CALT Exam Prep Questions and Answers
Updated 2026/2027 Version | Verified
Answers
1. Rapid letter naming - ANSWER ✅ key to automatic word recognition
2. decoding and encoding - ANSWER ✅ refer to applying the skills of analytic
and synthetic learning
3. recognition of the visual symbol, symbol/sound correspondence, and
blending sounds into a words - ANSWER ✅ decoding
4. Effective handwriting instruction - ANSWER ✅ includes teaching the
correct pencil grip and formation of each letter
5. McGuffey Readers - ANSWER ✅ Formal reading instruction was based on
"phonics" used at the beginning of the 20th Century
6. Dick & Jane ( "Look/Say" Method ) - ANSWER ✅ Thought that children
would make more rapid progress reading if they identified whole words at a
glance. Used from 1930s - 1960s.
7. Rudolph Flesch - ANSWER ✅ brought the issue of the great debate to the
publics attention on how best to teach a child to read. This came about in his
book. "Why Johnny Can't Read" (Mid 1950s)
,8. NICHD - ANSWER ✅ Began looking at the issue as the deemed the
inability to read as a "national health issue" and began to fund research in
the area of reading. (1965)
9. "Learning to Read: The Great Debate" Jean Chall - ANSWER ✅ This book
caught the attention of professionals and the government that our nation is in
a reading crisis. Children are not learning to read since the look and say
method came about. (1967)
10.Basal Reading Programs - ANSWER ✅ These programs begin to drive
reading instruction. 70% of American Schools bought one or more of the
best selling programs. (1960s to mid 80s)
11.Kenneth Goodman and Frank Smith - ANSWER ✅ Developed the Top-
Down approach to reading instruction. Believed that reading should be
taught through immersion in children's literature . Teaches reading without
breaking it down into parts. Whole Language based, emphasis is on guessing
at words rather than sounding them out. (1980s)
12.G. Reid Lyon - ANSWER ✅ Became the coordinator of the research for
NICHD. (1985)
13.National Reading Panel Report - ANSWER ✅ Produced scientifically based
research that demonstrated that approximately 40% of the population "have
reading problems severe enough to hinder their enjoyment of reading."
(2000)
14.Percentage of students in special ed who can't read - ANSWER ✅ 85%
(NICHD)
,15.Five critical components of reading instruction - ANSWER ✅ phonemic
awareness, phonics, fluency (identifying words accurately and fluently);
vocabulary and comprehension strategies (constructing meaning once words
are identified)
16.I M F - ANSWER ✅ initial, medial, final
17.Middle - ANSWER ✅ means very center
18.Medial - ANSWER ✅ means between initial and final
19.V - ANSWER ✅ vowel
20.C - ANSWER ✅ consonant
21.Paired equivalent sounds - ANSWER ✅ /ch//j/ /f//v/ /p//b/ /sh//zh/ /t//d/
/k//g/ /s//z/ /th//th/
22.How are our decks aligned and why?*** - ANSWER ✅ Alignment of
multiple responses - according to frequency and reliability of sounds
23.Digraph - ANSWER ✅ two letters that come together to make one sound
24.Trigraph - ANSWER ✅ three letters that come together to make one sound
, 25.Quadrigraph - ANSWER ✅ four letters that come together to make one
sound
26.Diphthong - ANSWER ✅ two vowels sounds blended together in the same
syllable
27.Combinations - ANSWER ✅ two letters than come together to make an
unexpected sound
28.Code marks - ANSWER ✅ breve, macron, dieresis, circumflex, tilde,
cedilla, tittle, schwa: (u) in an unaccented syllable = marks in dictionary
29.closed - ANSWER ✅ a syllable that ends in one or more consonants. The
vowel is usually short
30.open - ANSWER ✅ a syllable that ends in a vowel
31.Vowel consonant e - ANSWER ✅ syllable with long vowel sounds that end
with a consonant followed by a silent e
32.Vowel team - ANSWER ✅ syllable with two adjacent vowels
33.R controlled - ANSWER ✅ syllable with a vowel r combination
34.F.S.S. final stable syllable*** - ANSWER ✅ a non phonetic syllable with
occurs frequently in the final position of English words.
