TExES Core Subjects EC-6 (391) Flashcards

English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR)

• Oral Language & Linguistics Foundations:
  • Oral language: The process of using speaking and listening to communicate.
  • Phonology: The study of sounds in language.
  • Semantics: The study of the meaning of words and sentences.
  • Syntax: The rules for putting words together into sentences.
  • Pragmatics: Using language appropriately in different social situations.
• Word Analysis, Morphology, & Phonics:
  • Phonics: Connecting letters and letter patterns to their corresponding sounds.
  • Root word: The main word part that carries core meaning.
  • Prefix: A word part added to the beginning of a word that changes its meaning.
  • Suffix: A word part added to the end of a word that changes its meaning or grammatical form.
  • Morphological analysis: Using knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, and root words to understand or decode unfamiliar words.
  • Context clues: Hints found in nearby words or sentences that help explain an unfamiliar word.
  • Homophones: Words that sound identical to another word but have different meanings and spellings, such as their and there.
  • Homographs: Words spelled the same as another word but having different meanings, such as bat.
• Reading Fluency:
  • Definition: Reading text accurately, at an appropriate rate, and with proper expression.
  • Three main components: Accuracy, rate, and prosody.
  • Prosody: Reading with appropriate expression, rhythm, and phrasing.
  • Importance: Fluency allows students to focus cognitive energy on understanding the text instead of struggling to read every individual word.
• Reading Comprehension & Metacognition:
  • Reading comprehension: Understanding and making meaning from what is read.
  • Literal comprehension: Understanding information that is directly stated in the text.
  • Inferential comprehension: Using textual clues and prior knowledge to figure out information that is not directly stated.
  • Evaluative comprehension: Analyzing and judging ideas, arguments, or choices made within a text.
  • Metacognition: Thinking about and actively monitoring one's own thinking and learning processes.
  • Before-reading strategies: Previewing the text, activating prior knowledge, setting a clear purpose, and making predictions.
  • During-reading strategies: Asking questions, visualizing, monitoring understanding, and rereading when confused.
  • After-reading strategies: Summarizing, discussing, analyzing, and making connections.
• Text Structure, Narrative Elements, & Vocabulary Instruction:
  • Main idea: The most important point that a text is mostly about.
  • Theme: The deeper message, lesson, or moral of a story.
  • Summary: A short explanation covering the most important ideas in a text.
  • Explicit vocabulary instruction: Directly teaching specific word meanings and instructing students on how to use those words.
  • Vocabulary instruction best practices: Utilizing context, analyzing word parts, providing clear examples, and offering repeated opportunities for students to use the word.
• Research Skills & Source Evaluation:
  • Primary source: An original source or document created during the time period or by the person being studied, such as a diary or photograph.
  • Secondary source: A source that explains, discusses, or analyzes an event using other primary or secondary sources, such as a textbook.
  • Credible source: A trustworthy source containing accurate information supported by reliable evidence.
  • Paraphrasing: Restating information in one's own words while maintaining the original meaning.
  • Plagiarism: Using someone else's words or ideas without giving proper credit.
• The Writing Process & Literacy Assessment:
  • Five stages of the writing process:
  • Prewriting: Planning and organizing ideas before beginning to write.
  • Drafting: Writing the initial version of a text.
  • Revising: Improving ideas, organization, supporting details, and clarity.
  • Editing: Correcting technical mistakes in grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
  • Publishing: Preparing and sharing a finished piece of writing.
  • Distinguishing revising from editing: Revising improves the conceptual ideas and clarity, whereas editing fixes mechanical writing mistakes.
  • Reading levels:
  • Independent reading level: Text a student can read successfully with little or no assistance.
  • Instructional reading level: Text a student can read successfully with appropriate teacher support.
  • Frustration reading level: Text that is too difficult for a student to read successfully at that time.
  • Instructional responses to assessment:
  • Addressing reading error patterns: Provide focused, explicit instruction targeting the specific skill the student lacks.
  • Exit tickets: Briefly check student understanding at the end of a lesson to inform and plan the subsequent lesson.
  • Formative assessment: Assessment conducted during learning to help teachers adjust ongoing instruction.
  • Summative assessment: Assessment conducted after instruction to evaluate what students learned.

