning as he or she decodeswritten words.

C. A reader must have extensiveoral vocabulary knowledgein order to learn decodingprocesses.

D. A reader's oral vocabularyknowledge is dependent on his orher development of strong decodingskills.


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31. Read the sentence below; then answerthe question that follows.

My family went to the circus lastweekend. I liked the clowns the best.They were very funny.

A student makes several miscues whenreading these sentences aloud. Which ofthe following miscues represents an errorin decoding consonant blends?

A. omitting circus

B. pronouncing clowns as clones

C. saying bet for best

D. shortening funny to fun

32. Which of the following sentences containsa pair of italicized words that differ fromone another by one phoneme?

A. He took off his cap so that he couldtake a nap.

B. She works at a bank that is locatednear the bank of a river.

C. She told him not to buy a ticketbecause she had already bought one.

D. His face looked pale after he carriedthe pail of water for a mile.

33. Which of the following students demon-strates variation in reading developmentthat would require intervention focusedon explicit phonics instruction?

A. a kindergarten student who canrecite the alphabet from memorybut has difficulty distinguishingindividual phonemes in words

B. a first-grade student who can easilydecode nonsense words but haslimited comprehension of themeaning of text

C. a second-grade student who is adeptat using context cues to identifywords but has difficulty soundingout the letters in unfamiliar words

D. a third-grade student who can readmost grade-level text fluently buthas difficulty with unfamiliarirregular low-frequency words

34. Explicit phonics instruction is mostappropriate for a student who hasdemonstrated which of the followingphonological awareness skills?

A. being aware that a word is made upof one or more phonemes

B. being able to separate a word's onsetand rime

C. being aware that words can bedivided into syllables

D. being able to segment and blend aword's phonemes


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35. Use the information below to answer the question that follows.

A teacher poses the following question to fourth-grade students.

What words can you think of that have the word "act" in them?

Using student responses, the teacher creates the following web on the board.

actsactedactingactoractiveactionactivityactualactuallyactivateactivationactivism

reactenactoveractinteract

playact

act

inactivedeactivatetransactionenactment

This technique is likely to be most helpfulfor enhancing the students' awareness of:

A. morphemic structure.

B. compound words.

C. syllable patterns.

D. Greek roots.

36. Which of the following sets of wordswould be most effective to use whenintroducing students to the concept ofstructural analysis?

A. late, great, wait, eight

B. afraid, obtain, explain, remain

C. swim, swims, swam, swum

D. pretest, retest, tested, testing


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37. An English Language Learner pronouncestigers as tiger when reading the followingsentence aloud.

They saw tigers at the zoo.

Which of the following actions is mostappropriate for the teacher to take first inresponse to the student's miscue?

A. guide the student in reading lists ofnouns with and without plural –s onthe end

B. verify that the student understandsthat tigers means more thanone tiger

C. provide the student withindependent practice in addingplural –s to singular nouns

D. provide a picture card to determinewhether the student can identifya tiger

38. The following sentence is missing severalwords.

(1) unusual (2) of spices (3) the soup an (4) flavor.

A word with the suffix -tion would fit bestin which of the blanks in the sentence?

A. (1)

B. (2)

C. (3)

D. (4)

39. Which of the following principles is bestillustrated by the words watched, wanted,and warned?

A. Spelling is often the best predictorof the pronunciation of a suffix.

B. Open syllables are usuallypronounced with a long vowelsound.

C. The spelling of a suffix is oftenmore reliable than its pronunciation.

D. The second letter of a consonantblend is usually pronounced as theonset of the following syllable.

40. The words enjoyable, maneuverable,corruptible, and convertible best illustratewhich of the following principles?

A. The spelling of a suffix can varydepending on its root word.

B. The accented syllable of a root wordcan shift when certain suffixes areadded to it.

C. The addition of a suffix can alter thespelling of its root word.

D. The pronunciation of a suffix canchange when added to certain rootwords.


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41. A second-grade teacher has students pulltwo single-syllable nouns from a hat(e.g., bulb, light) and asks them to formwords by putting the words together(e.g., lightbulb). Students then drawpictures to illustrate their new words andwrite short stories using the new words.This activity is likely to be most effectivefor helping students:

A. use visualization as a readingcomprehension strategy.

B. apply knowledge of phonicsgeneralizations.

C. use context cues to identifyunfamiliar words.

D. understand the concept ofcompound words.

42. Instruction in structural analysis is likelyto promote upper elementary students'reading comprehension primarily by:

A. facilitating their ability to usephonics generalizations to decodewords.

B. enhancing their familiarity with thetext structures and features used indifferent genres.

C. equipping them with strategies forunderstanding the meanings ofunfamiliar multisyllable words.

D. increasing their knowledge of keyvocabulary found in content-areatextbooks.

43. A third-grade teacher administers thefollowing informal reading assessment toindividual students.

Part I: Read aloud the followingwords:

laughneighborbeginningfriendtogetheryoung

Part II: Read aloud the followingpassage:

Nick and Ben are best friends. Theyhave been neighbors since they werevery young. In the beginning, theydid not get along, but now they playtogether every day after school. Theymake jokes and laugh a lot.

One student performs significantly betteron the second part of the test than on thefirst. Which of the following is the bestassessment of this student's readingperformance?

A. The student is proficient at usingcontext cues to help identify wordsbut has weak word decoding skills.

B. The student can decode single-syllable words but has not yetlearned how to decode multisyllablewords.

C. The student is proficient at usingsyntactic cues to identify wordsbut is not yet skilled at usingsemantic cues.

D. The student understands letter-sound correspondence but haslimited awareness of syllablestructure.


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44. A second-grade teacher uses the followinghandout to guide the class through anactivity.

Look at the word fair in these twosentences:

• It isn't fair that Juan got an extrascoop of ice cream.

• Simon and Ling went to the fairand rode on the merry-go-round.

How are these words the same? Howare they different?

Can you think of sentences that showtwo different ways in which each ofthe following words can be used?

saw spell root runplay fly kind seal

This activity would best promote students'ability to:

A. identify and decode commonhomographs.

B. use structural cues to identify themeaning of words.

C. cluster new vocabulary together intomeaningful groups.

D. find and use synonyms for commonwords.

45. A sixth-grade student encounters thefollowing sentence in a short story.

She experienced a sense of déjà vu asshe walked down the street of thestrange new city.

The student asks the teacher about themeaning of déjà vu in the sentence. Theteacher could best respond by advisingthe student to take which of the followingsteps?

A. Make note of the word in avocabulary log, and then study theword after finishing the story.

B. Use context cues in the sentence toguess the meaning of the word, andthen try out that meaning in thesentence.

C. Look up the word in the dictionary,and then paraphrase the sentenceusing the dictionary definition.

D. Break the word into its componentparts, and then compare the parts tothe meanings of similar knownwords.


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46. Before beginning a new content-areareading passage, a fourth-grade teacherasks students to think of words related tothe topic of the text. The teacher writesthe words on the board and then asks thestudents to suggest ways to group thewords based on meaningful connections.The teacher also encourages them toexplain their reasons for groupingparticular words together. This seriesof activities is likely to promote thestudents' reading development primarilyby helping them:

A. extend and reinforce theirexpressive and receptivevocabularies related to thetext's topic.

B. infer the meaning of newvocabulary in the text basedon word derivations.

C. strengthen and extend theirunderstanding of the overallstructure of the text.

D. verify word meanings in the textby incorporating syntactic andsemantic cues into their wordanalysis.

47. A first-grade teacher designs the followingactivity.

1. Divide students into pairs.

2. Have students sit back-to-back.

3. Give one student in each pair apicture of a familiar object todescribe to his or her partner.

4. The partner tries to name theobject based on the description.

This activity is likely to contributeto students' literacy developmentprimarily by:

A. helping them begin to makeconnection between print and thespoken word.

B. fostering their ability to workindependently of teacher guidance.

C. promoting their oral languagedevelopment and listeningcomprehension.

D. encouraging them to practicespeaking skills.


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48. A fifth-grade student reads the sentence,"After playing with her friends all day,Kaylee did her science homework, hergeography project, and her compositionin one fell swoop." The student asks theteacher for help understanding what ismeant by the phrase one fell swoop.The teacher can best help the studentunderstand this idiomatic expression by:

A. discussing with the student moreexamples of the phrase used incontext.

B. directing the student to look updifferent meanings of fell andswoop in the dictionary.

C. helping the student create a treediagram of the structure of thephrase.

D. asking the student to find othersentences in the text that use thewords fell and swoop.

49. A beginning reader can sound out andwrite phonetically regular one- and two-syllable words. When reading sentencesor longer texts, however, the studentfrequently has poor comprehension.Which of the following is the first step theteacher should take in order to promotethis student's reading proficiency?