Updated 2026/2027 Version | Verified
Answers
1. Rapid letter naming - ANSWER ✅ key to automatic word recognition
2. decoding and encoding - ANSWER ✅ refer to applying the skills of analytic
and synthetic learning
3. recognition of the visual symbol, symbol/sound correspondence, and
blending sounds into a words - ANSWER ✅ decoding
4. Effective handwriting instruction - ANSWER ✅ includes teaching the
correct pencil grip and formation of each letter
5. McGuffey Readers - ANSWER ✅ Formal reading instruction was based on
"phonics" used at the beginning of the 20th Century
6. Dick & Jane ( "Look/Say" Method ) - ANSWER ✅ Thought that children
would make more rapid progress reading if they identified whole words at a
glance. Used from 1930s - 1960s.
7. Rudolph Flesch - ANSWER ✅ brought the issue of the great debate to the
publics attention on how best to teach a child to read. This came about in his
book. "Why Johnny Can't Read" (Mid 1950s)
,8. NICHD - ANSWER ✅ Began looking at the issue as the deemed the
inability to read as a "national health issue" and began to fund research in
the area of reading. (1965)
9. "Learning to Read: The Great Debate" Jean Chall - ANSWER ✅ This book
caught the attention of professionals and the government that our nation is in
a reading crisis. Children are not learning to read since the look and say
method came about. (1967)
10.Basal Reading Programs - ANSWER ✅ These programs begin to drive
reading instruction. 70% of American Schools bought one or more of the
best selling programs. (1960s to mid 80s)
11.Kenneth Goodman and Frank Smith - ANSWER ✅ Developed the Top-
Down approach to reading instruction. Believed that reading should be
taught through immersion in children's literature . Teaches reading without
breaking it down into parts. Whole Language based, emphasis is on guessing
at words rather than sounding them out. (1980s)
12.G. Reid Lyon - ANSWER ✅ Became the coordinator of the research for
NICHD. (1985)
13.National Reading Panel Report - ANSWER ✅ Produced scientifically based
research that demonstrated that approximately 40% of the population "have
reading problems severe enough to hinder their enjoyment of reading."
(2000)
14.Percentage of students in special ed who can't read - ANSWER ✅ 85%
(NICHD)
,15.Five critical components of reading instruction - ANSWER ✅ phonemic
awareness, phonics, fluency (identifying words accurately and fluently);
vocabulary and comprehension strategies (constructing meaning once words
are identified)
16.I M F - ANSWER ✅ initial, medial, final
17.Middle - ANSWER ✅ means very center
18.Medial - ANSWER ✅ means between initial and final
19.V - ANSWER ✅ vowel
20.C - ANSWER ✅ consonant
21.Paired equivalent sounds - ANSWER ✅ /ch//j/ /f//v/ /p//b/ /sh//zh/ /t//d/
/k//g/ /s//z/ /th//th/
22.How are our decks aligned and why?*** - ANSWER ✅ Alignment of
multiple responses - according to frequency and reliability of sounds
23.Digraph - ANSWER ✅ two letters that come together to make one sound
24.Trigraph - ANSWER ✅ three letters that come together to make one sound
, 25.Quadrigraph - ANSWER ✅ four letters that come together to make one
sound
26.Diphthong - ANSWER ✅ two vowels sounds blended together in the same
syllable
27.Combinations - ANSWER ✅ two letters than come together to make an
unexpected sound
28.Code marks - ANSWER ✅ breve, macron, dieresis, circumflex, tilde,
cedilla, tittle, schwa: (u) in an unaccented syllable = marks in dictionary
29.closed - ANSWER ✅ a syllable that ends in one or more consonants. The
vowel is usually short
30.open - ANSWER ✅ a syllable that ends in a vowel
31.Vowel consonant e - ANSWER ✅ syllable with long vowel sounds that end
with a consonant followed by a silent e
32.Vowel team - ANSWER ✅ syllable with two adjacent vowels
33.R controlled - ANSWER ✅ syllable with a vowel r combination
34.F.S.S. final stable syllable*** - ANSWER ✅ a non phonetic syllable with
occurs frequently in the final position of English words.
