TEXES Science of Teaching Reading Practice Test

The selection of relative pronouns as the correct answer highlights their specific grammatical role in connecting clauses within sentences. Relative pronouns, such as "who," "whom," "whose," "which," and "that," are employed to introduce relative clauses, allowing for additional information to be provided about a noun in the main clause. In Ms. Thompson's lesson, the focus on these words indicates that she is helping students understand how they function to create complex sentences and clarify relationships between different parts of the sentence.

In contrast, prepositions serve to indicate relationships between nouns and other elements in a sentence but do not introduce relative clauses. Adjectives describe nouns and may work syntactically differently from relative pronouns, while conjunctions join words or groups of words but do not specifically refer to the relationship between a noun and the phrase that qualifies or describes it. Thus, understanding that relative pronouns are explicitly involved in linking clauses makes them the appropriate reference point within the context of the lesson.