A. Evaluate the student's ability toapply grade-level-appropriatephonics generalizations.

B. Evaluate the level of the student'sphonemic and phonologicalawareness.

C. Ascertain the degree to whichthe student uses syntacticcues.

D. Ascertain the level of the student'svocabulary development.

50. A fifth-grade teacher is about to begin anew unit on weather and climate. Whichof the following types of vocabularywords from the unit would be mostappropriate for the teacher to preteach?

A. words that are conceptuallychallenging

B. high-frequency, phoneticallyirregular words

C. multisyllable words

D. high-frequency words with multiplemeanings


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51. A text includes the word indefensible,which is unfamiliar to some studentsin a fourth-grade class. Which of thefollowing strategies for teaching the wordwould be most effective in both clarifyingthe meaning of the word and extending thestudents' vocabulary development?

A. Have the students enter the word intheir ongoing list of new vocabularywords and then look up its definitionindependently.

B. Explain the meaning of the wordto the students before they readthe text.

C. Discuss the meanings of otherwords having the same affixes orroot and then ask the students to tryto "construct" the word's meaning.

D. Ask the students to paraphrase thesentence that contains the word bysubstituting a synonym for the word.

52. In which of the following sentences iscontext most helpful in understandingthe italicized word?

A. Tulip trees are ubiquitous inVirginia and in some other partsof the United States as well.

B. John's friends surreptitiouslyplanned a housewarming party forhim soon after he had moved in.

C. Mary is magnanimous in all of herdealings with people, even when shedoes not know a person well.

D. Peter's mother was adamant that heshould attend college, but his fatherdid not seem to care.


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53. Students in a third-grade class arestudying different forms of transportationthat are used around the world. As partof this unit of study, they work togetherto create a semantic map of wordsassociated with transportation, includingwords that they have recently learned(e.g., barge, rickshaw). This activityis most likely to promote students'vocabulary development by:

A. showing them how structuralanalysis can be used to determinethe meaning of new vocabulary.

B. helping them to categorize,visualize, and remember newvocabulary.

C. guiding them to discover themultiple meanings of newvocabulary.

D. providing them with frequent,varied reading experiences usingthe new vocabulary.

54. A third-grade class that includes severalEnglish Language Learners is about toread a text about water sports. Which ofthe following teaching strategies would bemost effective in promoting the EnglishLanguage Learners' comprehension ofthe text?

A. Have the students look up unknownEnglish words using bilingualdictionaries and then makevocabulary lists in both languages.

B. Pair English Language Learnerswith native speakers of English andhave the native speakers explain anyunknown vocabulary.

C. Activate students' prior knowledgeabout the topic and provide visualaids such as illustrations to clarifynew vocabulary.

D. Give students a list of newvocabulary with definitions andask the students to try to constructtheir own sentences using the words.


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Use the information below to answerthe three questions that follow.

Before reading aloud a book about a farmto a group of beginning readers, a first-grade teacher has the students brainstormwords and concepts related to farms.Next, she reads the text aloud from abig book, pointing to the words as shereads. After discussing the story withthe students, she puts the book in theclassroom library and encourages thestudents to read it on their own.

55. The students are most likely to besuccessful in their independent readingof the book if:

A. they have previously heard and canrecognize the text's key words.

B. the text does not include compoundsentences.

C. they come from homes where silentreading is extensively modeled.

D. the text deals with fictional ratherthan factual material.

56. The theoretical basis for including thebrainstorming activity in this lesson is thathaving the students share their knowledgeof farms prior to the reading will:

A. give the teacher an opportunity toassess and compare the students'oral language skills.

B. develop the students' understandingof basic concepts about print.

C. facilitate the students'comprehension of the story throughschema building.

D. prepare the students to benefit fromphonics activities related to the text.

57. The most important reason for puttingthe book in the classroom library is topromote the students':

A. love of reading by facilitating theiraccess to a story that they havealready heard, understood, andenjoyed.

B. understanding of the alphabeticprinciple by introducing them toletter-sound correspondence.

C. oral language development byproviding them with the opportunityto imitate the teacher's reading of atext.

D. use of metacognitive strategies byallowing them to practice self-monitoring when reading silently.


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58. As a second-grade teacher reads hisstudents a fable about a fox and a rabbit,he stops at key points and asks himselfquestions aloud such as, "I wonder whythe fox said that?" or "I wonder whatthe rabbit will do next?" Rather thananswering the questions, he tells thestudents that he will hold the questionsin his mind and think of possible answersas the story progresses. He also invitesthe students to pose their own questionsas they listen. This activity is useful inillustrating for students that:

A. texts generally have only onecorrect interpretation.

B. oral reading fluency facilitatescomprehension.

C. readers interact with text andconstruct meaning as they read.

D. readers need to recall story events ina sequential order.

59. After reading a historical novel aboutthe U.S. Civil War, students in a sixth-grade class each bring in an object that, tothem, represents the book. The studentsshare the different objects and discussways in which each object might representthe book. This activity is most likely topromote students' reading development byhelping them:

A. determine the author's main pointof view.

B. understand the plot structure andoverall chronology of the book.

C. analyze the author's use of figurativelanguage.

D. create personal interpretations aboutthe book.

60. During weekly independent reading time,fifth-grade students read high-interestliterature and record their thoughts,reactions, and questions in a teacher-student dialogue journal. The dialoguejournal activity is likely to promote thestudents' reading proficiency primarily by:

A. encouraging students' activeconstruction of meaning with atext and developing their literaryresponse skills.

B. increasing students' reading fluencyand facilitating their rapid automaticword recognition.

C. expanding students' vocabularyknowledge and providing them withextensive, varied readingexperiences.

D. promoting students' appreciation forliterary genres and exposing them tothe various features of literary texts.


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61. Sixth-grade students have just finishedreading a chapter in a novel and aregetting ready to write an entry in theirresponse journals. The teacher could mosteffectively develop students' literaryresponse skills by assigning which of thefollowing journal prompts?

A. What new vocabulary wordsdid you learn when reading thischapter? List and define the newwords from the chapter.

B. What happened in the chapter?Describe two or three events fromthe chapter.

C. What do you think is the mainidea or theme of the novel? Relatespecific events in this chapter to thetheme you suggest.

D. Which characters are mentionedin this chapter? List each of thecharacters.

62. A second-grade teacher reads a tradebook aloud to the class. Which of thefollowing postreading activities wouldbe most likely to promote the students'comprehension of the story by enhancingtheir literary analysis skills?

A. encouraging the students toidentify the key vocabularywords in the story

B. helping the students make a conceptmap of the main events of the story

C. asking the students to reread thestory silently and respond to literalcomprehension questions

D. having the students "freewrite"about the story in their journals

63. A fifth-grade class is about to read a playabout the life of Harriet Tubman called"Travels on the Railroad." Which of thefollowing prereading activities wouldbest promote students' comprehensionof the text?

A. introducing the common elementsof plays as a genre and looking atsections of a printed play togetheras a class

B. asking students to predict what willhappen in the first act based on theplay's title and on a list of the play'smain characters

C. asking students to share what theyalready know about Harriet Tubmanand the time period during whichshe lived

D. encouraging small groups ofstudents to create and performtheir own short skits about thesame subject

64. A second-grade teacher notices that oneof her students lacks fluency whenreading aloud. The first thing the teachershould do in order to help this student isassess whether the student also hasdifficulties with:

A. predicting.

B. inferring.

C. metacognition.

D. decoding.


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65. Read the passage below; then answerthe question that follows.

For the second time that week, Saulforgot to wash his hands after workingon his painting. He had gotten soinvolved filling in the ocean in hispicture that he had barely even heardthe teacher telling everyone it wastime to put away their easels and washup for lunch. He had put his suppliesaway, but, still thinking about theocean, he had gone straight to hisdesk. Now he saw that he was leavingblue-paint handprints on his desk, onhis shirt, on his books—even on hislunchbox. Estella looked over at himand joked, "Hey, Saul! You're thenew King Midas! Only you turneverything to blue!" Saul rolled hiseyes at her as he got back up to go tothe sink.

This passage would be most suited forhelping students:

A. recognize a literary allusion.

B. analyze story elements.

C. predict future events.

D. analyze an author's point of view.

66. A third-grade class includes somestruggling readers. The teacher wouldlike the whole class to read historicalnovels as part of an interdisciplinary uniton Native Americans of the Northeast.Which of the following activities is likelyto help promote the struggling readers'comprehension of the novels?

A. Before reading these novels, theteacher preteaches key vocabularyand develops the students' schemarelated to the stories.

B. During reading, the students stopafter reading each chapter and try towrite a summary of the chapter intheir own words.

C. After reading these novels, theteacher helps the students create astory map of the main events andcharacters in their stories.

D. During reading, the students readtheir stories aloud by taking turnsreading specific pages.

67. A teacher can best help sixth graders todraw inferences from informational textby asking them to complete which of thefollowing statements?

A. In my opinion . . .

B. The passage suggests . . .

C. In comparison . . .

D. The author's first point is . . .


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68. A sixth-grade teacher gives studentsseveral persuasive essays that presentcontrasting opinions on a current socialissue. The teacher then asks students toconsider the following questions as theyread the texts.

