RICA 2026 CERTIFICATION EVALUATION
EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS MASTER
FILE
◉ Phoneme. Answer: The smallest unit of sounds
◉ # of Phonemes in the word fox. Answer: 4 ( /f/ /o/ /k/ /s/) x=
/k/+/s/
◉ Phonemic Awareness. Answer: The ability to manipulate and
distinguish the phonemes in a spoken word (NO letters present)
(ex. A student saying that duck has 3 sounds (/d/ /u/ /k/) is being
phonemically aware
◉ Grapheme. Answer: letters that represent phonemes (Ex. fox has 4
phonemes, but 3 graphemes f-o-x) (Ex. the /k/ sound (phoneme) in
duck is ck, which is the grapheme)
◉ Alphabetic principle. Answer: an understanding that letters and
letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken words.
, ◉ What ideas are under the Umbrella Term Phonological
awareness?. Answer: onset-rime, syllables, rhyming/alliteration,
words in sentences, phonemic awareness
◉ What Ideas are under phonemic awareness ?. Answer: SOUND:
blending, segmenting, isolating, adding, deleting, and subtracting
◉ Phonics. Answer: Refers to instruction in how letters and sounds
correspond to each other and how sound-letter correspondence can
be used to decode and pronounce words in text (LETTERS present)
◉ Word awareness. Answer: knowing that individual words make up
a sentence
"A brown cat jumped over the car." has 7 words
◉ syllable awareness. Answer: Students clap hands as they say each
syllable in a word. Easier if pronunciation of the syllables is
distorted and said slowly/distinctly.
◉ Word Blending. Answer: Taking 2 single-syllable words and
combining them to make a compound word (cow and boy = cowboy)
◉ Onset and Rime. Answer: In a syllable, the onset is the initial
consonant or consonants, and the rime is the vowel and any
EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS MASTER
FILE
◉ Phoneme. Answer: The smallest unit of sounds
◉ # of Phonemes in the word fox. Answer: 4 ( /f/ /o/ /k/ /s/) x=
/k/+/s/
◉ Phonemic Awareness. Answer: The ability to manipulate and
distinguish the phonemes in a spoken word (NO letters present)
(ex. A student saying that duck has 3 sounds (/d/ /u/ /k/) is being
phonemically aware
◉ Grapheme. Answer: letters that represent phonemes (Ex. fox has 4
phonemes, but 3 graphemes f-o-x) (Ex. the /k/ sound (phoneme) in
duck is ck, which is the grapheme)
◉ Alphabetic principle. Answer: an understanding that letters and
letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken words.
, ◉ What ideas are under the Umbrella Term Phonological
awareness?. Answer: onset-rime, syllables, rhyming/alliteration,
words in sentences, phonemic awareness
◉ What Ideas are under phonemic awareness ?. Answer: SOUND:
blending, segmenting, isolating, adding, deleting, and subtracting
◉ Phonics. Answer: Refers to instruction in how letters and sounds
correspond to each other and how sound-letter correspondence can
be used to decode and pronounce words in text (LETTERS present)
◉ Word awareness. Answer: knowing that individual words make up
a sentence
"A brown cat jumped over the car." has 7 words
◉ syllable awareness. Answer: Students clap hands as they say each
syllable in a word. Easier if pronunciation of the syllables is
distorted and said slowly/distinctly.
◉ Word Blending. Answer: Taking 2 single-syllable words and
combining them to make a compound word (cow and boy = cowboy)
◉ Onset and Rime. Answer: In a syllable, the onset is the initial
consonant or consonants, and the rime is the vowel and any
