Correct Response: A. The students' profile in the scenario aligns with characteristics of students beginning to transition to the partial-alphabetic phase of word-reading development. Children in the pre-alphabetic phase can track and identify words in predictable text with rehearsal and have learned some high-frequency words by sight, as described in the first and fourth bullets. However, as children transition to the partial-alphabetic phase, they are beginning to make connections between their growing phonemic awareness and knowledge of letter-sound correspondences, so they begin to use some letter sounds to read and write words, usually focusing on the first letter sound in a word. The students in the scenario demonstrate these behaviors in the second, third, and fifth bullets. Option B is incorrect because the students do not attend to all the letter sounds in words, a key characteristic of the full-alphabetic phase. Since the students do not demonstrate behaviors characteristic of the full-alphabetic phase, they cannot possibly have the skills necessary to begin transitioning to more advanced phases (Options C and D).