1. What is the author's opinion onthe issue?

2. How might the author'sbackground influence his or heropinion?

3. What evidence does the authoruse to support his or her opinion?

These questions are likely to be mosteffective for helping students:

A. monitor comprehension ofinformational texts.

B. identify the theme in expositorytexts.

C. draw inferences from informationaltexts.

D. analyze point of view in expositorytexts.

69. A third-grade teacher periodically readsaloud from a chapter in content-areatextbooks and describes his thoughtprocesses as he reads. Following is anexample:

" 'The moon does not shine on its own.The sun's light reflects off the moon.'Hmm. I'm imagining that the sun islike a flashlight shining on the moonin the dark. 'As the moon rotates, onlythe part that faces the sun is visiblefrom the Earth.' I'm not quite surewhat "visible" means, but it soundskind of like vision, which I know hasto do with eyes. It probably meansthe part that we can see from theEarth. Now, that makes me wonder—why do we see different amounts ofthe moon at different times? Let's seeif the next part of the chapter explainsthis . . ."

This practice is most likely to promotestudents' reading proficiency by:

A. exposing them to new vocabulary incontext.

B. modeling for them metacognitivecomprehension strategies.

C. giving them an example of fluentoral reading.

D. summarizing for them the mainideas of an expository text.


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70. Skimming is likely to be the mosteffective strategy for accomplishingwhich of the following reading tasks?

A. evaluating the validity ofinformation on an Internet Web site

B. previewing a chapter in a content-area textbook

C. synthesizing information fromvarious sources for a research report

D. studying specific facts for a content-area exam

71. A fifth-grade class is about to beginreading a text about the Europeanexploration of North America. Beforethey begin, the teacher has the studentsbrainstorm what they already know aboutthe topic. After reading the text, sheencourages them to share any additionalinformation that they may have thoughtof as they were reading. These activitiesare likely to promote the students'comprehension primarily by:

A. encouraging them to connect newinformation to prior knowledge ofthe topic.

B. helping them determine the author'spurpose and point of view.

C. encouraging them to use contextcues to make appropriate inferences.

D. helping them analyze the text interms of main ideas and supportingdetails.

72. A sixth-grade class is working on anInternet research project about variousnatural resources and their uses. Theteacher could best support students'effective use of the Internet for theirresearch by:

A. providing students with a checklistof questions that prompt criticalevaluation of information on Websites.

B. giving students a list of Web sitesthat have been preapproved basedon the sites' reading levels.

C. encouraging students to searchfor Web sites that are easy tonavigate and that contain familiarvocabulary.

D. teaching students to employ avariety of search engines to locaterelevant Web sites.

73. Which of the following text features arestudents likely to find most useful whenpreviewing informational texts such aslibrary books for a research project?

A. index

B. bibliography

C. glossary

D. table of contents


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74. A third-grade teacher observes thatstudents who read aloud fluently alsodemonstrate greater comprehension ofexpository texts. The best explanationfor this is that fluent readers:

A. possess a self-awareness that allowsthem to use metacognitive skillsefficiently.

B. have already developed the base ofbackground knowledge typicallycovered by textbooks.

C. have well-developed skills fordecoding any level of text wordby word.

D. are able to focus their full attentionand cognitive resources on themeaning of a text.

75. A fifth-grade teacher gives studentsa reading guide to complete as theyread an informational text. The readingguide contains several questions toanswer and a chart to complete, as wellas comprehension aids for potentiallychallenging vocabulary and passages.This activity is likely to be most effectivefor achieving which of the followinginstructional purposes?

A. teaching students to adjust theirreading rate based on text difficulty

B. encouraging students to interactwith the text

C. supporting students' development ofreading fluency

D. fostering students' motivation toread cooperatively

76. Use the information below to answerthe question that follows.

A sixth-grade teacher has students work insmall groups to begin to develop a KWLchart before they read a textbook chapterabout the human brain.

The Human BrainK W L

Using a KWL chart in this way is mostlikely to help the students:

A. connect their backgroundknowledge to information in thechapter.

B. identify main ideas and supportingdetails in the chapter.

C. synthesize information from varioussections of the chapter.

D. visualize the terms and concepts inthe chapter.


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77. Two proficient readers are answeringpostreading comprehension questionsabout a chapter in a content-area textbook.

• The first student demonstratesexceptional recall of details from thechapter but has difficulty answeringquestions about the gist of the chapter.

• The second student can give anoutstanding summary of the chapterbut has difficulty rememberingspecific facts from the chapter.

Which of the following best explains themost likely reason for the students' variedunderstanding of the text?

A. The first student is more proficientthan the second student at usingmetacognitive comprehensionstrategies to make sense of the text.

B. Each student applied differentreading comprehension skills whenreading the text.

C. The second student is moreproficient at reading for literalunderstanding than for inferentialunderstanding.

D. Each student brought a unique set ofprior experiences to the reading ofthe text.

78. An English Language Learner readsacademic texts fluently in her primarylanguage but is struggling to understandher content-area textbooks in English.This student would likely benefit mostfrom engaging in which of the followingactivities?

A. translating textbook readingassignments from English into herprimary language

B. receiving reading comprehensioninstruction with texts written in herprimary language

C. learning to use metacognitivereading strategies with English text

D. reading texts in her primarylanguage that cover the samematerial as her English textbooks


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Use the information below to answer the two questions that follow.

A fifth-grade teacher plans to have students read a chapter about the American Revolutionary War fromtheir social studies textbook. The following is an excerpt from the chapter.

The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775. At the time, the American army occupied thearea from Cambridge to the Mystic River. American troops gathered in Cambridge Common on theevening of June 16, 1775, and set out for Bunker Hill. Upon reaching Bunker Hill, however, officersdecided to move to Breed's Hill, a smaller hill closer to Boston.

79. Based on this excerpt from the chapter,which of the following graphic organizerswould best promote students' awareness ofthe chapter's text structure?

A. outline

B. Venn diagram

C. timeline

D. semantic map

80. The teacher asks students to locate andmark places mentioned in the chapter ona map as they read. This activity is mostlikely to help students:

A. use visualization to facilitate theircomprehension of the text.

B. paraphrase content to make thetext more understandable.

C. connect elements in the text totheir background knowledge.

D. identify the text's main ideas andsupporting details.


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81. A third-grade teacher has been conductinga series of ongoing assessments of astudent's oral reading. Shown below isa sentence from a text, followed by atranscription of a typical example of thestudent's oral reading performance.

Text: Her boots crunched throughthe snow.

Student: Her boats crucked throw thesnow.

After reading the sentence, the studentpaused and then reread it without theteacher's prompting and self-correctedthe errors. Based on this information,the teacher could best meet this student'sneeds by adjusting instruction in order to:

A. enhance the student's oralvocabulary development.

B. develop the student's ability to self-monitor comprehension.

C. improve the student's decodingskills.

D. promote the student's ability to trackprint.

82. Which of the following types ofassessments would best provideinformation about the comparativereading proficiency of students in anelementary school?

A. a test of vocabulary development

B. a norm-referenced survey test

C. a reading miscue inventory

D. a diagnostic portfolio

83. Considerations of validity in testconstruction relate most closely to:

A. how a particular examinee'stest performance relates to apreestablished standard.

B. whether the test questionseffectively measure theirspecified content.

C. how a particular examinee's testperformance compares to theperformance of other examinees.

D. whether the test results are likelyto be repeatable with a similarexaminee test group.


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84. If a standardized test is said to lackreliability, the test:

A. is not measuring what it is supposedto measure.

B. has not proven to be useful as aninstructional intervention.

C. gives fluctuating scores in differentadministrations.

D. has poor predictive value relative tostudents' classroom performance.

85. Which of the following informalassessment results provides the clearestindication that a kindergarten child hasattained a beginning level of phonemicawareness?

A. The student can clap the "beats" orsyllables of familiar multisyllablewords.

B. The student can delete the second"word" or syllable in compoundwords.

C. The student can identify thebeginning sound of single-syllablewords.

D. The student can substitute phonemesin the medial position of single-syllable words.

86. One of the most important purposes of astandardized Informal Reading Inventory(IRI) is:

A. to establish how prior knowledgeand text organization influence astudent's reading comprehension.

B. to determine how a student usessemantic, syntactic, and other textcues to deduce a word's meaning.

C. to analyze how a student's silentreading comprehension isinfluenced by oral reading fluency.

D. to establish a student's independent,instructional, and frustration readinglevels.

87. An advantage of using assessment toolssuch as portfolios and scoring rubrics isthat they:

A. provide more objective results thando multiple-choice tests.

B. promote student participation inself-assessment activities.

C. ensure consistency among differentevaluators.

D. offer more reliable assessment data.


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88. Which of the following best describes theprimary advantage of having a studentread a passage silently and then providea "retelling" as a means of assessing thestudent's comprehension, rather thanhaving the student answer questions?