Mathematics

• Pedagogical Approaches & Fundamentals:
  • Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) approach: Teaching concepts starting with real objects (concrete), moving to pictures or visual models (representational), and concluding with numbers and symbols (abstract).
  • Manipulatives: Physical tools that help students see, manipulate, and understand mathematical ideas.
  • Place value: The numerical value of a digit based on its specific position in a number.
  • Rounding: Replacing a number with a nearby, simpler number that is easier to use.
  • Estimation: Finding a reasonable approximate answer for a calculation.
• Number Theory & Operations:
  • Factor: A whole number that divides evenly into another whole number.
  • Multiple: A number obtained by multiplying a given whole number by any whole number.
  • Prime number: A whole number greater than $1$ that has exactly two factors: $1$ and itself.
  • Composite number: A whole number greater than $1$ that has more than two factors.
  • Greatest Common Factor (GCF): The largest factor shared by two or more numbers.
  • Equivalent fractions: Fractions that represent the same value or amount as one another.
  • Standard conversions:
  • Fraction $\frac{1}{2}$ is equal to decimal $0.5$ and percentage $50\%$
  • Fraction $\frac{1}{4}$ is equal to decimal $0.25$ and percentage $25\%$
  • Fraction $\frac{3}{4}$ is equal to decimal $0.75$ and percentage $75\%$
  • Fraction Operations:
  • Adding fractions with unlike denominators: Find a common denominator, convert the numerators, add the numerators, and simplify if needed.
  • Multiplying fractions: Multiply numerator by numerator, and multiply denominator by denominator.
  • Dividing fractions: Multiply the first fraction by the reciprocal of the second fraction.
• Ratios, Algebra, & Functional Relationships:
  • Ratio: A comparison of two quantities.
  • Proportion: An equation stating that two ratios are equal.
  • Percent: A number or ratio expressed as a fraction out of $100$
  • Variable: A letter or symbol representing an unknown or changing number.
  • Expression: A mathematical combination of numbers, symbols, or variables without an equal sign.
  • Equation: A mathematical statement demonstrating that two expressions are equal.
  • Inequality: A mathematical statement comparing values using comparison symbols such as greater than ($>$) or less than ($<$).
  • Pattern: A ordered sequence that follows a specific rule.
  • Linear relationship: A mathematical relationship that changes at a constant rate.
• Geometry & Measurement:
  • Perimeter: The total distance around the outside edge of a shape.
  • Area: The amount of two-dimensional space inside a flat shape.
  • Volume: The amount of three-dimensional space inside an object.
  • Geometry Formulas:
  • Area of a rectangle: $\text{Area} = \text{length} \times \text{width}$
  • Area of a triangle: $\text{Area} = \frac{1}{2} \times \text{base} \times \text{height}$
  • Volume of a rectangular prism: $\text{Volume} = \text{length} \times \text{width} \times \text{height}$
  • Geometric Angles & Lines:
  • Right angle: An angle measuring exactly $90^\circ$
  • Parallel lines: Lines situated in the same plane that never intersect.
  • Perpendicular lines: Lines that intersect one another to form right angles ($90^\circ$).
  • Geometric Transformations:
  • Translation: Sliding a figure to a new position without turning or flipping it.
  • Rotation: Turning a figure around a fixed point.
  • Reflection: Flipping a figure across a line of reflection.
  • Congruent: Figures that possess the exact same shape and the exact same size.
  • Coordinate Systems:
  • Coordinate plane: A grid system used to locate points defined by ordered pairs.
  • Ordered pair: Two numbers written in the form $(x, y)$ showing a point's horizontal and vertical coordinates.
• Data Analysis, Statistics, & Probability:
  • Mean: The sum of all values divided by the total count of values.
  • Median: The middle value when a set of numbers is arranged in numerical order.
  • Mode: The value that appears most frequently in a data set.
  • Range: The difference calculated by subtracting the smallest value from the largest value.
  • Probability: A measure quantifying how likely an event is to occur.
  • Simple probability formula: $\text{Probability} = \frac{\text{Favorable Outcomes}}{\text{Total Possible Outcomes}}$
  • Sample space: A comprehensive list or set containing all possible outcomes of an event.
• Financial Literacy & Pedagogical Interventions:
  • Budget: A financial plan outlining how money will be earned, spent, and saved.
  • Gross income: Total income earned before any taxes or deductions are subtracted.
  • Net income: Income remaining after all deductions and taxes have been subtracted.
  • Fixed expense: A cost that remains constant over time, such as rent.
  • Variable expense: A cost that fluctuates or changes, such as groceries.
  • Profit: The total money remaining after subtracting costs from revenue ($\text{Profit} = \text{Earnings} - \text{Costs}$).
  • Response to repetitive math errors: Analyze student misconceptions directly and reteach the concept using a concrete or visual model.
  • Post-problem-solving step: Have students check whether their answer is reasonable and explain their mathematical reasoning.

