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Prekindergarten/Primary PK–3
For Testing until 12/31/2023

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Test Format and Sample Questions

The Language Arts and Reading subtest contains approximately 50 multiple-choice questions. You will have 70 minutes to complete the subtest.

Each question will contain four response options, and you will indicate your answer by selecting A, B, C, or D.

The table below presents types of questions on the exam and directs you to examples of these formats among the sample items that follow.

Table of Question Formats

Type of Question Sample Question
Direct Question
Choose the response option that best answers the question. 		Question 1
Scenario
Examine a situation, problem, or case study. Then answer a question, make a diagnosis, or recommend a course of action by selecting the best response option. 		Question 2
Sentence Completion
Select the response option that best completes the sentence. 		Question 4

Sample Questions

The following questions represent both the form and content of questions on the examination. These questions will acquaint you with the general format of the examination; however, these sample questions do not cover all of the competencies and skills that are tested and will only approximate the degree of examination difficulty.

Question 1

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 1—Knowledge of literacy and literacy instruction

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which of the following is the best demonstration of phonemic segmenting from first-grade students working with the word “jumping”?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 2

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 1—Knowledge of literacy and literacy instruction

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Aaron is a first-grade student who has transferred to a new school. His new teacher discovers that he is weak in the areas of letter and letter-sound recognition. To remedy this deficiency, the best approach would be

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 3

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 1—Knowledge of literacy and literacy instruction

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Near the end of the year, a first-grade student makes the following errors on a reading assessment.

Excerpt from Reading Assessment

Words as they appear in the text Student reads the words as
blocks box
flip Philip
play pay

This assessment indicates the student is having difficulty decoding

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 4

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 1—Knowledge of literacy and literacy instruction

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

The teacher reads aloud to the whole class for 20 minutes each day. This activity promotes

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 5

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 1—Knowledge of literacy and literacy instruction

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A teacher creates weekly activities that allow students to interact with the classroom word wall, the message board, the daily calendar, posters, and each other. What purpose does the teacher have for creating such an interactive classroom?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 6

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 1—Knowledge of literacy and literacy instruction

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A second-grade teacher wants to expand students’ knowledge of a topic by providing them various types of literature in the classroom library, including biographies, essays, and realistic fiction books. The teacher is showing examples of

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 7

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 1—Knowledge of literacy and literacy instruction

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A teacher asks the students to make a list of the types of stories they enjoy reading. The students share their lists and decide what kinds of stories they would like the teacher to read to the class. Finally, the teacher takes the students to the media center to pick books that match the list they have created.

This type of activity is used to

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 8

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 1—Knowledge of literacy and literacy instruction

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A student is telling the class about a favorite story that centers around a baby emperor penguin, and the class wants to know more about the family structure and habitat of this penguin group. The teacher encourages the students to use the classroom library to find a science book about these topics.

Which of the following best describes the teacher's interaction with students?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 9

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 2—Knowledge of fiction and nonfiction genres including reading informational texts (e.g., literary nonfiction, historical, scientific, and technical texts)

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

If a student wants to get an overview of an informational text, see the relationships among the various topics, and have an indication if the text is in chronological order or by topic, where should the student look in the text to find this information?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 10

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 2—Knowledge of fiction and nonfiction genres including reading informational texts (e.g., literary nonfiction, historical, scientific, and technical texts)

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Due to the rise of technology a teacher should increase the use of which of the following genres?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 11

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 2—Knowledge of fiction and nonfiction genres including reading informational texts (e.g., literary nonfiction, historical, scientific, and technical texts)

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

At what point in the reading of a story would it be most effective for a student to develop a story map?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 12

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 2—Knowledge of fiction and nonfiction genres including reading informational texts (e.g., literary nonfiction, historical, scientific, and technical texts)

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A second-grade teacher wanted a whole-class activity to use with students that would stimulate interest in a story the class had previewed, as well as give students confidence in understanding what they were about to read. Additionaly, the teacher wanted a way to preview vocabulary from the story so that the students would know what the words meant while reading. Finally, it was important that the activity call upon background knowledge of the students to help them relate to the story, along with being a graphic representation for the students to refer to while reading.

What instructional strategy did the teacher use to accomplish these goals?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 13

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 2—Knowledge of fiction and nonfiction genres including reading informational texts (e.g., literary nonfiction, historical, scientific, and technical texts)

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which of the following best describes the critical-thinking strategy of mapping?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 14

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 2—Knowledge of fiction and nonfiction genres including reading informational texts (e.g., literary nonfiction, historical, scientific, and technical texts)

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A class of second graders is surveying the rest of the second-grade classes to see what foods are the most favorite among the students. Once the surveys are completed, the teacher wants the students to create charts and graphs which will represent the percentage of students who like which foods best. Which of the following strategies is the teacher using to develop knowledge of the uses and purposes of multiple representations?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 15

