Elementary Education Content Exam (Grades 1–6) – Comprehensive
Study Guide and Practice Material for Teacher Certification
Objective 0001 Understand foundations of research-based literacy instruction and assessment
and apply knowledge of emergent literacy development.
1. The Illinois Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy include teaching
students at the fourth-grade level how to use context, Greek and Latin roots, and reference
materials to promote vocabulary acquisition. Which of the following statements best explains
how these strategies contribute to students' overall reading development and will help them
develop college and career readiness in vocabulary?
A. Students need to develop a variety of independent word-learning strategies to deal with the
volume of new words they will encounter in wide reading.
B. Students need to develop an awareness of new words they may encounter in their reading so
that they will be able to retain them effectively in the future.
C. Students need to develop an ability to spell an - correct answer ✔✔ Correct Response: A.
Contextual analysis, structural analysis, and the use of reference materials are all powerful
word-learning strategies. Students will encounter thousands of unfamiliar vocabulary words
throughout their school years and beyond. To achieve academically across the curriculum and
communicate effectively in their future careers, students need to be able to both comprehend
and use these words effectively. Time constraints make it impossible for teachers to explicitly
teach students every grade-level academic word they need to know, let alone all the words they
will need in the future. Therefore, to ensure that students are college and career ready, teachers
must help students develop a repertoire of strategies for determining the meaning of unfamiliar
vocabulary they will encounter across the curriculum and beyond the classroom.
Objective 0001 Understand foundations of research-based literacy instruction and assessment
and apply knowledge of emergent literacy development.
, A first-grade teacher is working with a small group of emergent readers and would like to
promote their ability to identify the final consonant sound in spoken words. Which of the
following student activities would best promote achievement of this goal?
1) writing all the words they know that end in the same final sound and reading the words
aloud
2) circling the last letter of each word on a list of grade-level words and saying the letter's name
aloud
3) saying aloud the words depicted on picture cards and sorting the cards by the last sound in
each word
4) reading a simple grade-level poem aloud and segmenting the onsets and rimes of the final
word in each line - correct answer ✔✔ Correct Response: C. To identify final consonant sounds
in spoken words, the students need to be able to isolate, or segment, those sounds. In the
picture sorting activity described, the teacher is having students isolate the final consonant
sound of each pictured word, thereby providing the students with practice in phonemic
segmentation and final sound identification. In order to sort each card accurately, the student
must focus on the final sound of the word represented by the picture. The use of picture (word)
sorts for developing and practicing phonemic awareness skills is a best practice with emergent
readers because it promotes learning through multiple modalities. Students see the picture, say
the name of the pictured word, and must listen carefully to its sounds. Then they physically sort
the cards by sound categories (e.g., the last sound in the word).
Objective 0002 Apply knowledge of decoding and fluency development.
3. Which of the following sets of words would be most appropriate to use for assessing third-
grade students' ability to use structural analysis skills to decode words?
A. closed, living, held
B. contestant, logically, correlation
C. bunnies, cities, animals
D. unhappy, daytime, noiseless - correct answer ✔✔ Correct Response: D. Structural analysis
(sometimes called morphemic analysis) is the analysis of the meaning-bearing elements (i.e.,
morphemes) in a word to help determine the word's pronunciation and meaning. Unhappy,
daytime, and noiseless are all words that can be divided easily into meaningful parts, or
Study Guide and Practice Material for Teacher Certification
Objective 0001 Understand foundations of research-based literacy instruction and assessment
and apply knowledge of emergent literacy development.
1. The Illinois Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy include teaching
students at the fourth-grade level how to use context, Greek and Latin roots, and reference
materials to promote vocabulary acquisition. Which of the following statements best explains
how these strategies contribute to students' overall reading development and will help them
develop college and career readiness in vocabulary?
A. Students need to develop a variety of independent word-learning strategies to deal with the
volume of new words they will encounter in wide reading.
B. Students need to develop an awareness of new words they may encounter in their reading so
that they will be able to retain them effectively in the future.
C. Students need to develop an ability to spell an - correct answer ✔✔ Correct Response: A.
Contextual analysis, structural analysis, and the use of reference materials are all powerful
word-learning strategies. Students will encounter thousands of unfamiliar vocabulary words
throughout their school years and beyond. To achieve academically across the curriculum and
communicate effectively in their future careers, students need to be able to both comprehend
and use these words effectively. Time constraints make it impossible for teachers to explicitly
teach students every grade-level academic word they need to know, let alone all the words they
will need in the future. Therefore, to ensure that students are college and career ready, teachers
must help students develop a repertoire of strategies for determining the meaning of unfamiliar
vocabulary they will encounter across the curriculum and beyond the classroom.
Objective 0001 Understand foundations of research-based literacy instruction and assessment
and apply knowledge of emergent literacy development.
, A first-grade teacher is working with a small group of emergent readers and would like to
promote their ability to identify the final consonant sound in spoken words. Which of the
following student activities would best promote achievement of this goal?
1) writing all the words they know that end in the same final sound and reading the words
aloud
2) circling the last letter of each word on a list of grade-level words and saying the letter's name
aloud
3) saying aloud the words depicted on picture cards and sorting the cards by the last sound in
each word
4) reading a simple grade-level poem aloud and segmenting the onsets and rimes of the final
word in each line - correct answer ✔✔ Correct Response: C. To identify final consonant sounds
in spoken words, the students need to be able to isolate, or segment, those sounds. In the
picture sorting activity described, the teacher is having students isolate the final consonant
sound of each pictured word, thereby providing the students with practice in phonemic
segmentation and final sound identification. In order to sort each card accurately, the student
must focus on the final sound of the word represented by the picture. The use of picture (word)
sorts for developing and practicing phonemic awareness skills is a best practice with emergent
readers because it promotes learning through multiple modalities. Students see the picture, say
the name of the pictured word, and must listen carefully to its sounds. Then they physically sort
the cards by sound categories (e.g., the last sound in the word).
Objective 0002 Apply knowledge of decoding and fluency development.
3. Which of the following sets of words would be most appropriate to use for assessing third-
grade students' ability to use structural analysis skills to decode words?
A. closed, living, held
B. contestant, logically, correlation
C. bunnies, cities, animals
D. unhappy, daytime, noiseless - correct answer ✔✔ Correct Response: D. Structural analysis
(sometimes called morphemic analysis) is the analysis of the meaning-bearing elements (i.e.,
morphemes) in a word to help determine the word's pronunciation and meaning. Unhappy,
daytime, and noiseless are all words that can be divided easily into meaningful parts, or