A. A retelling is open-ended andrequires the student to construct adescription of the passage moreindependently of the examiner.

B. The results of a retelling aremore objective and easier toquantify than the results of directquestioning.

C. The procedure involved in retellingtends to be more familiar to a widerrange of students, including EnglishLanguage Learners.

D. A retelling can provide informationabout the student's inferentialcomprehension skills, whichquestioning cannot provide.

89. Which of the following criteria would bemost important to consider when selecting"leveled texts" for use in assessments andguided reading with beginning-levelreaders?

A. The texts should use repeated wordsand natural oral language structures.

B. The texts should require readers touse problem-solving to connect textto illustrations.

C. The texts should emphasize use ofliterary language and dialogues.

D. The texts should feature a range ofpunctuation and context-specificvocabulary.

90. In order to select a trade book thatemphasizes predictability, a teachershould ensure that:

A. the text includes some pictures orillustrations.

B. the concepts in the text are at anappropriate level of difficulty forthe target student(s).

C. a phrase, rhyme, or sentence isrepeated throughout the text.

D. the length of the text is not likelyto exceed the attention span of thetarget student(s).


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91. A fourth-grade English Language Learneris new to a school. Assessments suggestthat the student can read orally withaccuracy on grade level; however, thestudent's comprehension of grade-leveltextbooks fluctuates widely. Which of thefollowing steps would be most appropriatefor the teacher to take first in order todetermine the cause of the student'sdifficulty?

A. Assess the student's word analysisand decoding skills.

B. Determine whether the student hasa specific learning disability thataffects language processing.

C. Assess the student's level of first-language literacy.

D. Determine whether the studenthas adequate vocabulary andbackground knowledge to supportcomprehension of the textbooks.

92. A first-grade teacher encouragesbeginning readers to "write" their owncaptions beneath their drawings. Thispractice is most likely to lead to whichof the following?

A. The students will tend to loseinterest in writing because of theirfrustration with their lack of masteryof the English spelling system.

B. The students' overall readingproficiency will be adverselyaffected by any spelling errors thatgo uncorrected.

C. The students will tend to developstrong automatic word recognitionskills from their interaction withprint.

D. The students' developmentof phonics knowledge will bereinforced as they experimentwith their own phonetic spellings.


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93. Which of the following types of activitieswould be most important to include ona daily basis when planning readinginstruction for first graders who aredeveloping as beginning readers?

A. activities that introducestudents to basic conceptsabout print

B. activities that emphasize listening toand producing rhyming, alliteration,and similar forms of wordplay

C. activities that promote students'development of decoding and otherword analysis skills

D. activities that emphasizememorization of lists of grade-level-appropriate sight words

94. A fifth-grade class silently reads aninformational text. In subsequent informalassessments, several students demonstratepoor overall comprehension of the textas well as lack of understanding of keyvocabulary. The teacher could mostappropriately address these students'needs by adjusting future instruction inwhich of the following ways?

A. using informational texts that arewritten at the students' independentreading level

B. providing the students with explicitinstruction in test-taking strategies

C. introducing a text's key vocabularyand concepts prior to engaging thestudents in silent reading

D. emphasizing reading activities thatfocus on narrative texts

95. As a first-grade teacher reads a big bookto a group of students, the teacher pointsto the beginning consonants of selectedwords and accentuates the sound the initialletter makes. This activity is most likelyto promote the students':

A. awareness of multisyllable words.

B. ability to isolate individual soundsin words.

C. structural analysis skills.

D. ability to blend the sounds inwords.

96. Which of the following children is most inneed of immediate intervention?

A. a preschool child who has limitedbook-handling skills

B. a kindergarten child who has limitedability to correlate alphabet letterswith the sounds they make

C. a first-grade student who requiresreading texts that have a high degreeof "predictability"

D. a second-grade student who isbeginning to track print


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97. Which of the following is the mostimportant reason for a fourth-gradeteacher to assign trade books as acomponent of reading instruction?

A. The themes typical of children'sliterature tend to help facilitatestudents' development of literalcomprehension skills.

B. Reading a variety of genres helpsstudents develop an understandingof how to approach the structuresand features of different texts.

C. The simplified syntax and controlledvocabulary typical of children'sliterature provide scaffolding forstudents who are struggling readers.

D. Reading a variety of texts helps topromote students' development ofphonological and phonemicawareness skills.

98. Frequent oral reading to kindergartenchildren using appropriate and expressiveintonation and voices is likely to promotethe students' reading developmentprimarily by:

A. improving their aural discriminationskills.

B. explicitly teaching letter-soundcorrespondence.

C. fostering their engagement in andlove of reading.

D. explicitly modeling phonologicalconcepts such as word boundaries.

99. Which of the following strategies is likelyto be most effective in promoting reluctantreaders' interest in independent readingoutside of school?

A. Calculate numerical scores based onthe number and difficulty level ofthe books students read at home andintegrate the score into students'report card grade for reading.

B. Encourage parents to give theirchildren simple external rewards forat-home reading, such as an extrahelping of a favorite treat.

C. Encourage students and parents toread books together on a regularbasis, either silently or aloud, anddiscuss their personal responses toeach chapter or key event.

D. Recommend that parents make theirchildren's daily television-watchingtime contingent on their reading aspecified number of pages first.

100. Electronic reading books are advantageousfor beginning or struggling readersprimarily because this type of computersoftware:

A. scaffolds learning by providing ahigh level of interactivity.

B. helps students develop familiaritywith reading from a computerscreen.

C. provides students with models ofgood reading practices and habits.

D. minimizes the focus on written textby using sound effects and voices toconvey meaning.


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DIRECTIONS FOR THE OPEN-RESPONSE ITEM ASSIGNMENTS

This section of the test consists of two open-response item assignments that appear on the following pages. Youwill be asked to prepare a written response of approximately 150–300 words (1–2 pages) for each assignment.You should use your time to plan, write, review, and edit your response for each assignment.

For each assignment, read the topic and directions carefully before you begin to work. Think about how you willorganize your response. You may use any blank space in this test booklet to make notes, write an outline, orotherwise prepare your response.

As a whole, your response to each assignment must demonstrate an understanding of the knowledge of the field.In your response to each assignment, you are expected to demonstrate the depth of your understanding of thesubject area by applying your knowledge rather than by merely reciting factual information.

Your response to each assignment will be evaluated based on the following criteria.

• PURPOSE: the extent to which the response achieves the purpose of the assignment

• SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE: appropriateness and accuracy in the application of subject knowledge

• SUPPORT: quality and relevance of supporting evidence

• RATIONALE: soundness of argument and degree of understanding of the subject area

The open-response item assignments are intended to assess subject knowledge. Your responses must becommunicated clearly enough to permit valid judgment of the evaluation criteria by scorers. Your responsesshould be written for an audience of educators in this field. The final version of each response should conformto the conventions of edited American English. Your responses should be your original work, written in yourown words, and not copied or paraphrased from some other work.

Be sure to write about the assigned topics. Please write legibly. You may not use any reference materials duringthe test. Remember to review your work and make any changes you think will improve your responses.


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OPEN-RESPONSE ITEM ASSIGNMENT #1

Use the information below to complete the exercise that follows.

Tyler, a third-grade student, has been silently reading Seven Kisses in a Row by Patricia MacLachlan. Inthe passage shown below, Aunt Evelyn is knitting baby booties for the child she is expecting. Her niece,Emma, notices some problems with the booties.

"Aunt Evelyn," said Emma, "I have something bad to tell you."

"What's that?" asked Aunt Evelyn.

"Your baby will eat those spangles." Emma pointed to the baby booties.

"Oh dear," said Aunt Evelyn. "I suppose you are right. I don't know very much about babies."

Emma felt sorry for Aunt Evelyn.

"Don't worry, Aunt Evelyn, I was a baby about seven years ago. And my mother told me what I waslike."

Aunt Evelyn put her arm around Emma. "You'd better tell me all about it," she said.

"First of all," Emma began, "babies don't pay attention to rules. They will eat spangles on booties,and wet and spit up milk and cry and wake up and sleep whenever they want to."

Aunt Evelyn sighed. "That's true, isn't it?"

Emma nodded. She looked at the purple spangled booties.

"Aunt Evelyn, I have something more bad to tell you."

"Now what?" asked Aunt Evelyn.

"Those purple booties are much too big for your baby," said Emma. "But I have some in my roomthat I saved from when I was a baby. They are not purple. I could give them to you."

Aunt Evelyn smiled at Emma. "Only if you want to, Emma."

Emma went into her room and found the booties. They were pink and blue. And they were verysmall. Aunt Evelyn loved them.

"Emma," she said, "I have noticed something. I think the purple spangled booties will fit you."

"I knew that," said Emma.

Aunt Evelyn laughed. "Oh, Emma. I like you."


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After Tyler finishes reading the passage, the teacher prompts her to retell this part of the story. Shownbelow is Tyler's oral retelling of the passage.

