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Praxis Teaching Reading: Elementary study materials
Praxis Teaching Reading: Elementary study resources

Praxis Teaching Reading: Elementary practice questions

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Question 1Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Phonemic awareness is best described as the ability to

  1. identify and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words Correct answer.
  2. read connected text with appropriate speed and expression
  3. use surrounding text to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words
  4. match printed letters to the sounds they represent

Explanation

Phonemic awareness operates on spoken language only: it is the conscious ability to notice, blend, segment, and manipulate individual phonemes in words. It does not involve printed letters, text reading rate, or word-meaning strategies.

Question 2Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A kindergartner holds a book right side up, points to the title, and moves a finger left to right across a line of print. The child is demonstrating

  1. phonemic awareness
  2. decoding skill
  3. oral syntax knowledge
  4. concepts of print Correct answer.

Explanation

Concepts of print include knowing how books are oriented, where a reader begins, and that print moves in a consistent direction. These book-handling and directionality behaviors are the foundation for later reading instruction.

Question 3Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

The alphabetic principle is the understanding that

  1. speech sounds are represented by letters in a predictable, systematic way Correct answer.
  2. print carries meaning and is read from left to right
  3. words can be divided into syllables and morphemes
  4. every letter has a conventional name that children must memorize

Explanation

The alphabetic principle is the insight that letters stand for phonemes and that this mapping is consistent enough to be learned and used. It links spoken sounds to printed symbols rather than to letter names or book conventions.

Question 4Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Which word begins with a consonant blend?

  1. ship
  2. clap Correct answer.
  3. wish
  4. chat

Explanation

In a consonant blend, two or more consonants appear together and each sound is still heard, as in the /k/ and /l/ of clap. Digraphs such as sh and ch represent a single new sound instead.

Question 5Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A syllable that ends in one or more consonants and contains a short vowel sound, such as the first syllable of rabbit, is called a

  1. vowel team syllable
  2. open syllable
  3. r-controlled syllable
  4. closed syllable Correct answer.

Explanation

A closed syllable is closed off by a final consonant, which keeps the vowel short. Open syllables end in the vowel and usually have a long vowel sound.

Question 6Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

The prefix in the word redo means

  1. under
  2. not
  3. before
  4. again Correct answer.

Explanation

The prefix re- carries the meaning of doing something again, so redo means to do over. Recognizing common prefixes helps students unlock the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Question 7Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A teacher says the sounds /m/ /a/ /p/ slowly and asks a student to say the whole word. The student is practicing

  1. deleting
  2. blending Correct answer.
  3. segmenting
  4. rhyming

Explanation

Blending means combining individually spoken sounds into a whole word. It is the phonemic awareness skill that most directly supports later decoding of printed words.

Question 8Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Which pair of words rhymes?

  1. light, kite Correct answer.
  2. map, mop
  3. bug, bag
  4. cat, cot

Explanation

Rhyming words share the same ending sound, including the vowel and everything after it, as in /īt/ for light and kite. Words that differ only in the medial vowel do not rhyme.

Question 9Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Which word contains a consonant digraph?

  1. frog
  2. wish Correct answer.
  3. step
  4. clap

Explanation

A consonant digraph is two consonant letters that together spell one sound, as sh in wish. Blends such as cl, fr, and st keep both consonant sounds audible.

Question 10Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

How many phonemes are in the spoken word crust?

  1. Four
  2. Three
  3. Six
  4. Five Correct answer.

Explanation

Counting phonemes means counting sounds, not letters. Crust is pronounced with /k/, /r/, /u/, /s/, /t/, which is five phonemes.

Question 11Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Adding a silent e to hop to make hope changes the word by turning

  1. a short vowel sound into a long vowel sound Correct answer.
  2. a consonant sound into a vowel sound
  3. a long vowel sound into a short vowel sound
  4. a closed syllable into a vowel team syllable

Explanation

The silent-e pattern makes the preceding vowel long, so hop with a short o becomes hope with a long o. The final e is not pronounced but signals the vowel change.

Question 12Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A teacher writes cat on the board, underlines the -at, and has students generate bat, hat, and mat. This activity primarily develops

  1. concepts of print
  2. awareness of onset and rime Correct answer.
  3. letter-naming fluency
  4. expressive vocabulary

Explanation

Onset-rime instruction has students hold the ending unit (-at) constant while substituting the initial consonant, which is the onset. This builds a stable sound pattern students can use to read and spell word families.

