CORRECT ANSWERS 2026-2027
Section 1: Foundational Concepts & Language Structure
Q1: What is phonology?
Answer: The speech sound system of a language; how sounds can be
produced, sequenced, and combined to make words.
Q2: What is orthography?
Answer: The writing system or spelling system of a language; the
patterns of written language and how words are spelled.
Q3: What is morphology?
Answer: The study of meaningful units of language and how words
are formed and related to one another.
Q4: Define a phoneme.
Answer: The smallest part of spoken language.
Q5: What is the difference between a consonant blend and a
consonant digraph?
Answer: A consonant blend consists of two or more consecutive
consonants that retain their individual sounds (e.g., /str/ in street).
A consonant digraph consists of two consecutive consonants that
represent one single phoneme or sound (e.g., /sh/ in ship).
Section 2: Knowledge of Diverse Reading Profiles & Dyslexia
Q1: Which cognitive profile is most characteristic of a student with
developmental dyslexia who has average to high oral language
comprehension?
, Answer: Strong oral language comprehension paired with
significantly depressed single-word decoding and spelling scores
(e.g., Oral Language Comprehension at the 94th percentile,
Spelling at the 61st percentile).
Q2: What distinguishes slow processing speed from dyslexia or
general cognitive deficits during academic tasks?
Answer: Students with slow processing speed typically understand
concepts and know factual information (like multiplication facts),
but "freeze up," struggle with tight time constraints, and require
extended time to execute decisions or complete written output.
Q3: What is the primary ethical and professional response when
parents of a struggling reader request an unproven, alternative
auditory tutoring method?
Answer: Ethically research the method, evaluate its scientific
backing, and inform the parents objectively if it lacks empirical
validity or will not help their child.
Section 3: Assessment & Structured Literacy Instruction
Q1: What defines decodable text?
Answer: Text in which a high proportion of words comprise sound-
symbol relationships that have already been explicitly taught.
Q2: What is the dropping rule in English spelling?
Answer: A spelling rule applied when adding a vowel suffix to a
silent-e base word (e.g., hoping, glided, whales), where the final
silent e is dropped before adding the suffix.
Q3: What is explicit instruction?