CALT CALT Reading Fluency and Decoding Development 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: According to Chall's Stages of Reading Development, which stage is characterized by 'learning to read' through decoding and sight word instruction?
- Stage 0 – Pre-reading
- Stage 1 – Initial Reading and Decoding (Correct answer)
- Stage 2 – Confirmation and Fluency
- Stage 3 – Reading for Learning the New
Correct answer: Stage 1 – Initial Reading and Decoding
Chall's Stage 1 (Initial Reading and Decoding) spans roughly grades 1–2 and focuses on connecting letters to sounds and building a basic sight word bank.
Question 2: Automaticity in word recognition, as described by LaBerge and Samuels, is important because it:
- Ensures students sound out every word carefully
- Frees cognitive resources for comprehension by reducing the mental effort required to decode words (Correct answer)
- Replaces the need for phonological awareness instruction
- Is only necessary for advanced readers above grade 4
Correct answer: Frees cognitive resources for comprehension by reducing the mental effort required to decode words
Automaticity allows decoding to occur with minimal cognitive effort, freeing working memory capacity for the higher-level process of comprehension.
Question 3: A CALT assessing reading fluency would primarily evaluate which three components?
- Accuracy, rate, and prosody (Correct answer)
- Rate, comprehension, and spelling
- Accuracy, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary
- Prosody, morphology, and syntax
Correct answer: Accuracy, rate, and prosody
Reading fluency is defined by the National Reading Panel as comprising accuracy, rate (speed), and prosody (expressive, meaningful reading).
Question 4: Which reading fluency intervention has the strongest research support for students with dyslexia?
- Silent sustained reading
- Round robin reading in groups
- Repeated oral reading with corrective feedback (Correct answer)
- Listening to audiobooks without print
Correct answer: Repeated oral reading with corrective feedback
Repeated oral reading with immediate corrective feedback is the most evidence-based fluency intervention, improving accuracy, rate, and prosody for struggling readers.
Question 5: The Orton-Gillingham approach introduces phonogram cards to build automaticity in phoneme-grapheme correspondences. This directly targets which component of fluency?
- Prosody
- Comprehension monitoring
- Accuracy at the phoneme and grapheme level (Correct answer)
- Oral language expression
Correct answer: Accuracy at the phoneme and grapheme level
Phonogram card drills build automatic, accurate mapping of sounds to letters, which is the foundation of accurate decoding essential to reading fluency.
Question 6: Oral reading fluency (ORF) norms are typically expressed as:
- Number of sight words known per minute
- Words correct per minute (WCPM) by grade level (Correct answer)
- Percentage of words decoded using phonics rules
- Reading level equivalent scores
Correct answer: Words correct per minute (WCPM) by grade level
ORF is measured in words correct per minute (WCPM), and grade-level norms provide benchmarks for determining whether a student's fluency is on track.
CALT CALT Reading Fluency and Decoding Development 1
According to Chall's Stages of Reading Development, which stage is characterized by 'learning to read' through decoding and sight word instruction?