As students begin to read, the ability to blend phonemes orally contributes to
their reading development primarily because it prepares students to:
A. recognize high-frequency words in a text automatically.
B. combine letter-sounds to decode words.
C. guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from their context.
D. divide written words into onsets and rimes. Correct Answer: Answer: B.
Phonemic blending is the ability to combine a sequence of speech sounds
(phonemes) together to form a word. Beginning readers use their skill in
phonemic blending and their knowledge of letter-sound correspondences to
sound out and blend the sounds of simple printed words. A, C, and D are incorrect
because they describe literacy skills that are unrelated to phonemic blending.
A teacher is selecting words to use to assess students; ability to segment the
individual phonemes in spoken words. Which of the following words would
require the highest level of skill with regard to orally segmenting phones?
A. stamp
B. catch
C. fudge
D. chase Correct Answer: Answer: A. Option A is correct because the word stamp
is more challenging to segment than the words catch, fudge, and chase. The word
stamp contains five phonemes, including blends in both syllable-initial and
syllable-final positions. In particular, the two phonemes /m/ and /p/ in the final
nasal blend -mp can be challenging for students to perceive and segment. Options
B, C, and D are incorrect because, while the words may have complex spelling
patterns, they each contain only three individual phonemes and no consonant
,blends: The word catch (B) contains the phonemes /k/, /ă/, and /ch/; fudge (C)
contains the phonemes /f/, /ŭ/, and /j/; and chase (D) contains the phonemes
/ch/, /ā/, and /s/.
Which of the following tasks requires the most advanced level of skill along the
phonological awareness continuumm?
A. orally segmenting the phonemes in the word chimp and then substituting short
/o/ for short /I/ to make a new word, chomp
B. orally segmenting the word wonderful into won/der/ful and then tapping the
number of syllables in the word
C. listening to the words place and plunk and then orally segmenting each word
into its onset and rime
D. listening to the words fiddle and fresh and then determining that both words
begin with the same phoneme, /f/ Correct Answer: Answer: A. Phonological and
phonemic awareness skills develop along a continuum from basic to more
complex skills. Phonemic awareness is a more advanced type of phonological
awareness that involves the ability to distinguish and manipulate the individual
phonemes in spoken words. Segmenting all the phonemes in a four-phoneme
word (chimp) and then substituting the phoneme /ŏ/ for /ĭ/ to make a new word
(chomp) are both tasks that involve complex skills at the higher end of the
phonological awareness continuum. B, C, and D are incorrect because segmenting
words into syllables and then counting the syllables (B), segmenting words into
their onset and rime (C), and recognizing alliterative words—words that begin
with the same phoneme (D)—are less complex skills that children develop earlier
along the phonological awareness continuum.
A kindergarten teacher engages a small group of children in the following Say It
and Move It activity.
The teacher says a two-phoneme word slowly (e.g., ape, been day, eat, go, she,
toe).
,The children slowly repeat the word.
The children move a plain wooden block as they say each phoneme, lining up the
two blocks left to right.
Once the children demonstrate mastery of this activity, which of the following
strategies would be most appropriate for the teacher to use next to build the
children's phonemic awareness? Correct Answer: rA. writing pairs of words on the
board that differ by one phoneme (e.g., ape, cape) and pointing out to the
children that the second word contains more phonemes than the first
B. exchanging the plain blocks for alphabet blocks and then helping the children
do the Say It and Move It activity with relevant letter blocks, using pairs of words
that have two and three phonemes (e.g., go, goat)
C. saying a pair of words that differ by one phoneme (e.g., bee, beach) and
encouraging the children to generate pairs of words that rhyme with the target
words (e.g., tea, teach)
D. displaying pictures for a pair of two- and three-phoneme words that differ by a
single phoneme (e.g., toe, toad) and having the children complete the Say It and
Move It activity for each word in the pair
Answer: D. Option D is correct because the strategy aligns with the evidence-
based practice of increasing the complexity of an instructional task incrementally.
In D, the teacher increases the length of the spoken words in the phonemic
awareness task by one phoneme. In the initial S By using pictures in the task, the
teacher reinforces the concept that a one phoneme difference also changes the
meaning of a word. A and B are incorrect because these options not only add
spoken words with three phonemes to the original task, but they dramatically
increase the task complexity by changing the task from oral to written and
requiring the children to recognize phonics/spelling patterns such as VCe and
vowel teams. The task in C, generating rhyming words, represents a less complex
task along the phonological awareness continuum.
, Use the table below to answer the question.
Line. Target Word Number of Speech Sounds
1 though. 2
2. best 3
3 fresh 5
4 scratch 6
In which line in the table is a word accurately matched to the number of
phonemes the word contains?
A. Line 1
B. Line 2
C. Line 3
D. Line 4 Correct Answer: Answer: A. Option A is correct because the word though
is made up of two speech sounds: /th/ (spelled th) and /ō/ (spelled ough), so Line
1 of the chart is correct. B is incorrect because the word best has four distinct
speech sounds, /b/, /ĕ/, /s/, and /t/, but the number of speech sounds appearing
in Line 2 of the chart is 3. C is incorrect because the word fresh has 4 distinct
speech sounds, /f/, /r/, /ĕ/, and /sh/, but the number of speech sounds appearing
in Line 3 of the chart is 5. D is incorrect because the word scratch has 5 distinct
speech sounds, /s/, /k/, /r/, /ă/, and /ch/, but the number of speech sounds
appearing in Line 4 of the chart is 6.