Social Studies

• Historical Concepts & United States/Texas History:
  • Chronology: Arranging events in the order of their occurrence.
  • Cause: The underlying reason or stimulus behind an event.
  • Effect: The result, outcome, or consequence of an action or event.
  • Primary historical source: An original record, artifact, or document created directly during the era under study.
  • Secondary historical source: A secondary analysis or interpretation written after an event using primary or secondary evidence.
  • European colonization: The historical process of European powers establishing settlements and extending governance over distant lands.
  • American Revolution: The military and political struggle in which American colonies broke away from and gained independence from Great Britain.
  • Declaration of Independence: The official document detailing why the American colonies severed political ties with Great Britain.
  • U.S. Constitution: The foundational document establishing the structural framework, authority, and limits of the United States government.
  • Bill of Rights: The initial ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution safeguarding individual freedoms and civil rights.
  • Texas Revolution: The armed conflict resulting in Texas separating from Mexico to achieve independence.
  • Republic of Texas: The independent nation of Texas prior to its annexation into the United States.
  • Annexation: The formal act of incorporating a territory into an existing country or nation.
  • Westward expansion: The 19th-century movement of United States settlers and government jurisdiction territory toward the Pacific coast.
  • Civil War: The war waged between the Northern states (Union) and Southern states (Confederacy) from 1861 to 1865.
  • Reconstruction: The post-Civil War era dedicated to reintegrating Southern states into the Union and rebuilding the nation.
  • Industrial Revolution: A historic period marked by rapid technological growth, mechanized production, and expansion of factories.
  • Economic drivers of Texas: Cattle, railroads, cotton, and oil played instrumental roles in expanding Texas's economy, infrastructure, population, and urbanization.
  • Historical point of view: The specific vantage point, perspective, or bias from which an individual understands or records an event.
  • Comparative source analysis: Comparing diverse historical sources enables students to recognize differing perspectives and evaluate historical evidence.
• Civics, Government, & Citizenship:
  • Legislative branch: The governmental branch responsible for making laws.
  • Executive branch: The governmental branch responsible for enforcing and executing laws.
  • Judicial branch: The governmental branch responsible for interpreting laws and adjudicating legal disputes.
  • Federalism: The constitutional division of political power between a central national government and state governments.
  • Checks and balances: A structural system enabling each branch of government to limit the powers of the other branches.
  • Constitutional republic: A democratic system where elected representatives govern according to constitutional law.
  • Citizen's responsibility: Mandatory or civic duties including obeying laws, serving on juries, and actively participating in civic affairs.
  • Civic participation: Engaging in activities aimed at improving local community life and supporting democratic government.
• Geography & Human-Environment Interaction:
  • Absolute location: The precise geographic position of a place, determined using coordinates such as latitude and longitude.
  • Relative location: The position of a place described in relation to another landmark or location.
  • Region: A geographic area unified by common physical or human characteristics.
  • Migration: The movement of populations from one geographic location to another.
  • Natural resource: Naturally occurring materials used by human societies, such as water, soil, timber, or petroleum.
  • Human-environment interaction: The varied ways humans depend on, adapt to, and modify their physical environment.
  • Compass rose: A map graphic showing cardinal and intermediate directions.
  • Map scale: A map tool illustrating the proportional relationship between distance on a map and actual ground distance.
• Economic Concepts:
  • Scarcity: The fundamental economic problem of having unlimited human wants in a world of limited resources.
  • Need: Essential requirement necessary for human survival or basic health.
  • Want: A desire for goods or services that are not required for basic survival.
  • Good: A tangible physical object produced, bought, or consumed.
  • Service: Intangible work or labor performed for another party.
  • Producer: An individual or organization that manufactures goods or supplies services.
  • Consumer: An individual who purchases or utilizes goods and services.
  • Supply: The quantity of a good or service available for purchase.
  • Demand: The amount of a good or service consumers are willing and able to buy at various prices.
  • Market Dynamics:
  • When demand increases while supply remains constant: Prices tend to rise.
  • When supply increases while demand remains constant: Prices tend to fall.
  • Specialization: Focus on producing a specific good or service to maximize efficiency.
  • Free enterprise: An economic system characterized by private ownership where individuals and businesses make production and purchasing decisions.
  • Tax: Mandatory financial charges levied by governments to fund public infrastructure and services.

