Correct Response: B. Option B is correct because this strategy provides students with extensive practice focused on accurately encoding and decoding the newly learned orthographic patterns in word context. Evidence indicates that such practice strengthens the orthographic representation of the words in the students' mental lexicon and helps build automatic word recognition or automaticity, the ability to recognize words without conscious effort. Evidence also suggests that once new orthographic knowledge develops, a reader can more readily apply it to unfamiliar words in context. Option A is incorrect because evidence does not support implicit instruction as an effective method to achieve automatic word recognition. In addition, implicit instruction would not provide students with enough practice to develop automaticity. Option C is incorrect because scientific evidence indicates that this strategy, also known as the three-cueing systems, is the way poor readers attempt to read unfamiliar words in print; whereas, proficient readers use decoding to identify unfamiliar words. In addition, emphasizing context clues as a word-identification strategy distracts students from attending to the words' orthographic forms, which is necessary for developing automatic word recognition. The process of decoding or sounding out words is essential to a reader's acquisition of new orthographic knowledge, and the development of automaticity is essential for achieving sufficient fluency to support reading comprehension. Option D is incorrect because the strategy does not directly facilitate the decoding and encoding processes necessary for applying orthographic knowledge automatically.
