Chapter 15 Test Bank:
Facilitating Writing
Multiple Choice:
15.1 Donald Graves’ observations revealed that even young children go through an authoring process.
What are the steps of the authoring process?
a. post-writing, revising, and editing
b. prewriting, composing, and post-writing
c. drafting, editing, and publishing
d. revising, editing, and publishing
15.2 Even though the student-centered model promotes creativity, it is not without criticism. Which is
one of the cons associated with this model?
a. This model leads to discipline problems.
b. The student-centered model is primarily concerned with building social skills.
c. The student-centered model requires great amounts of teacher planning.
d. In the student-centered model, the teaching of skills is not intensive enough for students
with writing difficulties.
15.3 Which strategy can assist students in persuasive writing?
a. Criss Cross
b. Hide and Seek
c. providing feedback to peers
d. STOP and DARE
15.4 Which of the following would help a student with writing difficulties?
a. having a classmate check his writing for spelling and punctuation
b. having the teacher privately check his writing for mechanics
c. sharing his writing, with the focus being on his intended meaning
d. giving the student an unlimited amount of time to complete writing assignments
15.5 All of the following are steps in planning for writing, EXCEPT:
a. stating the purpose for writing
b. identifying the intended audience
c. deciding on a format
d. discussing the topic selection with another classmate
15.6 Fernando, a seventh grade student, has difficulty with sentence construction. Which strategy
would help him during the revision and editing phase?
a. SOK
b. TAG
c. TREE
d. PLEASE
15.7 Mrs. Miller’s fourth grade students often interrupted the student in the author’s chair to make
critical comments. Which strategy may help students provide constructive feedback to each
other?
a. TAG
b. MOK
c. SOK
d. PLEASE
15.8 Which of the following is true about student/teacher writing conferences?
a. Conferencing only occurs during the editing phase.
b. Writing conferences should be teacher-led.
c. During writing conferences, teachers should try to focus on only one or two specific
areas.
d. Constructive writing conferences usually last a minimum of 20 minutes.
15.9 In his writing, Gene represents all essential sound features of a word in spelling, develops
particular spellings for long and short vowels, and chooses letters on the basis of sound without
regard for English letter sequences or other conventions. In which stage of spelling development
is Gene?
a. correct
b. phonetic
c. transitional
d. semiphonetic
15.10 Even though Dan writes neatly and legibly, it takes him a very long time to write a few sentences.
Which strategy may help Dan write more quickly and easily?
a. timed writings
b. peer writings
c. TAG
d. Modeling
15.11 Larry, a third grader with writing difficulties, has illegible handwriting. His teacher is working
with him on his posture. Which of the following postures may help Larry’s handwriting become
more legible?
a. The back should be straight and leaning against the back of the chair. The feet should
rest on the floor and the right forearm should be resting on the desk.
b. The back should be straight and leaning against the back of the chair. The feet may be
crossed or resting on the floor. Elbows should be slightly extended making sure the
forearm used for writing is resting on the desk.
c. The hips should touch the back of the chair and the feet may be crossed or resting on the
floor. The torso leans forward slightly, making sure the forearm used for writing is
resting on the desk.
d. The hips should touch the back of the chair and the feet should rest on the floor. The
torso leans forward slightly with both forearms resting on the desk and elbows slightly
extended.
15.12 What is the most important goal of handwriting?
a. fluency
b. consistent spacing between letters
c. legibility
d. communication
15.13 Kate, a fifth grader of average intelligence, has difficulty with her mechanical writing skills.
What is the name of Kate’s disability?
a. dysgraphia
b. dyscalculia
c. dyslexia
d. dyslalia
15.14 You have a student who has fine motor problems when it comes writing and it often takes him a
long time to get information written down. You have decided to have this student use the
computer and keyboard so he can complete his work much more quickly. Although, a great
adaptation what is a possible drawback to the use of the computer and keyboard for students and
teachers?
a. Students cannot read the letters on the keyboard.
b. Students’ fingering cannot be monitored directly.
c. Students’ parents may be doing the work for them.
d. Students are too savvy with computers.
15.15 Response to intervention (RTI) continues to show nice gains academically for students who
struggle in the content and behavioral areas. RTI can also be effective in helping with writing.
Which of the following is a research-based practice that the Carnegie Corporation of New York
suggested to aid in writing instruction?
a. Students writing should be completed between other content areas.
b. Use writing as only a creative writing measure.
c. Teach students writing strategies that include planning, revising, and editing of their
compositions.
d. Teach students writing strategies that focus on the editing of their writing products.
