Correct Response: B. Option B is correct because accurate, fluent reading at the first-grade level depends on mastering basic decoding skills. Evidence indicates that teachers can support students' development of accurate decoding skills most effectively by promoting students' phonics knowledge and skills explicitly and systematically. In addition, teaching students the common English syllable types reinforces their phonics knowledge and builds orthographic knowledge that will support their accurate decoding of unfamiliar words they encounter in grade-level, decodable texts. Meanwhile, providing students with explicit instruction in common inflectional endings as part of phonics instruction expands their word-reading ability and allows them to read a greater range of decodable texts with accuracy and comprehension. Options A and C are incorrect because teaching students to rely on context clues for word identification (A) and teaching students to memorize words (C) do not contribute to students' development of phonics skills or orthographic knowledge, which are needed to support the development of accurate, automatic decoding. Accurate, automatic decoding is prerequisite for developing reading fluency that is sufficient to support reading comprehension. Option D is incorrect because guessing words based on incomplete decoding and partial letter-sound information would result in many word-reading errors. This would not support development of oral reading fluency or reading comprehension.