Aunt Evelyn has some purple baby booties with spangles on them. They're for her baby. I don't knowwhat spangles are. Maybe they're like bangles but much smaller. Anyway, Emma likes the spanglesand wants the purple booties for herself, so she decides to trade them for her pink and blue booties.Aunt Evelyn seems really happy with the pink and blue booties and she thanks Emma.

Using your knowledge of reading comprehension (e.g., literal comprehension, inferentialcomprehension, engagement of schema, self-monitoring), write a response in which you:

• identify and discuss one of Tyler's strengths relating to reading comprehension; and

• identify and discuss one of Tyler's weaknesses relating to reading comprehension.

Be sure to cite specific evidence from the passage and the retelling to support your thoughts.


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OPEN-RESPONSE SHEET—ASSIGNMENT #1

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OPEN-RESPONSE ITEM ASSIGNMENT #2

Use the information below to complete the exercise that follows.

Daniel, a third-grade student, reads aloud a passage from an unfamiliar story. As he reads, the teachernotes his performance on a separate copy of the story. Printed below is an excerpt from the teacher'srecord of Daniel's oral reading performance.

Emily ran into her bedroom and threw her backpack on the bed. "There you

are, Sunshine!" she cried. "Did you miss me?" Sunshine was Emily's new

pet goldfish. Sunshine seemed to swim a little faster as Emily gazed into the

bubbling fishbowl. "Are you hungry?" she asked, reaching for the small

container of fish food. Sunshine swam up as Emily sprinkled the little flakes of

food on the water. It had only been a week since she brought Sunshine home

from the pet store. But now Emily felt like she had known Sunshine forever. It

was not difficult to take care of a pet fish. Emily always remembered to feed

her pet when she came home from school. Sunshine kept her company while

she did her homework. After dinner she often lay on her bed and daydreamed

letting her mind float while she watched Sunshine glide through the water.

baka

catcow

deletion short pause repetition self-correction

insertion long pause substitution

sushinsush

golish

bubblebub fib

counter spilled

fever

different remmer

copy

hommer


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Using your knowledge of word identification strategies (e.g., use of phonics, analysis of word structure,use of context clues, identification of sight words), write a response in which you:

• identify one of Daniel's strengths in using word identification strategies; and

• identify one of Daniel's weaknesses in using word identification strategies.

Be sure to cite specific evidence from the information shown above to support your response.


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PRACTICE TEST RESULTS


47

PRACTICE TEST RESULTS OVERVIEW

The practice test provides valuable information regarding your preparedness for the MTEL Foundations ofReading (90) test. In this section, you will find information and tools to help you determine your preparedness onthe various sections of the test.

Multiple-Choice Questions

An Answer Key Worksheet is provided to assist you in evaluating your multiple-choice responses. Theworksheet contains five columns. The first column indicates the multiple-choice question number, the secondcolumn indicates the objective to which the item was written, and the third column indicates the correct response.The fourth and fifth columns are for your use in calculating the number of multiple-choice questions youanswered correctly or incorrectly.

An Evaluation Chart for the multiple-choice questions is also provided to help you assess which content coveredby the test objectives may require additional study.

Open-Response Items

Evaluation Information, Sample Responses and Analyses, as well as a Scoring Rubric are provided for theseitems. You may wish to refer to this information when evaluating your practice test responses.

Total Test

Practice Test Score Calculation information is provided to help you estimate your score on the practice test.Although you cannot use this practice test to precisely predict how you might score on an official MTELFoundations of Reading (90) test, you may be able to determine your degree of readiness to take an MTEL test atan operational administration. No passing score has been determined for the practice test.


48

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONANSWER KEY WORKSHEET

Your ResponseQuestionNumber

ObjectiveNumber

CorrectResponse Correct? Incorrect?

1 0001 C2 0001 B3 0001 B4 0001 D5 0001 C6 0001 A7 0001 C8 0001 B9 0001 B10 0001 B11 0002 C12 0002 D13 0002 B14 0002 D15 0002 C16 0002 B17 0002 A18 0002 D19 0002 D20 0002 A21 0002 A22 0003 B23 0003 D24 0003 A25 0003 A26 0003 C27 0003 C28 0003 D29 0003 D30 0003 B31 0003 C32 0003 A33 0003 C34 0003 D


49

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONANSWER KEY WORKSHEET (continued)


ObjectiveNumber


35 0004 A36 0004 D37 0004 B38 0004 B39 0004 C40 0004 A41 0004 D42 0004 C43 0004 A44 0004 A45 0005 C46 0005 A47 0005 C48 0005 A49 0005 D50 0005 A51 0005 C52 0005 D53 0005 B54 0005 C55 0005 A56 0009 C57 0009 A58 0006 C59 0006 D60 0006 A61 0006 C62 0006 B63 0006 C64 0006 D65 0006 A66 0006 A67 0007 B68 0007 D


50

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONANSWER KEY WORKSHEET (continued)


ObjectiveNumber


69 0007 B70 0007 B71 0007 A72 0007 A73 0007 D74 0007 D75 0007 B76 0007 A77 0007 B78 0007 C79 0007 C80 0007 A81 0008 C82 0008 B83 0008 B84 0008 C85 0008 C86 0008 D87 0008 B88 0008 A89 0008 A90 0008 C91 0008 D92 0009 D93 0009 C94 0009 C95 0009 B96 0009 D97 0009 B98 0009 C99 0009 C

100 0009 ACount the number of multiple-choice questions you answered correctly:

__________ of 100 multiple-choice questions


51

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONPRACTICE TEST EVALUATION CHART

In the evaluation chart that follows, the multiple-choice questions are arranged in numerical order and by testobjective. Check your responses against the correct responses provided to determine how many questions withineach objective you answered correctly.

Subarea I: Foundations of Reading Development

Objective 0001: Understand phonological and phonemic awareness.

1C_____ 2B_____ 3B_____ 4D_____ 5C_____ 6A_____ 7C_____ 8B_____

9B_____ 10B_____ _____/10

Objective 0002: Understand concepts of print and the alphabetic principle.

11C_____ 12D_____ 13B_____ 14D_____ 15C_____ 16B_____ 17A_____

18D_____ 19D_____ 20A_____ 21A_____ _____/11

Objective 0003: Understand the role of phonics in promoting reading development.

22B_____ 23D_____ 24A_____ 25A_____ 26C_____ 27C_____ 28D_____

29D_____ 30B_____ 31C_____ 32A_____ 33C_____ 34D_____ _____/13

Objective 0004: Understand word analysis skills and strategies.

35A_____ 36D_____ 37B_____ 38B_____ 39C_____ 40A_____ 41D_____

42C_____ 43A_____ 44A_____ _____/10

Subarea I (Objectives 0001–0004) Total _____/44


52

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONPRACTICE TEST EVALUATION CHART (continued)

Subarea II: Development of Reading Comprehension

Objective 0005: Understand vocabulary development.

45C_____ 46A_____ 47C_____ 48A_____ 49D_____ 50A_____ 51C_____

52D_____ 53B_____ 54C_____ 55A_____ _____/11

Objective 0006: Understand how to apply reading comprehension skills andstrategies to imaginative/literary texts.

58C_____ 59D_____ 60A_____ 61C_____ 62B_____ 63C_____ 64D_____

65A_____ 66A_____ _____/9

Objective 0007: Understand how to apply reading comprehension skills andstrategies to informational/expository texts.

67B_____ 68D_____ 69B_____ 70B_____ 71A_____ 72A_____ 73D_____

74D_____ 75B_____ 76A_____ 77B_____ 78C_____ 79C_____ 80A_____ _____/14

Subarea II (Objectives 0005–0007) Total _____/34

Subarea III: Reading Assessment and Instruction

Objective 0008: Understand formal and informal methods for assessing reading development.

81C_____ 82B_____ 83B_____ 84C_____ 85C_____ 86D_____ 87B_____

88A_____ 89A_____ 90C_____ 91D_____ _____/11

Objective 0009: Understand multiple approaches to reading instruction.

56C_____ 57A_____ 92D_____ 93C_____ 94C_____ 95B_____ 96D_____

97B_____ 98C_____ 99C_____ 100A_____ _____/11

Subarea III (Objectives 0008–0009) Total _____/22


53

OPEN-RESPONSE ITEM EVALUATION INFORMATION

How Open-Response Items Are Scored

Open-response items are scored through a process called focused holistic scoring. Scorers judge the overalleffectiveness of the response rather than individual aspects considered in isolation. Scorer judgments are basedon the quality of the response, not on length or neatness. Responses must be long enough to cover the topicadequately and scorers must be able to read what is written.

How to Evaluate Your Practice Responses

On the following pages, you will find two "strong" and two "weak" sample responses. PLEASE DO NOTREVIEW THE SAMPLE RESPONSES UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE WRITTEN YOUR OWN RESPONSE.When you do review the two "strong" and "weak" sample responses and analyses included here, please note thefollowing points:

For the purposes of the practice test, responses are identified as "strong" or "weak" rather than given ascore point of 1–4.