A prekindergarten teacher asks a small group of children to listen to and repeat
what the teacher says. First, the teacher says the word mop and then pronounces
it as /m/ and [short op]. Next, the teacher says the word take and then
pronounces it as /t/ and [long ak]. This activity is likely to promote the children's
phonological awareness primarily by:
their reading development primarily because it prepares students to:
A. recognize high-frequency words in a text automatically.
B. combine letter-sounds to decode words.
C. guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from their context.
D. divide written words into onsets and rimes. Correct Answer: Answer: B.
Phonemic blending is the ability to combine a sequence of speech sounds
(phonemes) together to form a word. Beginning readers use their skill in
phonemic blending and their knowledge of letter-sound correspondences to
sound out and blend the sounds of simple printed words. A, C, and D are incorrect
because they describe literacy skills that are unrelated to phonemic blending.
A teacher is selecting words to use to assess students; ability to segment the
individual phonemes in spoken words. Which of the following words would
require the highest level of skill with regard to orally segmenting phones?
A. stamp
B. catch
C. fudge
D. chase Correct Answer: Answer: A. Option A is correct because the word stamp
is more challenging to segment than the words catch, fudge, and chase. The word
stamp contains five phonemes, including blends in both syllable-initial and
syllable-final positions. In particular, the two phonemes /m/ and /p/ in the final
nasal blend -mp can be challenging for students to perceive and segment. Options
B, C, and D are incorrect because, while the words may have complex spelling
patterns, they each contain only three individual phonemes and no consonant
,blends: The word catch (B) contains the phonemes /k/, /ă/, and /ch/; fudge (C)
contains the phonemes /f/, /ŭ/, and /j/; and chase (D) contains the phonemes
/ch/, /ā/, and /s/.
Which of the following tasks requires the most advanced level of skill along the
phonological awareness continuumm?
A. orally segmenting the phonemes in the word chimp and then substituting short
/o/ for short /I/ to make a new word, chomp
B. orally segmenting the word wonderful into won/der/ful and then tapping the
number of syllables in the word
C. listening to the words place and plunk and then orally segmenting each word
into its onset and rime
D. listening to the words fiddle and fresh and then determining that both words
begin with the same phoneme, /f/ Correct Answer: Answer: A. Phonological and
phonemic awareness skills develop along a continuum from basic to more
complex skills. Phonemic awareness is a more advanced type of phonological
awareness that involves the ability to distinguish and manipulate the individual
phonemes in spoken words. Segmenting all the phonemes in a four-phoneme
word (chimp) and then substituting the phoneme /ŏ/ for /ĭ/ to make a new word
(chomp) are both tasks that involve complex skills at the higher end of the
phonological awareness continuum. B, C, and D are incorrect because segmenting
words into syllables and then counting the syllables (B), segmenting words into
their onset and rime (C), and recognizing alliterative words—words that begin
with the same phoneme (D)—are less complex skills that children develop earlier
along the phonological awareness continuum.
A kindergarten teacher engages a small group of children in the following Say It
and Move It activity.
The teacher says a two-phoneme word slowly (e.g., ape, been day, eat, go, she,
toe).
,The children slowly repeat the word.
The children move a plain wooden block as they say each phoneme, lining up the
two blocks left to right.
Once the children demonstrate mastery of this activity, which of the following
strategies would be most appropriate for the teacher to use next to build the
children's phonemic awareness? Correct Answer: rA. writing pairs of words on the
board that differ by one phoneme (e.g., ape, cape) and pointing out to the
children that the second word contains more phonemes than the first
B. exchanging the plain blocks for alphabet blocks and then helping the children
do the Say It and Move It activity with relevant letter blocks, using pairs of words
that have two and three phonemes (e.g., go, goat)
C. saying a pair of words that differ by one phoneme (e.g., bee, beach) and
encouraging the children to generate pairs of words that rhyme with the target
words (e.g., tea, teach)
D. displaying pictures for a pair of two- and three-phoneme words that differ by a
single phoneme (e.g., toe, toad) and having the children complete the Say It and
Move It activity for each word in the pair
Answer: D. Option D is correct because the strategy aligns with the evidence-
based practice of increasing the complexity of an instructional task incrementally.
In D, the teacher increases the length of the spoken words in the phonemic
awareness task by one phoneme. In the initial S By using pictures in the task, the
teacher reinforces the concept that a one phoneme difference also changes the
meaning of a word. A and B are incorrect because these options not only add
spoken words with three phonemes to the original task, but they dramatically
increase the task complexity by changing the task from oral to written and
requiring the children to recognize phonics/spelling patterns such as VCe and
vowel teams. The task in C, generating rhyming words, represents a less complex
task along the phonological awareness continuum.
, Use the table below to answer the question.
Line. Target Word Number of Speech Sounds
1 though. 2
2. best 3
3 fresh 5
4 scratch 6
In which line in the table is a word accurately matched to the number of
phonemes the word contains?
A. Line 1
B. Line 2
C. Line 3
D. Line 4 Correct Answer: Answer: A. Option A is correct because the word though
is made up of two speech sounds: /th/ (spelled th) and /ō/ (spelled ough), so Line
1 of the chart is correct. B is incorrect because the word best has four distinct
speech sounds, /b/, /ĕ/, /s/, and /t/, but the number of speech sounds appearing
in Line 2 of the chart is 3. C is incorrect because the word fresh has 4 distinct
speech sounds, /f/, /r/, /ĕ/, and /sh/, but the number of speech sounds appearing
in Line 3 of the chart is 5. D is incorrect because the word scratch has 5 distinct
speech sounds, /s/, /k/, /r/, /ă/, and /ch/, but the number of speech sounds
appearing in Line 4 of the chart is 6.
A prekindergarten teacher asks a small group of children to listen to and repeat
what the teacher says. First, the teacher says the word mop and then pronounces
it as /m/ and [short op]. Next, the teacher says the word take and then
pronounces it as /t/ and [long ak]. This activity is likely to promote the children's
phonological awareness primarily by:
