FTCE Elementary Education K-6 cheat sheet

The five essential components of reading instruction are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Phonemic awareness is oral manipulation of individual sounds; phonics connects printed letters (graphemes) to sounds (phonemes).

Fluency has three dimensions: accuracy, rate, and prosody (expression); fluent reading supports comprehension.

Orthographic mapping is the process of connecting spelling, pronunciation, and meaning to store words for automatic recognition.

Common syllable types: closed (short vowel), open (long vowel), vowel-consonant-e (long vowel), vowel team, r-controlled, and consonant-le.

Running-record accuracy = words correct / total words read; independent 95–100%, instructional 90–94%, frustration below 90% (typical benchmarks).

Expository text structures include description, sequence, compare-contrast, cause-effect, and problem-solution.

The writing process stages are prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.

Figurative language examples: simile uses like/as; metaphor states a direct comparison; personification gives human traits to nonhuman things; hyperbole is exaggeration.

Three branches: legislative makes laws, executive enforces laws, judicial interprets laws; separation of powers prevents concentration of authority.

Checks and balances examples: presidential veto, congressional override of a veto, judicial review of laws, Senate confirmation of appointments.

Federalism divides power: delegated (enumerated) powers belong to the national government, reserved powers to states, and concurrent powers are shared.

Bill of Rights = first ten amendments; the First Amendment protects religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

Civil War Amendments: 13th abolished slavery, 14th granted citizenship/equal protection, 15th protected voting rights regardless of race.

Latitude measures distance north or south of the equator; longitude measures east or west of the prime meridian; both are expressed in degrees.

Economic concepts: scarcity requires choices; opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative given up.

Ancient river civilizations: Mesopotamia (Tigris–Euphrates), Egypt (Nile), India (Indus), China (Yellow/Huang He).

The Columbian Exchange transferred plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Americas and Europe after 1492.

Scientific investigation sequence: question, hypothesis, controlled experiment, data collection, analysis, conclusion; independent variable is changed, dependent variable is measured.

Photosynthesis equation: 6CO2 + 6H2O + light energy → C6H12O6 + 6O2; occurs in chloroplasts using chlorophyll.

Cellular respiration converts glucose and oxygen into carbon dioxide, water, and ATP; it occurs mainly in mitochondria.

Water cycle processes: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and transpiration.

Rock types: igneous forms from cooling magma/lava; sedimentary from compaction and cementation; metamorphic from heat and pressure.

Plate boundaries: divergent (move apart), convergent (collide), transform (slide past); earthquakes and volcanoes concentrate at boundaries.

Newton's laws: first = inertia; second = F = ma; third = every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Heat transfers by conduction (direct contact), convection (fluid currents), and radiation (electromagnetic waves).

In food webs, producers make energy-rich compounds, consumers eat other organisms, and decomposers break down dead matter.

Order of operations: parentheses/brackets, exponents, multiplication and division left to right, then addition and subtraction left to right.

Properties: commutative (a+b=b+a; ab=ba), associative (grouping changes), distributive a(b+c)=ab+ac.

Fraction operations: add/subtract with common denominators; multiply numerators and denominators; divide by multiplying by the reciprocal.

Perimeter and area: rectangle P=2(l+w), A=lw; triangle A=½bh; circle C=2πr, A=πr².

Volume of a rectangular prism: V=lwh; volume is measured in cubic units.

Measures of center: mean = sum/number of values; median = middle ordered value; mode = most frequent value; range = maximum − minimum.

Percent means per hundred: percent = part/whole × 100; convert decimals to percents by multiplying by 100.

A unit rate compares a quantity to one unit, found by dividing; e.g., 60 miles in 2 hours = 30 miles per hour.

Angle types: acute <90°, right =90°, obtuse between 90° and 180°; a straight angle =180°.