EDU 370 – Kindergarten & Reading Methods



EDU 370 – Kindergarten & Reading MethodsPre-Assessment Fall 2013Name:Date:True/False QuestionsT F 1. We can expect the same mix of children in early childhood classrooms today as has been true for the past two decades.T F 2. Children who attend high quality early childhood programs are more likely to continue in school longer than is true for children in poor quality programs. T F 3. Today many children experience expectations in kindergarten that used to be reserved for first and second grade.T F 4. A teacher explains that she makes sure her circle times include movement activities because she does not expect kindergartners to be able to sit still for long. She is thinking about age appropriateness.T F 5. Developmentally appropriate practice involves a standard approach to teaching young children that looks the same from program to program. T F 6. Programs characterized by developmentally appropriate practice are ones in which teachers spend much of their time moving throughout the room working with children individually and in small groups.T F 7. Aesthetic, affective, cognitive, language, physical and social development are all interdependent.T F 8. You can expect most children in a five-year-old class to exhibit very similar abilities in their language and physical development. T F 9. The Zone of Proximal Development represents the difference between what a child already knows and what she might learn with support from someone else. T F 11. Generally, when children disrupt group time, they should be asked to leave the circle until they are ready to behave.T F 12. The closing of each group time is actually a transition to the next event in the daily schedule.T F 13. Group times are mostly teacher talking times, when the main focus is on children listening and taking turns talking one at a time.T F 14. Ms. Fountain used good judgment when she attached two household extension cords to plug in an electric fry pan on a table in the corner.T F 15. Most of the storage should be arranged primarily for the teacher’s comfort and convenience.T F 16. The physical environment provides cues for appropriate behavior for the children as well as stimulating learning. Please complete the table below.Term/ConceptI’ve never heard of this…I’ve heard this before but I’m not sure what it means…I’m familiar with this term.I think it means…PhonicsPhonemic AwarenessShared ReadingInteractive ReadingGuided ReadingChoral ReadingWord WallDecoding StrategiesCueing SystemsPhonemeMorphemeGraphemeOnset and rimeMiscue analysisAlphabetic principleBase or root wordBlendCompound wordsDigraphDiphthongInvented spellingStages of spelling developmentSyllableTrackingWord familyMultiple Choice Questions - Circle the best answer. 1. What does it mean to be developmentally appropriate?Children will have outdoor free play, indoor free play, and group time every day.Teachers will follow the school curriculum and plan activities in thematic units.Teachers consider child development, strengths and needs of individual children, and the children’s cultural background when making decisions.Professionals have an early childhood endorsement on their teaching certificate 2. Which of the following elements do NOT characterize developmentally appropriate practice?Expecting children to learn most things through listening.Giving children choices about what and how they learn.Relying on play as a primary means for learning.Establishing partnerships with parents.3. Which of the following elements should you consider FIRST when developing an activity or lesson plan?The materials availableThe physical space in which the activity will take placeWhat theme the children are studyingThe needs, strengths and interests of the children4. Which of the following statements is an example of children’s active learning?1. Tom is talking to himself as he tries to solve a problem.2. LaTesha is counting each jump as she jumps rope.3. Raymond is wandering around the room, looking for something to do.All the aboveNone of the above1 and 2 but not 32 and 3 only5. Why should the level of skills required for activities vary if all the children in the group are the same age?The children will be at different developmental levels.The children will be coming from different cultural backgrounds.Different children will be interested in different subjects.The children will use the activities to learn more than one skill at a time.6. Four-year-old Maureen points to a blue block and calls it green. An appropriate response would be which of the following?“No, that’s not right. Try it again.”“You think that block is green. That color is blue. Let’s find some other things colored blue.”You should say nothing to the child.