Question 13Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Oral reading fluency is typically described as consisting of

  1. rate, spelling, and vocabulary
  2. phonemic awareness and phonics
  3. decoding, comprehension, and writing
  4. accuracy, automaticity, and prosody Correct answer.

Explanation

Fluency combines accurate word recognition, automatic pacing that frees attention for meaning, and prosody, which is appropriate phrasing and expression. These components work together to support comprehension.

Question 14Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Repeated reading of the same short passage is an instructional routine designed mainly to improve

  1. phonological awareness in general
  2. fluency Correct answer.
  3. phonemic awareness
  4. concepts of print

Explanation

Rereading a familiar text increases accurate, automatic word recognition and gives students practice with phrasing and expression. Gains typically appear in rate, accuracy, and prosody on the practiced text and similar texts.

Question 15Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Words such as compare, describe, and predict appear across many content areas and are useful to mature language users. In vocabulary instruction these are known as

  1. sight words
  2. Tier 1 words
  3. Tier 3 words
  4. Tier 2 words Correct answer.

Explanation

Tier 2 words are high-utility academic words that appear across domains and are worth explicit instruction because they strengthen comprehension of many texts. Tier 1 words are basic everyday words and Tier 3 words are highly specialized.

Question 16Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Decodable texts are primarily designed to

  1. teach low-frequency academic vocabulary in context
  2. develop expression through predictable, rhyming refrains
  3. build listening comprehension through teacher read-alouds
  4. give students practice applying the phonics patterns they have been taught Correct answer.

Explanation

Decodable texts are controlled for the letter-sound correspondences students have learned so they can apply phonics knowledge rather than guess from pictures or context. They support the transfer of taught patterns into actual reading.

Question 17Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

The word napkin should be divided into syllables as

  1. napki/n
  2. napk/in
  3. na/pkin
  4. nap/kin Correct answer.

Explanation

When two consonants sit between vowels in a VCCV pattern, the syllable division usually falls between the two consonants, giving nap/kin. Each resulting syllable then follows a familiar pattern.

Question 18Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

After reading Maria grabbed her umbrella and frowned at the window, a student says that Maria expects rain. The student is

  1. applying phonics to decode a word
  2. making an inference Correct answer.
  3. retelling literal details from the text
  4. monitoring reading rate

Explanation

An inference combines textual clues with background knowledge to reach a conclusion the author implies but does not state. Grabbing an umbrella and frowning at the window together imply an expectation of rain.

Question 19Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A teacher asks a student to read made-up words such as fip and zote. This assessment primarily measures the student's

  1. knowledge of concepts of print
  2. oral comprehension
  3. vocabulary breadth
  4. application of phonics knowledge to unfamiliar words Correct answer.

Explanation

Pseudowords have no meaning stored in memory, so reading them requires applying letter-sound knowledge rather than relying on sight recognition or context. Performance therefore indicates how well the student uses phonics to decode.

Question 20Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Which task is a phonemic awareness task rather than a phonics task?

  1. writing the letters that spell /m/ /a/ /p/
  2. reading a list of words containing the -igh pattern
  3. saying what word is left when /k/ is removed from clap Correct answer.
  4. sorting picture cards by their beginning letter

Explanation

Phonemic awareness tasks work entirely with spoken sounds, such as deleting a sound and saying the remaining word (lap). Tasks that involve letters or printed words are phonics tasks because they connect sounds to print.

Question 21Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Orthographic mapping refers to

  1. organizing story events on a graphic organizer
  2. the process of forming letter-sound connections that bond a word's spelling to its pronunciation in memory Correct answer.
  3. repeatedly copying a word so that its visual shape is memorized
  4. using surrounding context to identify an unknown word

Explanation

Orthographic mapping is how readers permanently store words as sequences of letters tied to sounds, allowing instant recognition. It depends on well-developed phonemic awareness and phonics knowledge rather than on visual memorization of word shapes.

Question 22Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A first grader writes I LV MI MOM for I love my mom. This spelling is most characteristic of which stage?