The responses identified as "strong" may contain flaws; however, these responses do demonstrate theperformance characteristics of a "strong response."

The two "strong" responses demonstrate the examinees' appropriate understanding and application of thesubject matter knowledge. However, these responses do not necessarily reflect the full range of "correctanswers" that would demonstrate an understanding of the subject matter.

The "Analysis" accompanying each "strong" and "weak" response discusses the main attributes of theresponses, but does not identify all flaws or strengths that may be present.

Compare your practice responses to the Sample Responses to determine whether your responses are more similarto the strong or weak responses. Also review the Analyses on those pages and the Scoring Rubric to help youbetter understand the characteristics of strong and weak responses. This evaluation will help you identify specificproblems or weaknesses in your practice responses. Further information on scoring can be found in the TestInformation Booklet and Faculty Guide at www.mtel.nesinc.com and at www.doe.mass.edu/mtel; select "FAQ,"then "After the Test."

http://www.mtel.nesinc.com/MA_FR_opener.asp

http://www.mtel.nesinc.com

http://www.doe.mass.edu/mtel


54

OPEN-RESPONSE ITEMSCORING RUBRIC, SAMPLE RESPONSES, AND ANALYSES


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Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure®SCORING RUBRIC FOR SUBJECT TESTS

Performance Characteristics:

Purpose The extent to which the response achieves the purpose of the assignment.

Subject Matter Knowledge Accuracy and appropriateness in the application of subject matter knowledge.

Support Quality and relevance of supporting details.

Rationale Soundness of argument and degree of understanding of the subject matter.

Scoring Scale:ScorePoint Score Point Description

4The "4" response reflects a thorough knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.• The purpose of the assignment is fully achieved.• There is a substantial, accurate, and appropriate application of subject matter knowledge.• The supporting evidence is sound; there are high-quality, relevant examples.• The response reflects an ably reasoned, comprehensive understanding of the topic.

3The "3" response reflects an adequate knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.• The purpose of the assignment is largely achieved.• There is a generally accurate and appropriate application of subject matter knowledge.• The supporting evidence is adequate; there are some acceptable, relevant examples.• The response reflects an adequately reasoned understanding of the topic.

2The "2" response reflects a limited knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.• The purpose of the assignment is partially achieved.• There is a limited, possibly inaccurate or inappropriate, application of subject matter knowledge.• The supporting evidence is limited; there are few relevant examples.• The response reflects a limited, poorly reasoned understanding of the topic.

1The "1" response reflects a weak knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.• The purpose of the assignment is not achieved.• There is little or no appropriate or accurate application of subject matter knowledge.• The supporting evidence, if present, is weak; there are few or no relevant examples.• The response reflects little or no reasoning about or understanding of the topic.

U The response is unrelated to the assigned topic, illegible, primarily in a language other thanEnglish, not of sufficient length to score, or merely a repetition of the assignment.

B There is no response to the assignment.


56

FIRST SAMPLE WEAK RESPONSE FOR OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #1

One of Tyler's strengths relating to reading comprehension is that she understands how peoplefeel in the story. She says that "Aunt Evelyn seems really happy" and she picks up on thatbecause of the clues about how she is smiling and laughing throughout the passage.

One of Tyler's weaknesses in reading and comprehending the story would be her lack inunderstanding the vocabulary. When she does not understand what "spangles" are and shetries to relate it to a word that rhymes with it. Because of this Tyler does not fullyunderstand what she is reading or how to explain it to her teacher.

ANALYSIS FOR FIRST WEAK RESPONSE TO OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #1

This is an example of a weak response because it is characterized by the following:

Purpose: The candidate has provided a limited response to this prompt. The strength and the weakness given arerelatively unimportant aspects of reading comprehension to derive from Tyler's retelling of the story.

Subject Matter Knowledge: The candidate does not use specific reading comprehension terminology,e.g., literal and inferential comprehension. The phrases used—"she understands how people feel in the story" and"lack of understanding vocabulary"—are too vague to demonstrate subject knowledge. If the candidate haddiscussed the specific passages where Tyler must have inferred meaning in order to conclude that Emma"understands how people feel," or noted the impact that not understanding the word "bangles" may have had onTyler's comprehension of this passage, the response would have been stronger.

Support: Supporting evidence is limited. For example, the candidate overestimates Tyler's strength in"understanding how people feel in the story." Tyler's description of Aunt Evelyn is misquoted as "smiling andlaughing throughout the passage." At the same time, the candidate does not discuss more subtle feelings Tylermay have missed in phrases like, "Emma felt sorry for Aunt Evelyn," and "Aunt Evelyn sighed." Similarly,Tyler's unfamiliarity with one word, "spangles," is cited as a vocabulary weakness, when there are no otherindications that Tyler's silent reading is hampered by lack of vocabulary. Noting how a child responds to anunknown word, especially a single unknown word, is more important than noting that they did not know a word.Tyler does demonstrate an appropriate approach to understanding the unfamiliar word, reasoning that spanglesmust be smaller than bangles if Aunt Evelyn needs to worry about the baby eating them.

Rationale: The overall response reflects limited reasoning about reading comprehension. The candidate has notconnected Tyler's retelling of the passage to recognizing or strengthening her comprehension strategies. Howdoes the fact that Tyler "understands how people feel" specifically connect to her strength in readingcomprehension? How did the candidate determine Tyler's overall vocabulary development needs through silentreading?


57

SECOND SAMPLE WEAK RESPONSE FOR OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #1

Tyler definitely has some strengths and weaknesses as seen in her retelling of the story. Shegave many details but didn't tell the main idea.

Tyler's focus on details shows she was following the story and had good comprehension. She wasable to recall such things as the purple booties had spangles and were traded for the pink andblue ones. She knew the names of the characters Aunt Evelyn and Emma. But she left out therelationship between them which was very important.

Some of Tyler's reading comprehension is weak. She tells more about details instead of focusingon the main idea. She needs to learn to look at other key elements in the story rather thanincluding the color of the booties, such as why Emma wanted the purple booties that the auntwas knitting for her baby. Tyler really needs help with this kind of comprehension. Herteacher should give the class a mini-lesson on how to summarize a story. The teacher shouldexplain that details are important, but the point of a summary is to shorten it and tell whatthe ideas are. Then the teacher should explain that when you re-tell a story you can put indetails that go with the main points. These are Tyler's strengths and weaknesses.

ANALYSIS FOR SECOND WEAK RESPONSE TO OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #1


Purpose: The candidate's response fails to fulfill the purpose of the assignment in several ways. Though thecandidate does choose a strength, reading for details, and a weakness, missing the main idea, the candidate missesthe significant comprehension skills, such as literal and inferential comprehension. The evidence cited onlypartially explains the aspects of comprehension he has addressed.

Subject Matter Knowledge: In both tasks of the assignment, the candidate's knowledge is limited. Tyler'sstrength, contrary to the candidate's statements, is not remembering details; she misses many details that mighthave led her to understand the underlying meaning of the conversation. In addition, the reference to the main ideais faulty; it is not only the main idea that Tyler missed, but also the inferential understanding of why Emma hasthe exchange with her aunt. The candidate should have noticed that Tyler missed the big picture, the underlyingmeaning, that Aunt Evelyn was probably knitting the booties for Emma and that Emma wanted the purple bootiesfor herself.

Support: The evidence that the candidate provides is not particularly strong. For example, the details cited arelimited and many more important details are not addressed, such as Emma's reference to the problem with thespangles and the aunt and Emma's conversation that resulted in the trade. Secondly, though the candidate's choiceof Tyler's weakness misses the main idea, the candidate does not provide support or explanation for it.

Rationale: The response is poorly reasoned; the candidate does not make clear in his explanation or support whatTyler's comprehension level is. His lack of terminology of reading comprehension skills, such as her "readingcomprehension is weak" and she "had good comprehension," result in vague notions about Tyler's reading ability.Precise reading terminology would refer to literal comprehension in the first section and inferentialcomprehension in the second, which are what the candidate was actually discussing.


58

FIRST SAMPLE STRONG RESPONSE FOR OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #1

Tyler's interpretation of the story is obviously a basic one but displays some strengths andweaknesses in the area of reading comprehension. One of Tyler's strengths lies in herinferential comprehension. After reading the story, Tyler tells the teacher that Emmawanted the purple spangled booties for herself and traded her old pink and blue booties withAunt Evelyn. Tyler understood that Emma wasn't just being nice by giving her aunt adviceabout the new baby. She picked up on the part of the story where Emma agreed with heraunt that the booties would fit her, by saying "I knew that." This shows that Tyler understoodEmma's ulterior motive. However, Tyler misses a more subtle idea that the aunt probablyintended the purple booties to be for Emma in the first place.