Science

• Scientific Inquiry, Process, & Safety:
  • Scientific inquiry: Investigating the natural world by posing questions, gathering observations, and making evidence-based claims.
  • Hypothesis: A proposed, testable explanation or prediction for a phenomenon.
  • Independent variable: The single variable deliberately altered or manipulated by an experimenter.
  • Dependent variable: The factor measured or observed to assess the effect of changing the independent variable.
  • Controlled variable: Factors kept identical across trials to ensure an experiment is fair and valid.
  • Repeated trials: Performing investigations multiple times to improve the reliability and consistency of experimental results.
  • Scientific evidence: Empirical observations or collected data used to evaluate or validate explanations.
  • Scientific model: A conceptual, physical, or mathematical representation used to study objects, systems, or processes.
  • Accuracy vs. Precision:
  • Accuracy: How close a measured value is to the true, accepted standard.
  • Precision: How close multiple repeated measurements are to one another.
  • Safety Protocol: If a science activity becomes unsafe, the teacher's immediate priority is to stop the activity and secure student safety.
• Physical Science - Physics & Matter:
  • Force: Any push or pull exerted on an object.
  • Gravity: An attractive force exerted between objects containing mass.
  • Unbalanced force: Net force acting on an object causing a change in its state of motion, speed, or direction.
  • Speed formula: $\text{Speed} = \frac{\text{Distance}}{\text{Time}}$
  • Matter: Anything that has mass and occupies physical space.
  • Three states of matter: Solid, liquid, and gas.
  • Physical vs. Chemical Changes:
  • Physical change: A change in physical properties or appearance that does not form a new chemical substance (Example: melting ice).
  • Chemical change: A reaction that alters molecular composition, producing one or more distinct new substances (Example: burning wood).
  • Matter Classification:
  • Element: A pure substance made entirely of one specific type of atom.
  • Compound: A pure substance composed of two or more distinct elements chemically bonded together.
  • Mixture: A physical combination of two or more distinct substances that retain their individual properties.
  • Solution: A homogeneous mixture where one substance dissolves evenly throughout another.
• Physical Science - Energy, Waves, & Circuits:
  • Kinetic energy: Energy possessed by an object due to its motion.
  • Potential energy: Stored energy resulting from an object's position, structure, or state.
  • Conservation of energy law: Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only transform from one form to another or transfer between objects.
  • Heat Transfer Mechanisms:
  • Conduction: Thermal energy transfer through direct contact between physical bodies.
  • Convection: Thermal energy transfer mediated by bulk fluid or gas movement.
  • Radiation: Thermal energy transfer transmitted via electromagnetic waves.
  • Optics & Electricity:
  • Reflection: The bouncing of light waves off a surface.
  • Refraction: The bending or change of direction of light waves as they transition between different media.
  • Complete electric circuit: An uninterrupted, closed conductive path allowing electrical current to flow.
• Life Science - Cellular, Genetic, & Ecological Concepts:
  • Cell: The fundamental structural and functional unit of living organisms.
  • Biological Hierarchy: $\text{Cells} \rightarrow \text{Tissues} \rightarrow \text{Organs} \rightarrow \text{Organ Systems} \rightarrow \text{Organism}$
  • Genetics & Traits:
  • Inherited trait: A genetic characteristic passed down from parents to offspring via DNA.
  • Learned behavior: An action acquired through life experience, practice, or environmental exposure.
  • Dominant allele: A genetic variant expressed in the phenotype even if only one copy is present.
  • Recessive allele: A genetic variant expressed in the phenotype only when two copies are inherited.
  • Evolutionary & Ecological Principles:
  • Adaptation: A heritable trait that enhances an organism's survival and reproduction in a specific environment.
  • Natural selection: Differential survival and reproduction of organisms carrying adaptive inherited traits over successive generations.
  • Producer: Autotrophic organism capable of synthesizing its own food, typically via photosynthesis.
  • Consumer: Heterotrophic organism that acquires energy by consuming other organisms.
  • Decomposer: An organism that digests and breaks down organic matter from dead organisms and waste.
  • Food chain: A linear diagram illustrating a single path of energy flow through organisms.
  • Food web: A complex network showing interconnected food chains within an ecosystem.
  • Ecosystem: A system consisting of biotic communities interacting with their abiotic environment.
  • Competition: The struggle between organisms for limited natural resources.
  • Niche: The unique functional role, habitat, and resource-use pattern of an organism in its ecosystem.
• Earth and Space Science:
  • Surface Processes:
  • Weathering: Physical or chemical breakdown of rocks into smaller fragments.
  • Erosion: Transportation of weathered rock sediments by natural agents like water, wind, ice, or gravity.
  • Deposition: The settling or dropping off of transported sediments in a new location.
  • Water Cycle Stages: Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection.
  • Evaporation: Phase change converting liquid water into gaseous water vapor.
  • Condensation: Phase change where cooling water vapor transitions into liquid water droplets.
  • Precipitation: Water droplets falling from atmospheric clouds in the form of rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
  • Geology & Meteorology:
  • Rock cycle: Continuous geologic processes converting rocks between igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic classifications.
  • Three main rock types: Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.
  • Weather: Day-to-day atmospheric conditions in a specific local area.
  • Climate: Long-term atmospheric patterns and weather averages evaluated over extended time periods.
  • Astronomy & Cycles:
  • Cause of day and night: Earth's rotation on its internal tilted axis.
  • Cause of seasons: Earth's axial tilt combined with its revolution around the Sun.
  • Revolution: The orbital motion of one celestial object around another.
  • Cause of lunar phases: The changing fraction of the Moon's illuminated hemisphere visible from Earth.
  • Solar eclipse: Occurs when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow on Earth's surface.
  • Lunar eclipse: Occurs when Earth passes directly between the Sun and Moon, casting Earth's shadow across the Moon.
  • Carbon cycle: Biogeochemical circulation of carbon across living organisms, atmosphere, oceans, and lithosphere.
  • Nitrogen cycle: Biogeochemical transformation and movement of nitrogen through the atmosphere, soil, microbes, and living tissue.

