This section of our ParaPro Study Guide examines the classroom skills that you will need to demonstrate on the ParaPro exam. To best help develop the skills your students will use in the classroom, you must have your own solid foundation of semantics and reading strategies.
Sounding Out Words
Some questions on the reading exam will revolve around phonics (teaching reading and writing to beginners) and your ability to help a student “sound out” a word.
A student must be able to recognize long and short vowel sounds. A long vowel will sound like the “name” of the letter, as though you are just saying the letter A, E, I, O, or U. A short vowel will not sound like the letter itself.
For example, in the word “hat,” the “a” has a short vowel sound. In the word “hate,” the “a” has a long vowel sound.
As a general rule, vowels that are between consonants in three-letter words are going to have short vowel sounds.
Example 1
Which of the following words has a long vowel sound?
- bet
- hot
- bite
- step
In all the examples but option (C), the vowel is surrounded by consonants and has a short vowel sound. The long “i” sound is used in the word “bite.”
Knowing vowel sounds and consonant rules can also help you with questions concerning rhymes. Many students may make mistakes when trying to rhyme two words because they don’t recognize a long or short vowel.
Example 2
The boy broke his ankle and had to be placed in a boot for support.
Which word rhymes with boot?
- flute
- hot
- pot
- date
Option (A) is correct. “Hot” and “pot” have short “O” sounds while “date” has a long “A” sound. The “U” in “flute” has the same sound as the pair of “O”s in “boot.”
Breaking Down Words into Parts
Many words are made of multiple building blocks. Prefixes, suffixes, and root words can all change the meaning of a word or provide clues to help you define a word.
For example, consider the word “disassemble.” If you know that “assemble” means put something together, and you’ve seen the prefix “dis-” mean not or opposite of in another word, you can figure out that “disassemble” means to do the opposite of assemble, or to take apart.
The root word is the word that prefixes and suffixes can be added onto. Let’s use “root” itself as an example! “Root” can stand alone as-is, or we can add prefixes and suffixes to change the meaning, such as in “uprooted.” The root word is still “root,” but now we’ve altered the meaning with the prefix “up-” and the suffix “-ed.”
Here are some common prefixes to be aware of:
- “Dis-” = Not or opposite of
- “Over-” = Too much
- “Anti-” = Against something or opposed
- “Inter-” = Between
- “Mid-” = In the middle of
- “Post-” = After
- “Re-” = To do again
- “Un-” = Remove or reverse
Here are some common suffixes to be aware of:
- “-ify” = To make or become (i.e. justify means to make right)
- “-able”/“-ible” = Capable of being (i.e. edible means capable of being eaten)
- “-ism” = Doctrine or belief (i.e. pacifism means belief in peace)
- “-ship” = Position held (i.e. ownership means holding possession)
- “-tion” = State of being (i.e. opposition means one’s being against something)
- “-ate”/”-en” = To become (i.e. Regulate means to become under the control of authority; enlighten means to become educated on something)
There are many more, and the more prefixes and suffixes you know, the more definitions you can unlock.
Example 3
Knowing the prefix “sub-” means below, what is the best definition for the word “subterranean”?
- discolored or disjointed
- lying or operating underneath the earth
- an unusual being from outside of the planet
- extremely powerful or potent
The best answer is (B). We know “-terranean” refers to the earth, as the root is seen in words like “terrain.” To be underneath the earth is to be below it, which is what the prefix “sub-” means, as the question tells us.
Words can also be compound words, which is when two words join together to make one. Common compound words include “toothbrush,” “keyboard,” “daydream,” and “eyeball.”
The ParaPro exam may provide a sentence or passage and ask you to determine which of the options given is a compound word. Always ask yourself when looking at each option, “Are there two words next to each other within this word?”
Example 4
One of my favorite activities to do on the weekends is going to the movies. I enjoy relaxing, eating popcorn, and having my favorite soda. Sometimes I just go by myself so I won’t be distracted by my friends.
Students are learning about basic compound words (words that are made up of two words joined together). Which of the following is a compound word from the passage?
- activities
- popcorn
- favorite
- distracted
The correct answer is (B). “Pop” and “corn” make up the word popcorn, making this a compound word. “Weekends” is also a compound word, but it is not an answer option. The other options don’t take two words and combine them into one.
Decoding Words and Phrases Using Context Clues
Now that we have broken down words into their parts, we can evaluate how they are used in context. In the Words in Context section of our ParaPro Study Guide, we learned how to leverage context clues. Now, we can leverage those strategies to discern the meaning of part of a word: its root, prefix, or suffix.
Example 5
Before he passed away, President George H. W. Bush wrote an autobiography detailing his own life in the Oval Office.
