ICLA ACTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS AND
COMPLETE STUDY GUIDE 2026
▶ Reciprocal relationship. Answer: making meaningful connections
reading, writing, speaking, and listening to support a range or writers; this is
especially helpful for English learners or struggling learners. Use mentor
texts, modeling, scaffolding techniques, i.e. sentence frames, word banks
▶ Encoding. Answer: the process of using letter/sound knowledge to write
▶ Decoding. Answer: the process of reading words in text. When a child
reads the words 'The ball is big,' for example, it is necessary to understand
what the letters are, the sounds made by each letter and how they blend
together to create words
▶ Differentiation. Answer: meet the needs of all learners from struggling
readers to gifted and talented students; enable students of all ability levels
to experience success with reading and writing; use a variety of
instructional strategies, or deliver lessons at varying levels of difficulty
based on the ability of each student
▶ Similarities between reading and writing. Answer: Use the same
cognitive processes: Gathering ideas, Questioning, Hypothesizing; Use the
same cognitive systems: Semantic (meaning), Syntactic (grammar),
Graphophonic (alphabetic), Pragmatic (social use of language, e.g. idioms)
▶ Goals and skills of reading and writing are similar. Answer: 1) read/write
words without conscious awareness; 2) read/write words without focusing
on every letter; 3) connect unknown words to known words; 4) focus on
chunks of words; 5) use root words for determining meaning; 6) connect
spelling with meaning; and 7) focus on communicating meaning
▶ Readers (vs. writers). Answer: they receive messages, need to be able
to understand what others have written, and decode words
▶ Writers (vs. readers). Answer: they create and send messages, know
their audience, choose the best genre, choose words carefully, and the
, best way to share their writing; they encode words automatically so they
can concentrate more on expressing themselves
▶ Receptive vocabulary. Answer: reading and listening; what we take in;
the words a person can understand in spoken or written words
▶ Expressive vocabulary. Answer: aka productive; speaking and writing;
what we produce; the words a person can speak or write
▶ Motivate writing. Answer: encourage and support writing during all steps
in the process; use a wide variety of materials to inspire young writers;
explain the value of writing; use authentic writing
▶ Mini-Lesson. Answer: short lessons on various writing-related topics, i.e.
writing strategies/skills, organization, proof-reading/conventions, qualities of
good writing, or writing workshop procedures; taught to individual students,
small groups, or the whole class, depending on students' needs
▶ Reading Logs. Answer: This is a student's individual notes on their
reading. They may be guided with specific tasks or to write reflections.
▶ Interactive Writing. Answer: A writing activity in which students and the
teacher write a text together, with the students taking turns to do most of
the writing themselves.
▶ 6-3-5- Brainwriting. Answer: 6 in a group, 3 ideas per round, 5 minutes
per round; each person reads the ideas on the sheet and then writes new
ones; pass the sheet to the right at the end of each round; no talking
▶ Writers. Answer: Performance Standard 1: the teacher engages
_______ in reading, speaking, and listening processes to address
cognitive, social, physical, developmental, and communicative processes
▶ Stages of Writing Development. Answer: 1. Preliterate (Drawing)
2. Preliterate (Scribbling)
3. Early emergent (Letter-like forms)
4. Emergent (Random letters or letter strings)
5. Transitional (Writing via invented spelling)
6. Fluency (Conventional spelling)
COMPLETE STUDY GUIDE 2026
▶ Reciprocal relationship. Answer: making meaningful connections
reading, writing, speaking, and listening to support a range or writers; this is
especially helpful for English learners or struggling learners. Use mentor
texts, modeling, scaffolding techniques, i.e. sentence frames, word banks
▶ Encoding. Answer: the process of using letter/sound knowledge to write
▶ Decoding. Answer: the process of reading words in text. When a child
reads the words 'The ball is big,' for example, it is necessary to understand
what the letters are, the sounds made by each letter and how they blend
together to create words
▶ Differentiation. Answer: meet the needs of all learners from struggling
readers to gifted and talented students; enable students of all ability levels
to experience success with reading and writing; use a variety of
instructional strategies, or deliver lessons at varying levels of difficulty
based on the ability of each student
▶ Similarities between reading and writing. Answer: Use the same
cognitive processes: Gathering ideas, Questioning, Hypothesizing; Use the
same cognitive systems: Semantic (meaning), Syntactic (grammar),
Graphophonic (alphabetic), Pragmatic (social use of language, e.g. idioms)
▶ Goals and skills of reading and writing are similar. Answer: 1) read/write
words without conscious awareness; 2) read/write words without focusing
on every letter; 3) connect unknown words to known words; 4) focus on
chunks of words; 5) use root words for determining meaning; 6) connect
spelling with meaning; and 7) focus on communicating meaning
▶ Readers (vs. writers). Answer: they receive messages, need to be able
to understand what others have written, and decode words
▶ Writers (vs. readers). Answer: they create and send messages, know
their audience, choose the best genre, choose words carefully, and the
, best way to share their writing; they encode words automatically so they
can concentrate more on expressing themselves
▶ Receptive vocabulary. Answer: reading and listening; what we take in;
the words a person can understand in spoken or written words
▶ Expressive vocabulary. Answer: aka productive; speaking and writing;
what we produce; the words a person can speak or write
▶ Motivate writing. Answer: encourage and support writing during all steps
in the process; use a wide variety of materials to inspire young writers;
explain the value of writing; use authentic writing
▶ Mini-Lesson. Answer: short lessons on various writing-related topics, i.e.
writing strategies/skills, organization, proof-reading/conventions, qualities of
good writing, or writing workshop procedures; taught to individual students,
small groups, or the whole class, depending on students' needs
▶ Reading Logs. Answer: This is a student's individual notes on their
reading. They may be guided with specific tasks or to write reflections.
▶ Interactive Writing. Answer: A writing activity in which students and the
teacher write a text together, with the students taking turns to do most of
the writing themselves.
▶ 6-3-5- Brainwriting. Answer: 6 in a group, 3 ideas per round, 5 minutes
per round; each person reads the ideas on the sheet and then writes new
ones; pass the sheet to the right at the end of each round; no talking
▶ Writers. Answer: Performance Standard 1: the teacher engages
_______ in reading, speaking, and listening processes to address
cognitive, social, physical, developmental, and communicative processes
▶ Stages of Writing Development. Answer: 1. Preliterate (Drawing)
2. Preliterate (Scribbling)
3. Early emergent (Letter-like forms)
4. Emergent (Random letters or letter strings)
5. Transitional (Writing via invented spelling)
6. Fluency (Conventional spelling)