Another strength that Tyler has is self-monitoring her understanding. She doesn't know whatspangles are but relates them to bangles. "Maybe they're like bangles but much smaller."

On the other hand, one of Tyler's weaknesses is literal comprehension. She left out essentialdetails that were part of the story. She left out that Aunt Evelyn is pregnant and is knittingbooties for her baby. She left out the fact that Emma gave Aunt Evelyn advice about babies:that babies will "wet and spit up milk and cry," and that babies "will eat spangles," and that thebooties she was making were too big for a baby. These omitted literal aspects may have beenwhy Tyler missed some of the inferences in the story.

ANALYSIS FOR FIRST STRONG RESPONSE TO OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #1

This is an example of a strong response because it is characterized by the following:

Purpose: The candidate addresses the assignment fully by focusing on reading comprehension and explainingTyler's demonstration of a strength and a weakness. The response cites specific evidence from both the passageand the retelling that Tyler gives after reading silently.

Subject Matter Knowledge: The application of subject knowledge is accurate and substantial, including thecorrect use of terminology. The distinction between inferential ("understood Emma's ulterior motive") and literalcomprehension ("left out essential details") is clearly stated. The candidate notes that Tyler is self-monitoringthrough questioning the meaning of spangles. The overall discussion is appropriate because a third gradertypically begins to include inferential with literal comprehension. The candidate takes the discussion a stepfurther by noticing that Tyler may have missed a more subtle inference, in part due to missing several importantdetails.

Support: The candidate provides examples that are both relevant and important to the discussion ("she picked upon the part of the story where Emma agreed," and "she doesn't know what spangles are but relates them tobangles"). The response cites a critical piece of inferential understanding: "Tyler understood that Emma wasn'tjust being nice by giving her aunt advice about the new baby." Support is sound and the examples are of highquality.

Rationale: The response is ably reasoned and relates each part of the discussion to the whole picture of Tyler'scomprehension of this silently read passage. The conclusion ties together the two main threads of the discussion:"These omitted literal aspects may have been why Tyler missed some of the inferences in the story."


59

SECOND SAMPLE STRONG RESPONSE FOR OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #1

Tyler's retelling reveals quite a bit about her development in reading thus far. As a third gradereader she appears to be right where she should be. Her literal comprehension is fairly strongas she grasps the main idea of the story, while her inferential reading needs attention, which isnot unusual at this age. Reading at a below-the-surface level calls for more readingcomprehension ability.

Tyler is able to give an overview of the story. Her summary hits the main events: she relatesthat Aunt Evelyn has some purple booties, that Emma really likes them, and that the two ofthem make a trade and both are happy with the results. Her retelling, though brief, shows agood grasp of a situation, the problem and the ending. Tyler is aware that she doesn't knowwhat spangles are but after that aside, she returns to telling the rest of the story. So herliteral comprehension is her strong strategy at this time.

Where she has difficulty is in the deeper meaning of it all. She is not able to infer themeaning of the conversation between the 7-year-old girl and her aunt. She is not able tograsp that this story is told from the child's point of view, that Emma is giving advice tosomeone who understands far more than she lets on. When Emma worries that the aunt'sbaby will eat the spangles, Aunt Evelyn humors her by saying, "I don't know much about babies."Emma takes this at face value (as does Tyler) by responding, "They will eat spangles on booties,and wet and spit up milk and cry. . . ." Also, Tyler doesn't understand that Aunt Evelyn hasplanned to give the booties to Emma: "I think the . . . booties will fit you."

ANALYSIS FOR SECOND STRONG RESPONSE TO OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #1


Purpose: The candidate fully responds to the charge of the prompt by pointing to significant readingcomprehension skills. A strength, literal comprehension, and a weakness, inferential comprehension, areidentified and supported thoroughly with evidence from the prompt.

Subject Matter Knowledge: The first paragraph immediately demonstrates the candidate's knowledge aboutreading comprehension skills. The comments are appropriate to a third grader who is unable to read at a deeperlevel of comprehension. The candidate picks up on Tyler's missing the significance of the conversation, thatEmma is relating it from her seven-year-old perspective.

Support: Support is ample throughout the response. The candidate provides pertinent evidence from the prompt,in his own words and by quoting it directly. The explanations supply the context that is needed to understand howthe reading attribute and the examples are related.

Rationale: The response is ably reasoned and clearly focused on reading comprehension. The choice ofstrength/weakness to discuss, the explanations given, and the examples provided all show a comprehensiveunderstanding of reading comprehension.


60

FIRST SAMPLE WEAK RESPONSE FOR OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #2

To understand Daniel's reading capabilities, I made observation of his teacher's notes on aparticular reading performance. From these notes, I will identify one strength and oneweakness as demonstrated by Daniel.One weakness that is evident in his reading is repetition. Though it only occurred twice, it showsthat he still can have a tendency to rush to get through the assignment. When he repeatshimself, there is a word that he had just struggled with saying out loud. It could be possiblethat he is repeating the phrase so that he can hear the word aloud again in the same phrase.Daniel is very diligent about correcting himself. There are an observed nine instances of himgiving himself a short pause to think about the word. It is good that he takes time to try to saythe word correctly, rather than getting frustrated and giving up. Daniel is strong in recognizingwhen he does not know a word. Only once did he mispronounce a word without realizing it.Overall, Daniel is working at a good pace, taking the time to self-correct when he needs to.Daniel needs to work on not repeating himself, so his reading will have a better flow.

ANALYSIS FOR FIRST WEAK RESPONSE TO OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #2


Purpose: The candidate attempts to address Daniel's "reading capabilities" in a general way and does not focuson the topic of word identification. Consequently, this response fails to identify one specific word identificationstrategy that is a weakness and one that is a strength.Subject Matter Knowledge: The response shows ambiguity about whether Daniel's reading behaviors arehelping or hindering his performance. For example, "repetition," an inaccurate and inappropriate term to use forword identification, is cited as a weakness. Later, the candidate wonders if Daniel is repeating a phrase "so thathe can hear the word aloud again in the same phrase," which suggests that repetition might help Daniel'sperformance. The candidate's assertion that Daniel "can have a tendency to rush to get through the assignment" isunsupported by the record and unrelated to a specific word identification strategy. The candidate accuratelyobserves that Daniel's record shows many instances of self-correcting, but the response uses the vague phrase, "tothink about the word," as the reason for this behavior, rather than citing the accompanying word-identificationskills shown in the record.Support: The candidate uses vague descriptions of Daniel's reading without citing related instances from thereading record. For example, the statement "When he repeats himself, there is a word that he had just struggledwith saying out loud" would have been stronger if the candidate had given examples of Daniel repeating himselfand cited some of the words he had just struggled with. Similarly, the candidate states, "There are an observednine instances of him giving himself a short pause to think about the word." Without specific examples from thepassage, and without a specific connection to word identification strategies, it is difficult to know for certain whatthe candidate means.Rationale: The rationale is weak because the candidate has been unable to draw conclusions about Daniel's wordidentification skills from the passage. The closing paragraph attempts to summarize Daniel's general readingcapabilities but makes no connection to word identification strategies. On the one hand, the candidate says it isgood that Daniel "is taking the time to self-correct when he needs to." However, this is followed by acontradictory phrase, that Daniel "needs to work on not repeating himself." Similarly, the candidate says Danielhas a "good pace" but needs a "better flow." As a result, it's unclear how the candidate would approach Daniel'sreading instruction.


61

SECOND SAMPLE WEAK RESPONSE FOR OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #2

Daniel shows strength in his inference reading. He can figure out what most of the words are.He rereads words that don't make sense so that they can improve the meaning of thesentence. He can read and understand what is there in the story and correct any words thatdon't go along with the meaning he is making. That is his strength.

He is a good reader for someone in the third grade. It is hard to see any importantweaknesses. He got the main plot of the story. Emily ran home and talked to her goldfish andgave him food. Some of the words were hard for him to say so I think he needs to work on hispronunciation. He might be expected to know how to say some of the words he said incorrectlylike forever. Daniel left out the word daydreamed but he might not have seen that wordbefore. He left the -ing off bubble but it still made sense.

Daniel should go over the pronunciation of the words he said incorrectly and try to rememberhow the letters sound. It will be a good idea, then he can read faster and not have to slowdown. This will help him to be a better reader.

ANALYSIS FOR SECOND WEAK RESPONSE TO OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #2


Purpose: The candidate makes little effort to fulfill the purpose of the assignment: he identifies a strength and aweakness but provides little evidence to support his statements. Most importantly, he does not have a clearunderstanding of the prompt's charge to identify a strength and a weakness centered on word identificationstrategies.

Subject Matter Knowledge: The candidate's subject knowledge about word identification skills is severelylimited. The reference to inference reading is inappropriate in a discussion about a child's oral readingperformance. The candidate's reluctance to find a weakness, "it is hard to see any . . . weaknesses" and hisidentification of a problem with pronunciation is further proof of his inadequate knowledge about wordidentification strategies.