  1. Partial alphabetic (semi-phonetic) Correct answer.
  2. Syllables and affixes
  3. Pre-alphabetic
  4. Within-word pattern

Explanation

In the partial alphabetic stage, children represent some sounds with letters, often using letter names for entire words, as in LV for love. Pre-alphabetic spellers use little or no letter-sound correspondence, while later stages show fuller and more conventional patterns.

Question 23Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Two students read the same passage at the same words-correct-per-minute rate, but one reads with appropriate phrasing and expression. That student is most likely to

  1. read the passage more slowly on a second attempt
  2. have stronger letter-naming skills
  3. make more miscues on a retell
  4. show better comprehension of the passage Correct answer.

Explanation

Prosody reflects that the reader is grouping words into meaningful phrases, which is evidence that attention is available for constructing meaning. When rate and accuracy are equal, better phrasing predicts stronger comprehension.

Question 24Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A student reads unbelievable as un-be-liev-a-ble. Which word-analysis strategy is the student applying?

  1. Dividing the word into syllables and morphemes Correct answer.
  2. Drawing an analogy to a familiar rhyming word
  3. Using context clues to guess the word
  4. Recognizing the word instantly by sight

Explanation

The student is chunking a long word into pronounceable units, including the prefix un- and the base believe, then assembling the parts. This combined syllabication and morphemic analysis is the expected strategy for multisyllabic words.

Question 25Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Fall universal screening shows a first grader far below benchmark in phoneme segmentation, and the student has received consistent core instruction. The most appropriate next step is to

  1. move the student to higher-level texts to build stamina
  2. refer the student for special education evaluation immediately
  3. provide targeted small-group instruction in phonemic awareness and monitor progress Correct answer.
  4. discontinue phonics instruction until sounds are mastered

Explanation

Screening data are used to adjust instruction, so the first response is additional targeted intervention with progress monitoring to see whether the student responds. Special education evaluation is considered only after documented, sustained intervention has not produced adequate growth.

Question 26Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A preschooler recites a memorized rhyme while moving a finger along a printed line, but the finger sweeps across several words at once and stops before the end of the line. Which print concept should the teacher address next?

  1. Recognizing that printed words carry meaning
  2. Knowing that a sentence begins with a capital letter
  3. Matching one spoken word to one written word Correct answer.
  4. Holding a book right side up and turning pages in order

Explanation

Concept of word includes one-to-one correspondence, the understanding that each spoken word matches a single written word. Sweeping across several words at once shows the child is not yet tracking that match, even though the recitation itself is meaningful.

Question 27Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A teacher says, "Listen to the first sound in chair." Which word begins with that same sound?

  1. king
  2. church Correct answer.
  3. shirt
  4. tree

Explanation

Chair begins with the sound /ch/, a single affricate made by combining a stop and a fricative. Church also begins with /ch/, so isolating initial sounds correctly identifies it as the match.

Question 28Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Which word contains the short a vowel sound?

  1. map Correct answer.
  2. cake
  3. play
  4. star

Explanation

In a closed syllable such as map, a single vowel is followed by a consonant, so the vowel stands for its short sound, /a/. Cake and play contain long a spellings, and star contains an r-controlled vowel.

Question 29Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

The alphabetic principle is best described as the understanding that

  1. letters and letter combinations map onto the speech sounds of words Correct answer.
  2. every letter name can be heard inside the word that the letter spells
  3. printed English is read from left to right and top to bottom
  4. letters are always written in alphabetical order from A to Z

Explanation

The alphabetic principle is the insight that speech is made of sounds and that letters systematically represent those sounds. It allows a reader to move between spoken words and their printed forms.

Question 30Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

In the word rabbit, the first syllable (rab-) is classified as a closed syllable. Which feature makes it closed?

  1. It ends with a vowel letter that keeps its long sound
  2. It ends in a silent e that is not pronounced
  3. It ends in a consonant that follows a single vowel Correct answer.
  4. It contains a vowel team that stands for one sound

Explanation

A closed syllable ends with one or more consonants after a single vowel, and that consonant closes the syllable so the vowel is short. In rab-, the letter b closes the syllable and the a stands for its short sound.

Question 31Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Which word contains a consonant blend?

  1. when
  2. thin
  3. stop Correct answer.
  4. ship

Explanation

A consonant blend contains two or more consonant sounds that are each heard, as with /s/ and /t/ in stop. In a digraph, by contrast, two letters spell a single new sound.

Question 32Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Which word contains the letters ea pronounced with the long e sound heard in see?

  1. beach Correct answer.
  2. great
  3. threat
  4. bread

Explanation

The vowel team ea can spell more than one sound, so readers must check the word against known pronunciation patterns. In beach, ea stands for the long e sound, the most common value of this team.

Question 33Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

In the word corn, how does the letter r affect the vowel sound?

  1. It makes the vowel silent so that only /r/ is heard
  2. It changes the vowel so it is neither long nor short and is taught as a unit with r Correct answer.
  3. It makes the vowel say its long sound, as in cone
  4. It doubles the vowel sound so that two beats are heard

Explanation

When r follows a vowel in the same syllable, the vowel is neither long nor short but takes on an r-controlled sound. Teachers present the vowel plus r as a single spelling unit, such as or, ar, er, ir, and ur.

Question 34Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

How many morphemes are in the word unhelpful?

  1. Four
  2. Three Correct answer.
  3. Five
  4. Two

Explanation

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a word. Unhelpful contains the prefix un-, the base help, and the suffix -ful, for a total of three morphemes.

Question 35Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

In which word does the past-tense ending create a separate syllable?

  1. played
  2. wanted Correct answer.
  3. cleaned
  4. walked

Explanation

The ending -ed is pronounced /id/ and adds a syllable only when the base word ends in a /t/ or /d/ sound, as in want. After other sounds it is pronounced /t/ or /d/ and adds no syllable.

Question 36Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A teacher plans instruction on high-frequency words such as said, was, and come. Which approach is best supported by evidence about how these words are learned?

  1. Have students look up each word in a dictionary to confirm its spelling
  2. Have students copy each word many times without discussion
  3. Point out the parts that work as expected and draw attention to the irregular part Correct answer.
  4. Delay these words until every letter-sound correspondence has been taught

Explanation

Most high-frequency words are partly regular, and readers map them by connecting known sound-spellings to the letters while flagging the unusual part. This secures the word in memory more effectively than rote copying.

Question 37Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A student is told: "Say the word stop. Now say it again without the /s/." What should the student say?

  1. pot
  2. shop
  3. top Correct answer.
  4. stop

Explanation

Phoneme deletion requires holding the word in memory, isolating the target sound, and recombining what remains. Removing the initial /s/ from /stop/ leaves /top/.

Question 38Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

The word robot is divided into syllables as ro-bot. Which principle best explains this division?

  1. A single consonant between two vowels usually goes with the second vowel, leaving the first syllable open Correct answer.
  2. Every syllable in a multisyllabic word must end with a consonant sound
  3. A vowel letter that stands alone between consonants must always be pronounced short
  4. Syllables are always divided so the first syllable has more letters than the second

Explanation

In a vowel-consonant-vowel pattern, dividing after the first vowel keeps that syllable open and usually long, as in ro-. This is why robot is read with a long o in the first syllable.

Question 39Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

A student reads the sentence "The pony trotted across the field" as "The horse trotted across the field." Which statement best describes this substitution?

  1. The student is unable to decode words with more than one syllable
  2. The student's error shows a weakness in phonemic awareness
  3. The student is using meaning cues but is not attending closely to the visual form of the word Correct answer.
  4. The student is relying on letter-sound knowledge rather than on meaning

Explanation

Substituting a semantically related word that fits the sentence shows the reader is actively constructing meaning from context. Because the substitution looks and sounds different from the printed word, the teacher should also prompt closer attention to the letters.

Question 40Foundational Skills and Knowledge about Reading

Which word contains an inflectional suffix?

  1. childish
  2. jumping Correct answer.
  3. quickly
  4. teacher

Explanation

Inflectional suffixes such as -ing, -ed, -s, and -er change how a word functions in a sentence without changing its core meaning or part of speech. Jumping adds -ing to the verb jump to mark ongoing action.

Question 41Foundational Reading Skills: Development and Instruction

A kindergartner opens a book from the back and begins turning pages from right to left. Which concept of print should the teacher reteach?

  1. Rhyming and word-family patterns
  2. Automatic recognition of sight words
  3. Book orientation and directionality Correct answer.
  4. Consonant letter-sound correspondences

Explanation

Concepts of print include knowing how a book is held, where the front is, and that pages and words are read in a consistent direction. Opening from the back and reading in reverse shows a breakdown in orientation and directionality rather than in decoding or word recognition.