“You really need help with your colors.”7. What is a “teachable moment”?A spontaneous learning opportunity for the child.A short time interval between two scheduled activities.A planned activity in which the teacher highlights what the children learned that day in a fun and meaningful way.A brief teaching time when children and teachers plan what they will do next. 8. How should the level of sound be reduced in the classroom where children engage appropriately in center learning?Set rules so children must remain quiet.Add carpet, cushions, corkboard or other soft materials.Limit movement of the children to a few at a time.Use more whole group instruction.9. How does the appearance of a classroom impact learning and teaching?Parents are impressed with how a place looks.Children tend to imitate behaviors they observe and they are more likely to maintain a clean and orderly room, if the adults do it.If materials are in the approximately the same area, children will be attracted to that area without other prompts.If all of the materials that the children will use in a year are visible and available all of the time, the curriculum will be enhanced.10. Why use centers in early childhood settings?The instructional difficulties related to individual and experiential differences are minimized.Teacher planning and preparation time is minimized, especially in the beginning.It assures that all children participate in the same things.Once set up, there is little for the teacher to do the rest of the year11. Ms. Apfelguard decided to do learning centers in the kindergarten. The leaf collection was gathered in September, placed on the science table where it remained for three weeks with no one looking at it or discussing it. What principle did Ms. Apfelguard NOT understand?Children understand how to use learning centers properly.The arrays of learning centers presented to children in a day and over time are diversified, representing a cross section of domains.Centers are organized and implemented based upon the teacher’s knowledge of development and interest.Teachers use learning centers as a period to interact spontaneously with children and take advantage of opportunities to enhance, extend, and process information. 12. Which of the following strategies is least appropriate when a center appears to be unsuccessful (excessively noisy, disorganized, children unable to do the activity)?Add something to the environment that will help organize the children’s behavior.Remove extraneous, irrelevant, or distracting materials.Remove the difficult children from the center.Modify the activity in progress to be more congruent with children’s level of skill.13. If a group of young children are of all the same race, how would this influence the selection of materials?Only materials that are consistent with that race should be provided.Books and materials that honorably represent all races should be provided.The focus should be on materials and books from the countries and cultures from which the children descended. The background of the children is not relevant and should not influence the selection of materials. The following multiple choice questions focus primarily on literacy & reading instruction.14. Ten year old Julie usually enjoyed reading books in the Magic Tree House series. Today, however, the teacher required Julie to complete a worksheet as she read. To complete the worksheet, Julie was forced to read:a) efferentlyb) aestheticallyc) orallyd) fluently15. Jason could not read the Harry Potter books independently but his reading tutor found that he could easily discuss and enjoy these books if she helped him with the more difficult vocabulary and guided his comprehension. For Jason, the task of reading the Harry Potter books were:a) within the zone of proximal developmentb) beyond the zone of proximal developmentc) an example of a stimulus-response taskd) at his independent level16. As a new sixth grade teacher was selecting books for his classroom library, an experienced teacher correctly advised him that students within a typical classroom:a) all read at the same grade levelb) read at a wide range of levelsc) enjoy the same reading topicsd) prefer the same authors17. Theorist such as Louise Rosenblatt have explained that students don’t try to figure out the author’s meaning as they read; instead, they negotiate a meaning that makes sense to them based on the words they are reading and their existing knowledge. The work of these theorists reflects:a) behaviorismb) reader response theoryc) interactive theoryd) critical literacy18. After a visit to the zoo, first grade teacher Kate Sutton helped her students write about their experiences on large chart paper. The teacher wrote some words and the students took turns adding words which they could write. This teacher and her students used a practice known as:a) Running Recordsb) Choral Readingc) Sharing the Pend) Readers Theatre19. Third grade teacher Gene Brady noticed that his students had difficulty using comprehension strategies. Of the following, the most effective way for this teacher to help his students would be to:a) ask older students to serve as tutorsb) ask students to serve as tutors for their classmatesc) provide worksheets and guided practiced) provide minilessons and model comprehension strategies20. Effective teachers use formal and informal assessment measures primarily to:a) modify their instruction and reteach when necessaryb) rank students within the classc) provide standardized assessment results to administratorsd) provide report card grade for parents21. The second grade class read a book about games usually played at children’s birthday parties. Juan, who had recently moved to the United States, became very confused and asked why anyone would pin a tale on a donkey. The