STR EXAM TEACHERS OF
TOMORROW
1. When planning assessments to measure students' comprehension of
literary texts an elementary school teacher selects a variety of
passages from a range of cultures including those that reflect the
diverse cultural experiences of the students. The teacher also
considers students' familiarity with cultural content when evaluating
students' responses to texts. The teacher's actions best demonstrate the
importance of taking which of the following factors into consideration
when selecting texts for assessments? - ANSWERS-A reader's
cultural background knowledge can be an important factor affecting
their comprehension of a literary text.
2. Which of the following statements identifies a characteristic of
criterion-referenced tests that in general makes them unsuitable for
use as a formative assessment of foundational reading skills? -
ANSWERS-While criterion referenced assessment can measure
students mastery of target skills, they provide little information about
the extent of students skill development toward mastery.
3. A second-grade student demonstrates grade-level oral reading
fluency but is reluctant to participate in post-reading discussions and
frequently exhibits comprehension difficulty when answering
questions about assigned literary texts. The teacher would like to
better understand the student's process of constructing meaning from
text.
,Which of the following assessment procedures administered
individually would be most effective for the teacher to use? -
ANSWERS-having the student read aloud a short narrative text and
then retell the story in the student's own words
4. How could a teacher best determine if a particular text is written at
an appropriate level for a student to read independently (i.e. with little
or no teacher support) - ANSWERS-by having the students read aloud
a section of the text and answers questions about and then
determining if the students accuracy is at least 95 percent and
comprehension is at least 90
5. A third-grade teacher meets regularly with individual students to
discuss their reading. At the beginning of one student's conference the
student enthusiastically shows the teacher an illustrated children's
book about the Apollo space program that the student selected for
independent reading. The student points out favorite photographs and
graphics in the text. When the teacher asks the student to read aloud a
paragraph the student encounters difficulty understanding some
longer technical words in the text. Which of the following approaches
to providing feedback would be most effective for the teacher to use
to support the student's continued growth in reading? - ANSWERS-
Praising the student for finding such an exciting book and showing
the student where to find more information about the technical
terminology included (eg. looking for a glossary in the book, finding
appropriate online resources)
6. Use the information below to answer the three questions that
follow. A second-grade teacher has been using a Tier 2 (targeted)
intervention with a small group of students who have difficulty
,producing oral and written retellings of narrative texts. The
intervention includes the following steps. 1. The students listen to or
read a narrative text. 2. The teacher uses written sentence frames to
support the students in orally generating sentences about the story
focused on key elements of story grammar (e.g. main characters)]
setting initiating event internal response internal plan attempt[s]
consequence resolution). 3. The teacher helps the students put the
sentences together in an oral group retelling of the story. 4. The
students in the group work in pairs to engage in an oral rehearsal of
the retelling. The teacher monitors the pairs of students and provides
feedback as needed. 5. The students draft an individual - ANSWERS-
during step 3, explicitly teaching the students how to use transition
words such as but, so, because, and then to connect the sentences
logically to reflect relationships between story elements
7. Which of the following strategies for assessing students'
performance in steps 4 and 5 would provide the teacher with the most
appropriate data to determine if the students are making adequate
progress in oral language and writing related to retelling texts? -
ANSWERS-developing an observational checklist to assess students'
oral retelling in step 4 and a rubric to assess their written retellings in
step 5, both aligned with the key elements of story grammar outlined
in step 2
8. The teacher is concerned about one student in the group who
participates adequately in steps 1 and 2 but has difficulty putting
multiple sentences together during step 3. Consequently the student
has not made progress on steps 4 and 5 despite engaging in the small-
group intervention two to three times a week over a period of weeks
and receiving extra one-on-one practice sessions with the teacher once
or twice a week during the same period. The teacher also has noticed
, that in other class contexts the student has difficulty generating oral
language discourse that is the student's utterances are not longer than
a single sentence. Often the student's utterances consist of a sentence
fragment unless the teacher provides scaffolding such as that provided
in step 2 of the intervention. Which of the following actions would be
most appropriate for the teacher to take next to address the student's
needs? - ANSWERS-collaborating with the school's speech-language
pathologist to collect and analyze oral and written language samples
by the student to he inform the development of a Tier 3 (intensive)
language intervention for the student
9. A prekindergarten teacher records weekly anecdotal notes about
children's interactions during unstructured play. Included in these
notes are observations about the children's oral language development
with respect to important developmental milestones. For example
early in the school year the teacher observes that one group of three-
year-old children speaks primarily with single words a second group
uses phrases combining two words and a third group uses early
sentences (e.g. "I want more blocks."). According to research in
addition to utterance length which of the following language
milestones would be most important for the teacher to document to
help distinguish children who are early sentence users from children
at earlier stages of language development? - ANSWERS-Use
prepositions (e.g in on) to convey spatial relationship
10. A prekindergarten teacher closely observes children during the
first several weeks of school to identify individuals who may be at
risk for speech and language delays. Which of the following four-
year-old children exhibits language behaviors that would require
intervention and ongoing monitoring? - ANSWERS-A child whose
TOMORROW
1. When planning assessments to measure students' comprehension of
literary texts an elementary school teacher selects a variety of
passages from a range of cultures including those that reflect the
diverse cultural experiences of the students. The teacher also
considers students' familiarity with cultural content when evaluating
students' responses to texts. The teacher's actions best demonstrate the
importance of taking which of the following factors into consideration
when selecting texts for assessments? - ANSWERS-A reader's
cultural background knowledge can be an important factor affecting
their comprehension of a literary text.