15.16 When assessing writing each instructor may have a different idea of what is an acceptable writing
piece by his or her students. One way for all teachers to be more objective in scoring students’
writing is through the use of:
a. writing rubrics
a. writing portfolios
b. oral presentations of writing
c. holistic scoring
15.17 In your classroom you have decided to use writing portfolios. There are four common uses for
portfolios in the classroom. Which type would you be using if you decide to only include
artifacts over a period of time?
a. showcase portfolio
b. documentation portfolio
c. process portfolio
d. evaluation portfolio
15.18 In your classroom you are having students write often. While doing this if you are giving
students many opportunities to find personal meaning in what they write then you are using the:
a. teacher-centered model
b. student-centered model
c. eclectic writing model
d. standards-driven model
15.19 There are three components, if performed correctly, in the writing process. Which component of
the writing process is being addressed if the author is collecting information about his or her
chosen topic through interviewing, remembering information, observing, and reading?
a. publishing
b. editing
c. composing
d. prewriting
15.20 When planning what the student is going to write about which of the following is NOT one of the
three steps?
a. identifying the intended audience
b. state a purpose for writing
c. creating a population to write to
d. decide on a format
15.21 In your classroom you are having students write narratives. After having students write, you find
some are having problems with this type of writing. Which of the following is one of the types of
problems you might see in your students’ narrative writing?
a. lack of proper reference materials
b. lack of character development
c. lack of length of text
d. incomplete sentences throughout
15.22 Spelling instruction for students who struggle is always a concern in the classroom. Your
textbook reviews several spelling interventions studies and lists seven instructional practices
based on the finding from those studies. Which of these methods requires the student to compare
incorrectly spelled words with the correct spelling?
a. weekly list of words
b. unit size
c. peer tutoring
d. error imitation and modeling
Fill-in-the-Blank:
15.23 Writing like other content areas continues to change for students and teachers. Thinking about
this, two of the four current trends in writing curriculum and instruction include:
_______________________________________________ and
____________________________________________________________
15.24 As the reading curriculum coordinator for your school you have found the current practice of
holistic scoring to be overly subjective when assessing students written products. After reviewing
some other assessments for writing you found that ________________ and ________________
would be good alternatives as they provide structured assessments for writing and help students
and teacher gauge writing.
15.25 You are the teacher of a class of third graders and have decided to create a classroom newsletter.
All students will have an opportunity to serve as writers, editors, and publishers. In order to do
this the students need to understand the writing process which includes: ____________________,
____________________, and ____________________
15.26 In the planning stages of writing you are helping students to develop a plan for the topic they
intend to write about. In order to create the plan for writing students must include the three steps:
______________________________, _______________________________, and
_____________________________.
15.27 Identify the words in the writing process that best complete each definition in the phrases below:
The ________________ stage is to develop an initial draft to be refined later. The
__________________ is to make sure the meaning is clear and the message is understood by
others. _________________ means preparing a writing piece so others are able to read it.
15.28 You have been working with various writing styles with your junior high school students. One
style you have used is _________________ or story writing so your students can relate
experiences they have had or heard about. Another style you have used is _________________
writing, or informational writing which can be a problem for some students with writing
problems. The last one you used in class is ________________ writing to help develop your
students ability to create a complete story.
15.29 Writing instruction has changed just like other content areas. Describe and discuss three current
trends in writing instruction revealed in your text. Give examples of how you foresee these
trends affecting your teaching.
15.30 Writing is a complex process. Describe writing as an interactive process, strategic process, and as
an active attempt to convey meaning. Give examples of how students with learning and behavior
problems encounter difficulties with each of these processes.
15.31 Both the physical and social environment of the classroom must be considered when establishing
a writing community. In your classroom, you are trying to make writing a priority and do it
often with your students. Describe how you would establish a classroom with a social and
physical environment that promotes writing.
15.32 In your classroom you have decided to create a writing workshop where your students will create
and publish their own writing projects. Knowing this, what is the writing workshop? Describe
the steps of the writing workshop and list one strategy to assist students with writing difficulties
to succeed in each of these steps.
15.33 As a teacher you realize the importance of planning the lessons you teach. The same holds true in
writing. What are the steps involved in planning for writing? What are some of the problems
that students with writing difficulties have regarding planning? As a teacher, what are some
strategies you can use in your classroom to assist your students in planning for writing?
15.34 After creating a draft it is important for students to make needed revisions and edits to their work.
This may not be something the students see the need to do with their written work. What are the
purposes of revision and editing? Describe some of the difficulties students with disabilities may
have during revision and editing and include at least two strategies teachers can use to help
students effectively move through this step.
15.35 Describe the problems students may have when involved in narrative, expository, and essay
writing. Which strategies, suggested by the authors, to teach narrative, expository, and essay
writing?
15.36 Spelling is an important component of any language arts program. Knowing this, write an essay
describing effective spelling instruction. Include a comparison between traditional and current
trends in spelling instruction. In addition, your essay should discuss the following topics:
instruction, practice, word selection, monitoring progress, and at least five of the principles of
effective spelling instruction.
15.37 Handwriting seems to be a dying art in the world because of the computer age. However, in the
classroom teaching handwriting is an essential part of the curriculum. There is an ongoing debate
about whether students should be taught cursive or manuscript handwriting. Discuss the pros and
cons of each type of handwriting instruction. What is you r opinion about the manuscript vs.
cursive controversy?
15.38 Discuss the principles of effective handwriting instruction. Describe two areas of difficulty
students with disabilities experience with handwriting and some of the strategies teachers can use
to assist them with these difficulties.
CHAPTER 15