Fine Arts, Health, and Physical Education

• Visual Arts - Elements & Principles:
  • Seven Elements of Art:
  • Line: A continuous mark connecting points that defines shape, movement, or direction.
  • Shape: A flat, enclosed two-dimensional area.
  • Form: A three-dimensional object having volume, or the visual illusion of depth.
  • Texture: The tactile feel or visual illusion of a surface quality.
  • Value: The relative lightness or darkness of a hue or color.
  • Space: The physical or visual area around, between, or within elements of art.
  • Color: Visual sensation produced when light reflects off objects to the eye.
  • Principles of Art:
  • Balance: Distribution of visual weight to create stability in an artwork.
  • Contrast: Pronounced difference between art elements to produce visual impact.
  • Emphasis: Directing visual attention to make a specific element or focal point stand out.
  • Pattern: Predictable visual repetition of elements.
  • Rhythm: Movement created through the recurring placement of visual elements.
  • Unity: The visual coherence and sense of completeness when all parts belong together.
• Music & Theatre Elements:
  • Music Concepts:
  • Pitch: The relative highness or lowness of an acoustic sound.
  • Tempo: The speed or pace of a musical passage.
  • Dynamics: The degree of loudness or softness in music.
  • Rhythm: The organized pattern of sound durations and silent intervals over time.
  • Melody: A structured sequence of single musical pitches arranged to form a recognizable tune.
  • Timbre: The unique tone quality that distinguishes different instruments or human voices.
  • Meter: The recurring structural grouping of musical beats into regular measures.
  • Interval: The physical or acoustic distance between two distinct musical pitches.
  • Theatre Concepts:
  • Dramatic play: Unstructured or structured pretend play allowing children to explore roles, scenarios, and human experiences.
  • Characterization: The artistic technique used by an actor to construct and portray a believable character.
  • Props: Portable items and objects handled and used by actors during a performance.
  • Scenery: Framed backdrops, flats, and set structures built to depict a play's setting.
  • Purpose of costumes: Visual garments used to communicate a character's identity, era, socioeconomic status, locale, or mood.
  • Technical elements of theatre: Props, scenery, lighting, sound, and costumes.
• Physical Education & Physical Fitness:
  • Components of Health-Related Fitness:
  • Cardiovascular endurance: The capacity of the respiratory and circulatory systems to sustain prolonged aerobic activity.
  • Muscular strength: The maximum force a muscle or muscle group can exert in a single effort.
  • Muscular endurance: The ability of skeletal muscles to sustain repeated contractions over time without fatiguing.
  • Flexibility: The complete range of motion available around a specific joint.
  • Motor Movement Categories:
  • Locomotor movements: Movements that relocate the body from one physical location to another (Examples: walking, running, hopping, jumping, skipping, and galloping).
  • Nonlocomotor movements: Body movements executed while staying stationary in place (Examples: bending, stretching, twisting, and turning).
  • Manipulative skills: Motor skills involving handling, controlling, or imparting force to an object (Examples: throwing, catching, kicking, dribbling, striking, and volleying).
  • PE Differentiation: PE educators should modify rules, equipment, or environments so students of all physical abilities can participate safely and meaningfully.
• Health, Wellness, & Interpersonal Skills:
  • Balanced diet: Consuming a varied selection of foods that deliver essential nutrients required for optimal body health.
  • Nutrients: Essential organic and inorganic compounds in food that provide energy, facilitate growth, and repair biological tissue.
  • Disease prevention: Practicing health behaviors that minimize the risk of developing or spreading illnesses.
  • Refusal skills: Assertive communication strategies used to resist peer pressure and decline unsafe options.
  • Conflict resolution: Constructive processes aimed at resolving interpersonal disagreements peacefully and respectfully.
  • Healthy relationship: Interpersonal connections founded on mutual respect, effective communication, trust, and healthy boundaries.