In the sentence above, what would be the best meaning of the prefix “auto-”?
- of the self or from within
- against or opposite
- to be in the middle
- to remove
The best answer is option (A). Even if we don’t know what “autobiography” means, by looking at the context clues, we can figure out the meaning of “auto-.” If George Bush wrote something where he details his own life, it means he’s writing about himself. We know a biography is a nonfiction work about a person’s life, so an autobiography must be a self-written text about the author’s own life. This means that, of the four options, option (A) makes the most sense; it’s a “self-biography” or a biography that came from “within” the author himself.
Distinguishing Between Synonyms, Antonyms, and Homonyms
It’s important to know the difference between synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms.
Synonyms are words that share a meaning, such as help and assist.
Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings, such as dark and light.
Homonyms are words that look or sound the same but have different meanings. There are two types of homonyms:
- Homophones sound the same but mean different things, like to, two, and too. You can remember that homophones are the homonyms that sound the same because the word ends in phone, which is, of course, an object that you hear through.
- Homographs are words that are spelled the same but mean different things, like bow (which can be part of a ship, an accessory, a motion that someone makes after a performance, or an object used to shoot arrows). Just as you look at a graph, which will always have the same general structure, you look at homographs to see that they are spelled the same.
Many students are familiar with antonyms and synonyms but are not familiar with homonyms. Before taking the ParaPro exam, make sure you can come up with examples of all of the above. If you can think of examples yourself, you can identify examples in a passage.
Example 6
Students are working in pairs and thinking of synonyms. Which of the following is a pair of synonyms?
- bravery and cowardice
- break and brake
- rose (noun) and rose (verb)
- bossy and controlling
The correct answer is option (D). Being “bossy” is the same thing as being “controlling,” making them synonyms. “Bravery” and “cowardice” are opposites, making them antonyms. The other answers are homonyms, with “break” and “brake” being homophones and “rose” and “rose” being homographs, one word referring to a flower and one word the past-tense form of “rise.”
Test administrators may also present a question in the opposite way, providing words in a sentence and asking you to determine their relationship.
Example 7
My favorite time of year is spring. I spring out of bed every day and watch our flowers bloom outside.
Spring and spring in the sentences above are examples of:
- synonyms
- homonyms
- antonyms
- acronyms
Option (B) is the correct answer. These are homonyms, as they have the same sound but different meanings.
Alphabetizing Words
Putting words in alphabetical order may sound easy to some students, as they think to themselves, “I know the alphabet.” However, the easier something may seem, the less attention they may pay and the more a question can trick them. As the ParaPro, it’s important for you to know proper alphabetization so you can support a student working on alphabetization.
When alphabetizing words:
- Don’t be caught off guard by two-word answer options. For example, if you’re asked to alphabetize West Virginia and Wyoming, you are still comparing the first letters, “We” and “Wy.” Disregard any spaces in the words.
- Use scratch paper if you need to. You may be asked to alphabetize words like “except”, “excel,” and “excite,” where the first few letters are the same. Write these words out and cross out each letter that they all share, moving from left to right until you reach the first different letter. In this case, it would be the fourth letter.
- Be aware of abbreviation rules. Abbreviations like “Dr.”, “Mr.”, and “St.” should be treated as though they’re spelled out. “Dr.” should be read as “Doctor” and “Mr.” should be read as “Mister.”
- If you come across numbers, be aware that numbers should always listed before letters.
Example 8
Students are given a list of words to alphabetize. Which of the following sequences is alphabetized correctly?
- accent, accept, accelerate, access
- accelerate, accept, access, accent
- accelerate, accent, accept, access
- accent, accelerate, access, accept
This example might make your head spin. The easiest way to break this down is to write the words on scratch paper with one on top of the other. Then, you can eliminate “ACCE” at the beginning of each word and only compare the fifth letter. These letters are all different. Option (C) organizes the fifth letters in the order L-N-P-S, which is the correct alphabetical order.
Sometimes, only a few words will begin with the same letters, and others don’t line up as well.
Example 9
Which sequence below is alphabetized correctly?
- accelerate, accent, academy, accost
- academy, accelerate, accent, accost
- academy, accelerate, accost, accent
- accelerate, accent, accost, academy
Unlike in Example 8, here you have some words with the same first five letters, some of which diverge after two, and another which diverges after three. The correct answer is (B), with “Aca” coming before “Acc.” With “accelerate” and “accent,” just like the first example, “l” comes before the “n.” However, the fourth letter in “accost” comes after the “e” in accelerate and accent, placing that word last.
You now know the reading topics you will need to provide in-classroom assistance with as a ParaPro, as well as how to answer questions on word pronunciation, categorization, and alphabetization. Use the brief review quiz below to test your classroom skills!