teacher then realized that Juan would have difficulty reading the birthday text primarily because he lacked the necessary:a) phonemic awarenessb) vocabularyc) background knowledged) motivation22. During shared reading, children should:a) be reminded to remain silent as the teacher readsb) read books at their independent levelc) be invited to join in the reading of predictable refrains and rhyming wordsd) listen to the teacher read and not be distracted by the text23. Third grade teacher Bea Taylor writes brief notes as she observes students. Which of the following notes would be most helpful in planning instruction?a) Clara wrote an essay in neat cursive handwriting.b) Clara is a good student.c) Clara earned an A on her report.d) Clara used context clues to determine the meaning of the words shore and seashell.24. Effective teachers have learned that it is best to teach letters of the alphabet:a) in alphabetical orderb) before introducing whole wordsc) using drills and writing activitiesd) using children’s own names and environmental print25. The goal for educators is that all children should be fluent readers and writers by:a) age sevenb) the end of kindergartenc) the end of first graded) the end of third grade26. Because fluent readers recognize many words automatically, they usually:a) prefer to read orallyb) substitute words as they readc) devote more energy to comprehensiond) devote more energy to decoding27. Several kindergarten students dictated sentences about their trip to the zoo. Their teacher wrote their dictated sentences on a chart. The children were able to easily read these sentences primarily because:a) the text was composed of their own languageb) a familiar teacher wrote the scriptc) they enjoyed the visit to the zood) the words contained familiar spelling patterns28. Handwriting instruction:a) should begin in kindergarten to establish good habitsb) should begin in third grade when fine-motor skills have been developedc) should include only cursive writingd) is no longer necessary due to technology29. Students are most likely to use conventional spelling in the:a) readiness reading and writing stageb) emergent reading and writing stagec) beginning reading and writing staged) fluent reading and writing stage30. Being able to name the letters of the alphabet is a good predictor of beginning reading achievement. The most likely explanation for this is that:a) drill and practice activities lead to reading successb) a child must be able to name every letter in order to read wordsc) children who have been actively involved in early and rich literacy activitiesgenerally know the lettersd) children who can name the letters have strong phonemic awareness31. When children have difficulty spelling a word, effective teachers should tell them to:a) sound it outb) think it outc) use an alternative wordd) use a thesaurus32. A group of second grade students need help spelling high frequency words. The best way for their teacher to help them gain independence in their spelling and writing would be to:a) monitor the completion of spelling worksheetsb) post high frequency words on a classroom word wallc) administer weekly spelling testsd) encourage the students to sound out words33. A Response to Intervention (RTI) program involves 3 tiers. During the first tier, students:a) are placed in special education programsb) are screened to identify academic difficultiesc) participate in Reading Recovery programsd) participate in 30 minute daily tutoring sessions34. Second grade teacher Mabel Frisby never asks all of her students to complete the same assignment because some students are working below grade level and some exceed grade level expectations. When this teacher varies and adjusts instruction and assignments to address individual differences, she is practicing:a) differentiated instructionb) balanced literacyc) the Accelerated Reader Systemd) Whole Language Instruction35. When a teacher practices differentiated instruction, he should:a) place students in ability groups which remain constant throughout the school yearb) allow students to place themselves in permanent groupsc) place students in flexible groups which will change according to needd) base grouping primarily upon the students’ social needs36. When his class was studying the Olympics, the teacher gathered multiple copies of related fiction and nonfiction books that varied in difficulty. This teacher compiled a:a) miscue analysisb) basal reading programc) decoding setd) text set37. Before planning instruction, it is essential for teachers to:a) use assessment procedures to determine students’ strengths and needsb) allow students to select their own working groupsc) meet with their students’ previous teachersd) select texts that all students will read38. Of the following, the most effective way to help students improve their reading is to:a) provide time for them to read books at their own reading levelb) provide time for drill and practice activitiesc) send home daily report cardsd) send home content-area worksheetsThank you for taking the time to complete this pre-assessment activity! Your responses will help me as I plan instruction during the course of the semester. ................
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