Teacher Scenarios and Instructional Decision-Making

• Reading & Writing Scenarios:
  • Word decoding difficulties: If a student struggles with decoding unfamiliar words, provide explicit instruction in missing phonics patterns or word-analysis skills.
  • Lack of expression in reading: If a student reads accurately but flatly without prosody, model prosodic reading and utilize repeated oral reading exercises.
  • Comprehension failure despite fluent decoding: Focus directly on teaching explicit comprehension strategies, vocabulary enrichment, and self-monitoring techniques.
  • Teaching new vocabulary words: Introduce words in rich context with clear explanations, provide concrete examples, and design repeated practice activities across contexts.
  • Disorganized writing with sound ideas: Direct the student to revise the draft, prioritizing organization, structural flow, and clarity before addressing mechanics.
  • Idea-rich writing filled with mechanical errors: Direct the student to edit the piece to fix grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling conventions.
• Mathematics & Science Pedagogical Interventions:
  • Rationale for manipulatives: Introduce manipulatives prior to formal symbols because concrete experiences construct foundational conceptual understanding.
  • Persistent mathematical errors: Analyze the underlying conceptual misconception and reteach using appropriate visual or concrete models.
  • Correct mathematical answer without conceptual explanation: Require the student to articulate and justify their mathematical reasoning.
  • Unexpected experimental results in science: Guide students to evaluate empirical evidence, identify potential procedural errors, and explore scientific explanations.
  • Correcting science misconceptions: Identify the student's existing misconception and engage them in evidence-based scientific investigations to restructure their thinking.
  • Lab safety violations: Stop the unsafe laboratory activity immediately and address the safety hazard before proceeding.
• Social Studies & General Classroom Interventions:
  • Supporting historical claims: Guide students to gather, evaluate, and cite evidence extracted from relevant and credible historical sources.
  • Primary vs. secondary source comparison: Have students compare differing primary and secondary accounts to evaluate evidence and synthesize multiple perspectives.
  • Supporting English Language Learners: Honor linguistic diversity by building upon ELLs' existing strengths while scaffolding learning with targeted language supports.
  • Task difficulty adjustments: Modify instruction, scaffolding, or assignments to match student readiness while keeping academic learning goals intact.
• Assessment & Instructional Cycle Decisions:
  • Pre-instruction planning: Prior to unit design for unfamiliar students, assess prior knowledge and prerequisite skills.
  • Widespread exit ticket failure: If an exit ticket shows class-wide confusion, reteach the missing core concept using a different, more effective instructional strategy.
  • Targeted assistance for small groups: When only a subset of students requires remediation, deliver targeted small-group or individualized instruction.
  • Purpose of formative assessment: Collect ongoing learning data during instruction to guide modifications and raise student achievement.
  • Purpose of differentiated instruction: Modify content, process, or products to accommodate diverse learning styles while keeping appropriate learning targets.
  • Maximize conceptual understanding: Combine active learning, clear teacher explanations, instructional models, deliberate practice, and regular feedback.
  • Mastery extension: When students demonstrate successful mastery, offer meaningful extension activities or transition to the subsequent learning objective.
  • Universal teacher decision cycle: $\text{Plan} \rightarrow \text{Teach} \rightarrow \text{Assess} \rightarrow \text{Adjust Instruction}$