WGU C909 OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT EXAM 2024-2025
ACTUAL EXAM 300 QUESTIONS AND CORRECT DETAILED
ANSWERS WITH RATIONALES
Cognitive-constructivist view of reading - Aim to assist students in assimilating new
information to existing knowledge, as well as enabling them to make the appropriate
accommodations to their existing intellectual framework to accommodate that
information. Ex. Because of Winn-Dixie; from her inference, and active knowledge of the
text says that people who have things in common often become friends.
Socio-cultural theory/Ex. - Extends the influence on the cognitive-constructivist view out
from the reader and the text into the larger social realm. Learning is viewed as social
rather than individual. -Lev Vygotsky Ex. Understanding the zone of proximal
development can be helpful for teachers.
In classroom settings, teachers may first assess students to determine their current skill
level. Educators can then offer instruction that stretches the limits of each child's
capabilities.
At first, the student may need assistance from an adult or a more knowledgeable peer,
but eventually, their zone of proximal development will expand. Teachers can help
promote this expansion by:
Planning and organizing their instruction and lessons: For example, the teacher might
organize the class into groups where less skilled children are paired with students who
have a higher skill level.
Using hints, prompts, and direct instruction to help kids improve their ability levels.
Scaffolding, where the teacher provides specific prompts to move the child
progressively forward toward a goal.
Reader Response Theory - The main argument of reader-response theory is that
readers, as much as the text, play an active role in a reading experience (Rosenblatt,
1994). This theory rejects the structuralist view that meaning resides solely in the text.
Words in a text evoke images in readers' minds and readers bring their experiences to
this encounter.
Constructivist Theory - A philosophy based on the premise that people construct their
own understanding of the world they live in through reflection on experiences.
Constructivist Theory in Practice - For example: Groups of students in a science class
are discussing a problem in physics. Though the teacher knows the "answer" to the
problem, she focuses on helping students restate their questions in useful ways. She
prompts each student to reflect on and examine his or her current knowledge. When
one of the students comes up with the relevant concept, the teacher seizes upon it, and
indicates to the group that this might be a fruitful avenue for them to explore. They
,design and perform relevant experiments. Afterward, the students and teacher talk
about what they have learned, and how their observations and experiments helped (or
did not help) them to better understand the concept.
Experiential Learning - As the name suggests, experiential learning involves learning
from experience. The theory was proposed by psychologist David Kolb who was
influenced by the work of other theorists including John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean
Piaget
Oral Language Development - The complex system that relates sounds to meanings, is
made of three components: phonological, (rules for combining sounds) semantic, (the
smallest units of meaning that may be combined to make up words) and syntactic (the
rules that combine morphemes into sentences). Reading and talking with children plays
an important role in developing their vocabulary. The more you talk to children, the
larger their vocabulary will develop. Note: Pragmatic is also the rules that allow us to
speak appropriately in different settings
What are the stages of writing development? - Scribbling/drawing
Letter like forms and shapes
Letters
Letters and spaces
Conventional writing and spelling (children in this stage spell most words correctly with
a reliance on knowledge of phonics to spell longer words, they can punctuate, can
properly use capital and lower case letters. Writing different purposes is important,
handwriting and spelling becomes easier.
What are stages of reading development - Early Emergent
Emergent (understands alphabet, phonological awareness and knows phonics, have
command of high frequency words, developing comprehension and word attack skills,
recognize types of texts, non-fiction and fiction, and that reading has a variety of
purposes).
Early Fluent
Fluent
What are the stages of the alphabetic phase - The written forms of spoken, alphabetic
language languages which use letters (graphemes) in a code to represent the sounds of
speech (phonemes) specific sequences of letters form words, this is the alphabetic
principle. If we obeyed this principle we wouldn't have words like to, too, and two.
Gradual release of responsibility - Teaching approach that incorporates scaffolding
(building on what the student already knows) so that the responsibility for the content is
shifted from teacher to student.
Strategies for vocabulary/literacy development - Integration: connecting new vocabulary
to prior knowledge
,Repetition: encountering/using the word concept many times
Meaningful use: multiple opportunities to use new words in reading, writing, and soon
discussion
Reading Workshop (Balanced Literacy Framework) - Shared: (teacher provides explicit
comprehensive instruction, everyone in the class reads a projected book, as teacher
moves pointer along screen)
Guided: (teacher with small groups who read at similar levels, use benchmark books to
determine student's level of reading, includes of a variety of genres including fiction and
non-fiction)
Independent: (Students read from class library or leveled books, these are of personal
interest and include a wide variety, with Raz-Plus, you can read ebooks.)
Writing Workshops (Balanced Literacy Framework) - Shared/Interactive: (teacher and
children compose message/story using a shared pen)
Guided: (teacher directed lesson and then student writes as teacher confers with the
student guiding the student's writing development, A-Z members have access to a
variety of writing lessons and genres)
Independent: (students write their own stories both narrative and informational)
Word Work (Balanced Literacy Framework) Students working with words so they can
become more fluent readers - Phonemic awareness and Phonics: (Helps young
students to learn letter sound relationships, words broken into parts based on individual
speech sounds known as phonemes, and this phonemic awareness helps students to
sound out and spell words. Helps students to notice, differentiate, think about, and
manipulate sounds during effective phonological awareness instruction.)
High frequency words and vocabulary: (Building on a foundation of word knowledge by
emphasizing word structure and vocabulary, extends vocabulary and helps student
apply it in the context of reading, students use A-Z high frequency words and
vocabulary lesson plans.
High frequency words (Balance Literacy Framework) - Most commonly used words in
printed text, over 50% of all text is composed of them.
Vocabulary (Balanced Literacy Framework) - A large vocabulary opens students up to a
wider range of reading materials, it also students' ability to communicate through
speaking, listening, and writing.
Read aloud/Modeling reading (Balanced Literacy Framework) - Teacher reads aloud to
the whole class or small group
, Reading Skills taught within the Balanced Literacy Framework - Concepts of Print:
(Showing students the features of written language, shows how words and letter are
used and text is organized.
Phonological/phonemic awareness: (spoken language can be broken down into smaller
units, sentences into words, words into syllables, and syllables into phonemes, it
encompasses oral language skills, such as rhyming, alliteration, sentence
segmentation, syllable blending, and segmenting, phoneme blending, and segmenting,
provides foundational skills for understanding the relationship between letters, and
phonemes)
Phonics: (the study of the relationship between the sounds (phonemes) and the letters
they represent, how to blend sounds together to produce words, how to use those
sounds to decode words while reading)
Fluency: (ability to read text quickly, accurately, with proper expression; Activities that
improve fluency: echo, choral, audio-assisted, partner, decodable text, time repeated
readings)
Vocabulary: (Pronunciation and meanings of words necessary for communication,
includes oral (listening/receptive and speaking/expressive) and print (reading and
writing)
Comprehension: (ability to gain understanding and meaning from text, interaction
between reader and text, reading ability and vocabulary effect comprehension)
Code/Decoding - The code is the systematic use of symbols, in reading the symbols are
letters and punctuation, the system is the spelling and the syntax of the language, so
decoding is turning the written symbols into language
Phases of Decoding - Pre-alphabetic
Partial alphabetic
Full alphabetic
Consolidated alphabetic
Automatic
Decoding - For below level readers: (improves word recognition, spelling, and
comprehension)
For students who struggle with fluency: (being able to decode words effortlessly allows
students to concentrate on comprehending what they read)
Phoneme - Smallest unit of sound in our spoken language (pronouncing cat involves 3
phonemes: k/ae/t