2. Which of the following statements identifies a characteristic of
criterion-referenced tests that in general makes them unsuitable for
use as a formative assessment of foundational reading skills? -
ANSWERS-While criterion referenced assessment can measure
students mastery of target skills, they provide little information about
the extent of students skill development toward mastery.
3. A second-grade student demonstrates grade-level oral reading
fluency but is reluctant to participate in post-reading discussions and
frequently exhibits comprehension difficulty when answering
questions about assigned literary texts. The teacher would like to
better understand the student's process of constructing meaning from
text.
,Which of the following assessment procedures administered
individually would be most effective for the teacher to use? -
ANSWERS-having the student read aloud a short narrative text and
then retell the story in the student's own words
4. How could a teacher best determine if a particular text is written at
an appropriate level for a student to read independently (i.e. with little
or no teacher support) - ANSWERS-by having the students read aloud
a section of the text and answers questions about and then
determining if the students accuracy is at least 95 percent and
comprehension is at least 90
5. A third-grade teacher meets regularly with individual students to
discuss their reading. At the beginning of one student's conference the
student enthusiastically shows the teacher an illustrated children's
book about the Apollo space program that the student selected for
independent reading. The student points out favorite photographs and
graphics in the text. When the teacher asks the student to read aloud a
paragraph the student encounters difficulty understanding some
longer technical words in the text. Which of the following approaches
to providing feedback would be most effective for the teacher to use
to support the student's continued growth in reading? - ANSWERS-
Praising the student for finding such an exciting book and showing
the student where to find more information about the technical
terminology included (eg. looking for a glossary in the book, finding
appropriate online resources)
6. Use the information below to answer the three questions that
follow. A second-grade teacher has been using a Tier 2 (targeted)
intervention with a small group of students who have difficulty
,producing oral and written retellings of narrative texts. The
intervention includes the following steps. 1. The students listen to or
read a narrative text. 2. The teacher uses written sentence frames to
support the students in orally generating sentences about the story
focused on key elements of story grammar (e.g. main characters)]
setting initiating event internal response internal plan attempt[s]
consequence resolution). 3. The teacher helps the students put the
sentences together in an oral group retelling of the story. 4. The
students in the group work in pairs to engage in an oral rehearsal of
the retelling. The teacher monitors the pairs of students and provides
feedback as needed. 5. The students draft an individual - ANSWERS-
during step 3, explicitly teaching the students how to use transition
words such as but, so, because, and then to connect the sentences
logically to reflect relationships between story elements
7. Which of the following strategies for assessing students'
performance in steps 4 and 5 would provide the teacher with the most
appropriate data to determine if the students are making adequate
progress in oral language and writing related to retelling texts? -
ANSWERS-developing an observational checklist to assess students'
oral retelling in step 4 and a rubric to assess their written retellings in
step 5, both aligned with the key elements of story grammar outlined
in step 2
8. The teacher is concerned about one student in the group who
participates adequately in steps 1 and 2 but has difficulty putting
multiple sentences together during step 3. Consequently the student
has not made progress on steps 4 and 5 despite engaging in the small-
group intervention two to three times a week over a period of weeks
and receiving extra one-on-one practice sessions with the teacher once
or twice a week during the same period. The teacher also has noticed
, that in other class contexts the student has difficulty generating oral
language discourse that is the student's utterances are not longer than
a single sentence. Often the student's utterances consist of a sentence
fragment unless the teacher provides scaffolding such as that provided
in step 2 of the intervention. Which of the following actions would be
most appropriate for the teacher to take next to address the student's
needs? - ANSWERS-collaborating with the school's speech-language
pathologist to collect and analyze oral and written language samples
by the student to he inform the development of a Tier 3 (intensive)
language intervention for the student
9. A prekindergarten teacher records weekly anecdotal notes about
children's interactions during unstructured play. Included in these
notes are observations about the children's oral language development
with respect to important developmental milestones. For example
early in the school year the teacher observes that one group of three-
year-old children speaks primarily with single words a second group
uses phrases combining two words and a third group uses early
sentences (e.g. "I want more blocks."). According to research in
addition to utterance length which of the following language
milestones would be most important for the teacher to document to
help distinguish children who are early sentence users from children
at earlier stages of language development? - ANSWERS-Use
prepositions (e.g in on) to convey spatial relationship
10. A prekindergarten teacher closely observes children during the
first several weeks of school to identify individuals who may be at
risk for speech and language delays. Which of the following four-
year-old children exhibits language behaviors that would require
intervention and ongoing monitoring? - ANSWERS-A child whose