Support: The candidate does not provide any real support for the identified strength, only a vague notion ofDaniel's ability to reread to correct words that don't make sense. The statement, "he can read and understand whatis there in the story," is so limited that its meaning is not clear. The examples given to support the identifiedweakness do not provide a clear connection to pronunciation.

Rationale: The candidate's confusion yields a weak rationale. His inability to use correct terminology or toprovide an accurate diagnosis reflects limited knowledge and reasoning about word identification strategies.


62

FIRST SAMPLE STRONG RESPONSE FOR OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #2

Daniel shows both strengths and weaknesses in reading this passage aloud to his teacher. He isable to use context clues to correct himself and that is his strength. However, his greatestweakness appears to be in the analysis of word structure.

Daniel's use of context clues is strong. He often says an unknown word incorrectly but thenrelies on the meaning of the words around it to correct himself. For example, when he readsthe word "container" as counter in the phrase "container of fish food," Daniel realizes that itdoesn't make sense and reads the phrase correctly. Also, the use of context clues can be seenwhen he corrects golish for "goldfish" and fib for "fishbowl." He is taking in the meaning of thesentence. He did not self-correct when he read spilled for "sprinkled" because his guess stillworks within the context.

There are many miscues in this passage that really point to Daniel's weakness. He doesn't seemto have another way to deal with unknown words. His analysis of word structure is lacking,especially with compound words. He paused and misread "backpack," "sunshine," "goldfish,""fishbowl," "forever," and "homework" but then was able to read them correctly using context.It would help Daniel if he learned to break up compound words into their smaller words. Thisweakness is hurting his overall reading and comprehension.

ANALYSIS FOR FIRST STRONG RESPONSE TO OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #2


Purpose: This response addresses the assignment fully by focusing on specific and important word identificationstrategies Daniel used to read this passage aloud. The candidate thoroughly explains how a particular strengthand a particular weakness in word identification are revealed and why they are important.

Subject Matter Knowledge: The candidate uses specific knowledge of word identification strategies,appropriate to teaching third grade reading, to determine the meaning behind Daniel's efforts to identify words.Aspects of Daniel's word identification are correctly identified and defined, such as the use of context clues("relies on the meaning of the words around it"), and analysis of word structure (compound words). Severalspecific examples are provided (e.g., golish for goldfish as a word in context; homework as a compound word),and each one is relevant to the discussion of Daniel's word identification strategies. The candidate even takes thetime to offer a plausible explanation for why Daniel did not change one word (spilled) that he guessed incorrectlyfrom context clues.

Support: The candidate provides substantial and accurate support for the particular word identification skillsdiscussed, citing specific instances of the use of context clues by pointing to Daniel's self-corrections of counter,golish, and fib (container, goldfish, and fishbowl). The candidate further supports Daniel's difficulty withcompound words by correctly citing sunshine, forever, and homework, among others. These examples are criticalevidence of Daniel's word identification strategies.

Rationale: The strength of the rationale is in the candidate's analysis of Daniel's use of context clues from twodifferent perspectives: as a weakness, Daniel "doesn't seem to have another way," and as a strength, Daniel "istaking in the meaning of the sentence" through the context. The candidate demonstrates how breaking downcompound words into smaller words would give Daniel an additional word identification strategy. Each part ofthe discussion demonstrates the candidate's reasoning about Daniel's word identification skill.


63

SECOND SAMPLE STRONG RESPONSE FOR OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #2

Though Daniel appears to be quite a competent reader, noted in his familiarity with sight wordsand his ability to self-correct when constructing meaning, there are some underlying needs.Daniel is overrelying on context clues to the extent that his ability to employ phonics as a wordidentification strategy is impaired.

His sight word vocabulary is quite extensive which allows him to read with a certain fluency. Hedoes not hesitate with most sight words but identifies them readily. These are words thathave to be in his word identification since they cannot be broken down by phonics. From thepassage, it can be seen that Daniel readily identifies there, faster, only, brought, when andafter. Several words that might have become high frequency words for him reveal his problemwith phonics. He has not readily learned these words, such as difficult and forever. But thestrength of his sight word as well as his high-frequency vocabulary is a real plus for it allowshim to read several sections smoothly, such as the last line — "letting her mind float while shewatched Sunshine glide through the water."

The weakness with phonics skills can be seen in the words that he must go back and self-correct; these impede the fluency he could be capable of. For example, in the word "fishbowl"which he at first reads as fib, it can be seen that Daniel misses the word's structure and itsmedial phonemes that could reveal to him that this is a compound word, and he fails to noticethat it contains both a consonant digraph (sh) and a diphthong (ow). There are so many cluesthat he is missing in his haste to read using context only as his initial word attack skill.


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ANALYSIS FOR SECOND STRONG RESPONSE TO OPEN-RESPONSEITEM ASSIGNMENT #2


Purpose: The candidate fulfills the assignment fully by describing a significant strength and weakness. He citesevidence from the prompt of a reading record to support what he says. The candidate's response is thorough, withclear explanations. The information is accurate and appropriate for a prompt focused on word identificationstrategies.

Subject Matter Knowledge: The response shows a more than adequate understanding of the reading process.The candidate identifies a clear strength, sight words, and a significant weakness, phonics. The discussion revealsa thorough knowledge of the subject matter and is accurate for a third grader who has this specific weakness andthis specific strength as a developing reader. The candidate uses accurate subject matter terminology (consonantdigraphs and diphthongs) to explain Daniel's difficulty with phonics.

Support: The response provides examples and explanations for each task. The support is substantial—thecandidate cites several sight words to demonstrate Daniel's facility with sight word vocabulary, explains theproblems Daniel has with the words difficult and forever, uses a specific sentence from the passage to demonstrateDaniel's fluency, and analyzes the skills needed to break down the word fishbowl. These examples are preciseand relevant to the discussion of Daniel's strengths and weaknesses.

Rationale: This response reflects a comprehensive knowledge of word identification skills. It is ably reasonedand goes beyond a simple discussion of fluency to demonstrate how fluency is enhanced by sight words and isimpeded by problems in phonics.


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PRACTICE TEST SCORE CALCULATION

The practice test score calculation is provided so that you may better gauge your performance and degree ofreadiness to take an MTEL test at an operational administration. Although the results of this practice test may beused as one indicator of potential strengths and weaknesses in your knowledge of the content on the official test, itis not possible to predict precisely how you might score on an official MTEL test.

The Sample Responses and Analyses for the open-response items may help you determine whether yourresponses are more similar to the strong or weak samples. The Scoring Rubric can also assist in estimating ascore for your open responses. You may also wish to ask a mentor or teacher to help evaluate your responses tothe open-response questions prior to calculating your total estimated score.

How to Calculate Your Practice Test Score

Review the directions in the sample below and then use the blank practice test score calculation worksheet on thefollowing page to calculate your estimated score.

SAMPLEMultiple-Choice Section

Enter the total number of multiple-choice questions you answered correctly: 83

Use Table 1 below to convert that number to the score and write your score in Box A: A: 192

Open-Response Section

Enter the number of points (1 to 4) for your first open-response question: 2

Enter the number of points (1 to 4) for your second open-response question: 4 ======

Add those two numbers (Number of open-response question points): 6

Use Table 2 below to convert that number to the score and write your score in Box B: B: 48

Total Practice Test Score (Estimated MTEL Score)

Add the numbers in Boxes A and B for an estimate of your MTEL score: A + B = 240


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Practice Test Score Calculation Worksheet: Foundations of Reading

Table 1: Table 2:Number of

Multiple-ChoiceQuestions Correct

EstimatedMTELScore

Number ofMultiple-Choice

Questions Correct

EstimatedMTELScore

Number ofOpen-ResponseQuestion Points

EstimatedMTELScore

0 to 25 80 61 to 65 136 2 24

26 to 30 80 66 to 70 150 3 30

31 to 35 80 71 to 75 164 4 36

36 to 40 80 76 to 80 178 5 42

41 to 45 80 81 to 85 192 6 48

46 to 50 93 86 to 90 206 7 54

51 to 55 107 91 to 95 220 8 60

56 to 60 121 96 to 100 234

Print the form below to calculate your estimated practice test score.

Multiple-Choice Section

Enter the total number of multiple-choice questions you answered correctly:

Use Table 1 above to convert that number to the score and write your score in Box A: A:

Open-Response Section

Enter the number of points (1 to 4) for your first open-response question:

Enter the number of points (1 to 4) for your second open-response question: ======

Add those two numbers (Number of open-response question points):

Use Table 2 above to convert that number to the score and write your score in Box B: B:

Total Practice Test Score (Estimated MTEL Score)

Add the numbers in Boxes A and B for an estimate of your MTEL score: A + B =


67

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Page

38 MacLachlan, Patricia. Seven Kisses in a Row, Text copyright © 1983 by Patricia MacLachlan.Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Documents

Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL of Reading (90) Practice Test 1 INTRODUCTION This document is a printable version of the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure®