PECT PreK-4 Practice Test Vocabulary

Vocabulary terms, acronyms, and foundational concepts defined throughout the PreK–4 Pennsylvania Educator Certification Tests (PECT) practice test modules.

ADHD

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

ESL

English as a second language.

IEP

Individualized Education Program.

IDEA

Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act.

USDA

United States Department of Agriculture.

Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

An educational theory that focuses primarily on the various ways in which children think and learn.

Two-Word Utterances

A typical language development milestone that children most often begin using between the ages of $18$ to $24$\,\text{months}.

Scaffolding

A technique used to foster cognitive development where a teacher helps students acquire knowledge and skills they could not acquire on their own by using prompts, giving suggestions, providing feedback, and modeling activities.

Formative Assessment

An essential assessment process that involves monitoring and adjusting a teaching strategy during the learning process based on individual student progress.

Assessment Anchors

Components of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) that clarify the standards assessed on the PSSA to support students' learning of essential skills and knowledge.

ELPS

Pennsylvania's Language Proficiency Standards for English Language Learners PreK–12, used to identify required supports and ensure the language function of assessments is appropriate for an ELL's proficiency level.

Language Experience Approach

An instructional approach where a student dictates a story based on personal experience to the teacher who writes it verbatim, helping the student make connections between oral and written English.

Silent Period

A stage in second-language acquisition during which learners produce very little oral language as they are exposed to natural English in meaningful contexts.

Family Systems Theory

A framework based on the central principle that individual family members are mutually influenced by and dependent on one another.

Sound Boxes

A multisensory intervention procedure where a student places tokens into drawn boxes while slowly saying the sounds in a word to improve the ability to segment words into phonemes.

Unit Iteration

A measurement concept demonstrated when a student measures length by repeatedly placing a smaller unit or block end-to-end along a longer object.

Discrepant Event

A teaching strategy that introduces a concept using a demonstration with an unexpected result to surprise students and stimulate interest in inquiry.

Cultural Diffusion and Interdependence

Social studies concepts used in instruction to broaden students' understanding of global connections.