Practice Test ParaPro Assessment
Educational Testing Service
2003
District: na
State: na

The questions on this test required of professionals to keep their jobs raise an important issue: Is it the appropriate role of a paraprofessional to teach reading strategies?

Questions 1-2 are baed on the following passage, which students are reading in class.

Spectacles with concave lenses to correct for myopia were first made in the fifteenth century. Because they corrected foro poor distance vision, in an era when most eyeglasses were used for reading, they were considered less essential for pursuits of the mind and consequently were rarer and more costly than convex lenses.

1. A student is having trouble understanding the word “myopia.” What would be an effective strategy a paraprofessional could use to help the student understand the word?

a) Explain that it is OK to skip a word or two when reading a difficult passage.

b) Ask the student to come up with a list of words that rhyme with “myopia.”

c? Suggest that the student reread the second sentence to find clues about the meaning of “myopia.”

d) Suggest that the student examine the root of the word “myopia” to determine its meaning.

2. The paraprofessional asks the students to summarize the main idea of the passage. Which response from the students is most accurate?

a) Concave lenses and convex lenses are made the same way today as they were in the fifteenth century.

b) In the fifteenth century spectacles with concave lenses were used less often than spectacles with convex lenses.

c) Eyeglasses used for reading can have either concave or convex lenses.

D) Eyeglasses were very costly in the fifteenth century.