FTCE Elementary Education K-6 flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Phonemic awareness

Ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual phonemes in spoken words; it is oral and does not involve printed letters.

Phonics

Instructional approach connecting letters (graphemes) to sounds (phonemes) so readers can decode unfamiliar words.

Fluency

Reading accurately, at an appropriate rate, with expression (prosody); fluent reading supports comprehension by freeing attention for meaning.

Orthographic mapping

Process of storing words as sight words by connecting spelling, pronunciation, and meaning for automatic recognition.

Expository text structure

Organizational patterns such as description, sequence, compare-contrast, cause-effect, and problem-solution used in informational text.

Formative assessment

Ongoing checks during instruction used to adjust teaching; examples include running records, exit tickets, and observations.

Running record accuracy

Words correct divided by total words read; typical benchmarks are 95–100% independent, 90–94% instructional, and below 90% frustration.

Morphology

Study of word parts such as prefixes, roots, and suffixes; teaching it supports vocabulary and decoding of multisyllabic words.

Federalism

Division of power between national and state governments; delegated powers are national, reserved powers are state, and concurrent powers are shared.

Checks and balances

Each branch can limit the others, such as presidential vetoes, congressional overrides, and judicial review of laws.

Bill of Rights

First ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution protecting individual liberties such as speech, religion, and due process.

Fourteenth Amendment

Granted citizenship and equal protection under the law; courts later used it to apply Bill of Rights protections to states.

Latitude vs longitude

Latitude measures north-south position relative to the equator; longitude measures east-west position relative to the prime meridian.

Opportunity cost

Value of the next best alternative given up when a choice is made; it is central to the concept of scarcity.

Columbian Exchange

Transfer of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Americas and Europe after 1492.

Three branches

Legislative branch makes laws, executive branch enforces laws, and judicial branch interprets laws under separation of powers.

Photosynthesis equation

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

Cellular respiration

Process converting glucose and oxygen into carbon dioxide, water, and ATP energy; it occurs mainly in mitochondria.

Water cycle

Continuous movement of water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and transpiration.

Rock cycle

Igneous rock forms from cooling magma; sedimentary from compaction and cementation; metamorphic from heat and pressure.

Newton's first law

An object at rest stays at rest and a moving object stays in motion unless acted on by a net force.

Food web

Model showing interconnected food chains and energy flow from producers to consumers to decomposers.

Plate boundaries

Divergent plates move apart, convergent plates collide, and transform plates slide past each other.

Moon phases

Apparent shapes caused by changing angles of sunlight on the Moon as it orbits Earth.

Order of operations

Evaluate parentheses, exponents, multiplication and division left to right, then addition and subtraction left to right.

Distributive property

a(b + c) = ab + ac; multiplying a factor by a sum equals the sum of the products.

Area of triangle

A = ½ × base × height; the height is perpendicular to the base.

Circumference

C = 2πr or πd; distance around a circle, where r is radius and d is diameter.

Mean

Sum of data values divided by the number of values; measure of central tendency affected by outliers.

Median

Middle value when data are ordered; average the two middle values if the number of values is even.

Unit rate

Ratio comparing a quantity to one unit, found by dividing; for example, 60 miles in 2 hours equals 30 miles per hour.

Percent

Part per hundred; percent = part/whole × 100, used to compare quantities.