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 2—Knowledge of fiction and nonfiction genres including reading informational texts (e.g., literary nonfiction, historical, scientific, and technical texts)

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A second-grade teacher would like students to compare the life spans of a number of animals discussed in an informational text. Which of the following visual representations would be most appropriate for students to create to help them address this goal?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 16

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 2—Knowledge of fiction and nonfiction genres including reading informational texts (e.g., literary nonfiction, historical, scientific, and technical texts)

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Students are provided a vocabulary list that contains examples and nonexamples of words found in the reading. The teacher provides a brief introduction to the reading and instructs students to determine which words they would likely encounter in the text. This activity is called exclusion brainstorming and is used in what stage of a reading process?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 17

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 2—Knowledge of fiction and nonfiction genres including reading informational texts (e.g., literary nonfiction, historical, scientific, and technical texts)

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

If a student wants to get an overview of an informational text, see the relationships among the various topics, and have an indication if the text is in chronological order or by topic, where should the student look in the text to find this information?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 18

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A kindergarten teacher notices that a student is becoming aware of syllables within words. In an effort to promote phonological awareness, the teacher helps the student break down the word car.

What is the correct term for part of the word that comes after the initial consonant, ar?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 19

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

In order to prepare students to read about city government, the teacher organized a field trip to city hall and arranged a presentation by the city manager for the class. The teacher is developing

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 20

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A student has limited knowledge of letters, reads words from memory, and has no working knowledge of the alphabetic system. At which stage of word recognition is the student functioning?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 21

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A teacher gives the students the word unrestricted and asks them to define it using the familiar and meaningful parts in the word. The teacher is using a cueing strategy for decoding word meanings called morphemic analysis. Which of the following is also a cueing strategy for decoding word meanings?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 22

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A second-grade teacher helps students sort a written list of words that share a common sound into sets of words that use the same letter combination to represent that sound. For example, make and same are sorted into the "a_e" set; play and say are sorted into the "ay" set. This activity fosters both encoding and decoding skills in students primarily by

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 23

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A 4-year-old child sees a sign for a popular fast-food franchise. The child points to the sign and names the restaurant. This is an example of which of the following phases of word recognition?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 24

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which activity would be most beneficial for improving a student's structural analysis skills?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 25

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

After students read about how environment influences career choices, the teacher asks a comprehension question regarding a particular career. What would be an effective procedure for an incorrect student response to the question?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 26

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Before a teacher reads a content area text, which instructional approach for reading comprehension should occur?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 27

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

What instructional strategy is characterized by a teacher helping students comprehend texts by using surrounding words and sentences to define new words?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 28

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A teacher uses text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections to help students

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 29

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which of the following instructional strategies would increase a student’s metacognition when evaluating reading comprehension?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 30

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A teacher uses echo reading with a student who has difficultly reading fluently. This strategy is

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 31

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Students needing to improve their reading fluency should read from

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 32

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 3—Knowledge of reading foundational skills

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which of the following is an example of an appropriate strategy for teaching comprehension of complex literature and informational texts?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 33

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 4—Knowledge of language elements used for effective oral and written communication

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A second-grade student brainstorms a list of ideas and then identifies the topic the student is most interested in writing about. The student defines the purpose for writing, the audience, and what form the writing will take. The student's practices represent what stage of the writing process?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 34

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 4—Knowledge of language elements used for effective oral and written communication

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Strategies for facilitating the audience's comprehension include coming to discussions prepared, staying on topic, maintaining eye-contact, and

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 35

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 4—Knowledge of language elements used for effective oral and written communication

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which type of writing activity would be developmentally appropriate for most 5-year-old children?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 36

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 4—Knowledge of language elements used for effective oral and written communication

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A teacher assigns a writing activity that asks the students to tell about a recent event using action verbs, adjectives, and adverbs to create a picture in the reader’s mind. What genre of writing should the students use?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 37

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 4—Knowledge of language elements used for effective oral and written communication

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

Which of the following actions should a teacher take to help students improve report writing?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 38

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 4—Knowledge of language elements used for effective oral and written communication

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A student would like to make an oral presentation on popular American foods to a group of foreign exchange students who are visiting the class. About which of the following aspects of the culture of the guests would be most important for the student to know in order to deliver an appropriate and successful oral presentation?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 39

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 5—Knowledge of assessments to inform literacy instruction

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A second-grade teacher has been using a number of anecdotal records compiled over several weeks about an individual student. From the information, the teacher notes that the student is having trouble with subject-verb agreement and develops a set of remediation activities for that student. Which of the following responses is an example of another qualitative measure the teacher might use?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 40

Language Arts and Reading Subtest

Competency 5—Knowledge of assessments to inform literacy instruction

DIRECTIONS: Read the question and select the best response.

A teacher keeps samples of each student’s work during the school year to document progress. Which of the following is the most appropriate type of assessment for the teacher to use to display the student's work?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.