Question 42Foundational Reading Skills: Development and Instruction

Which classroom activity most directly builds phonological awareness?

  1. Echo-reading a leveled reader with a partner
  2. Copying high-frequency words from the board
  3. Tracing sandpaper letters while naming them
  4. Clapping syllables in classmates' names Correct answer.

Explanation

Phonological awareness is the ability to notice and work with the sound structure of spoken language, including syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes. Clapping syllables in names is a purely oral task that focuses attention on syllable units.

Question 43Foundational Reading Skills: Development and Instruction

A teacher says the word "sun" and asks a child to say only the first sound. Which skill is the teacher assessing?

  1. Letter-naming fluency
  2. Phoneme isolation Correct answer.
  3. Onset-rime awareness
  4. Syllable awareness

Explanation

Phoneme isolation requires identifying an individual sound at a specific position in a word, here the initial /s/. It is a more precise skill than working with larger units such as syllables or onsets and rimes.

Question 44Foundational Reading Skills: Development and Instruction

Which sound can a teacher stretch and hold during blending practice because it is a continuous sound?

  1. /b/
  2. /t/
  3. /s/ Correct answer.
  4. /d/

Explanation

Continuous sounds such as /s/, /m/, and /f/ can be prolonged without distortion, which makes them easier to blend into a word. Stop sounds such as /b/, /d/, and /t/ are produced with a quick burst and cannot be stretched cleanly.

Question 45Foundational Reading Skills: Development and Instruction

In the word "picnic," which is divided pic-nic, each syllable follows which pattern?

  1. Closed syllables with short vowels Correct answer.
  2. Vowel-consonant-e (silent e) syllables
  3. Open syllables with long vowel sounds
  4. R-controlled syllables with a schwa

Explanation

Both syllables end in a consonant, which closes the syllable and keeps the vowel short, giving /pik/ and /nik/. This is the typical pattern for two-syllable words that follow a vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel division.

Question 46Foundational Reading Skills: Development and Instruction

Which set of words contains only consonant digraphs?

  1. jump, hand, best
  2. milk, lamp, tent
  3. stop, grab, flag
  4. ship, thin, chat Correct answer.

Explanation

A consonant digraph is two consonant letters that represent a single new sound, as in sh, th, and ch. The other sets contain blends or simple closed-syllable words in which each consonant keeps its own sound.

Question 47Foundational Reading Skills: Development and Instruction

Which word contains a three-consonant blend at the beginning?

  1. chat
  2. wish
  3. grab
  4. scrap Correct answer.

Explanation

In scrap the letters s, c, and r each contribute a distinct sound before the vowel, forming a three-consonant blend. Blends differ from digraphs because every letter in a blend is heard.

Question 48Foundational Reading Skills: Development and Instruction

In the word "rain," what sound does the vowel team ai represent?

  1. A long a sound Correct answer.
  2. A short a sound
  3. Two separate vowel sounds
  4. A schwa

Explanation

The vowel team ai is a common spelling of the long a sound, as in rain, train, and paint. Vowel teams are two letters working together to spell one vowel sound rather than two separate sounds.

Question 49Foundational Reading Skills: Development and Instruction

A student spells the word "bird" as "brid." Which pattern has the student not yet internalized?

  1. The silent-e pattern at the end of the word
  2. The r-controlled vowel is treated as one unit Correct answer.
  3. The consonant digraph spelling of the final sound
  4. The vowel team spelling of the long vowel

Explanation

In bird the letters ir spell a single r-controlled vowel sound, /er/. Writing brid places the r before the vowel, which shows the student is not yet treating the vowel-plus-r as one sound unit.

Question 50Foundational Reading Skills: Development and Instruction

The word "hop" becomes "hope" when a silent e is added. What does the silent e signal?

  1. The syllable is unstressed
  2. The consonant is doubled
  3. The vowel is shortened
  4. The vowel becomes long Correct answer.

Explanation

In a vowel-consonant-e pattern, the final e is silent and marks the preceding vowel as long, so hop becomes hope. The e itself is not pronounced; it signals the vowel change.