FTCE Middle Grades English 5-9 (014) cheat sheet

Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate sound units (syllables, onsets/rimes, phonemes) without print; phonics is the mapping of those sounds to letters. Phonemic awareness is the narrowest subset and the strongest early predictor of decoding success.

Six syllable types: closed (short vowel, e.g., cat), open (long vowel, e.g., go), vowel-consonant-e (long vowel, e.g., hope), vowel team (rain, book), r-controlled (car, her), and consonant-le (table, little).

Morphemes are the smallest meaning-bearing units: free morphemes stand alone (dog, run); bound morphemes must attach (re-, -tion, -s). Inflectional affixes (-s, -ed, -ing, -er, -est, -'s) never change part of speech; derivational affixes (un-, -ness, -able) usually do.

English orthography is layered: Anglo-Saxon base words (short, common, irregular spellings), Latin (suffixes -tion, -ment, -ible), and Greek (ph, ch pronounced /k/, y as /i/). Spelling patterns follow predictable layers rather than pure phonics.

Reading fluency = accuracy x automaticity x prosody. Oral reading fluency benchmarks for middle grades commonly center on words correct per minute plus expression; rate without comprehension is not fluency.

Vocabulary tiers: Tier 1 = everyday conversational words; Tier 2 = high-frequency academic words used across domains (analyze, contrast, evidence); Tier 3 = domain-specific terms (photosynthesis, onomatopoeia). Instruction should target Tier 2.

Text complexity has three dimensions: quantitative (readability such as Lexile), qualitative (levels of meaning, structure, knowledge demands, language conventionality), and reader/task considerations. Middle grades texts should sit in the grade-band staircase.

Academic language functions include compare/contrast, cause/effect, sequencing, and argument; signal words (however, therefore, in contrast) are the surface cues students must recognize to track text structure.

The writing process is recursive, not linear: prewriting, drafting, revising (content/structure), editing (conventions), and publishing; teachers should model each stage and allow return to earlier stages.

Six traits of writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions (presentation is sometimes added). Traits provide a shared vocabulary for feedback and rubrics.

The modes: narrative (story, personal experience), expository/informative (explain, describe), argumentative/persuasive (claim, evidence, reasoning, counterclaim), and descriptive. Argument uses evidence and reasoning; persuasion may rely on emotion.

Paragraph architecture: topic sentence, supporting detail with evidence, elaboration/commentary, and a concluding or transition sentence. Transitions signal relationships: addition, contrast, cause/effect, sequence.

Rhetorical appeals: ethos (credibility of the writer), pathos (audience emotion and values), logos (logic and evidence). Strong argumentative writing balances all three, with logos dominant.

Sentence variety and correctness: avoid fragments and run-ons; combine simple sentences into compound (coordinating conjunctions FANBOYS) and complex (subordinating conjunctions) sentences; vary sentence beginnings and lengths.

Grammar conventions tested: subject-verb agreement with intervening phrases, pronoun-antecedent agreement, consistent verb tense, correct use of commas in compound/complex sentences, apostrophes for possession, and quotation punctuation.

Revision vs. editing: revision addresses clarity, organization, evidence, and audience; editing addresses spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. Conflating the two is a common instructional error.

Rubric-based feedback is most effective when it targets a small number of traits, uses concrete descriptors, and includes a model or mentor text illustrating the target.

Narrative elements: plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution), character (round/flat, static/dynamic), setting, conflict (internal vs. external), point of view (first, third limited, third omniscient), and theme.

Figurative language: simile (like/as), metaphor (direct comparison), personification, hyperbole, idiom, and symbolism. Sound devices: alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, and rhyme scheme.

Literary genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and folklore. Folklore subtypes include myth (explains natural phenomena), legend (based on historical figure), fable (animal characters with moral), and tall tale (exaggeration).

Poetry: stanza, line, meter (iambic pentameter = five iambs per line), rhyme (end, internal, slant), free verse, and forms such as sonnet, haiku, limerick, and ballad.

Drama conventions: dialogue, stage directions, acts and scenes, soliloquy (alone on stage), monologue, aside (spoken to audience), and dramatic irony (audience knows more than character).

Theme is the underlying message or insight about life, distinct from topic or moral; it must be stated as a complete sentence, not a single word.

Point of view shapes reliability and reader knowledge: first person (limited, subjective), third limited (one character's thoughts), third omniscient (all characters' thoughts), and second person (rare, direct address).

Literary analysis requires textual evidence: claim, evidence (quoted or paraphrased), and commentary connecting evidence to the claim. This is the same structure as argumentative writing.

Formative assessment is ongoing and used to adjust instruction (exit tickets, quick writes, conferring); summative assessment measures achievement at the end of a unit (tests, portfolios, essays).

Validity = the assessment measures what it claims; reliability = consistent results across administrations or raters. A reliable test can be invalid, but a valid test must be reliable.

Norm-referenced tests compare a student to peers; criterion-referenced tests compare performance to a defined standard or learning objective.

Bloom's revised taxonomy (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create) guides question design; higher-order items require analysis, evaluation, or creation, not recall.

Differentiation: adjust content, process, or product based on readiness, interest, and learning profile. Scaffolds include graphic organizers, sentence frames, leveled texts, and chunked reading.

Reading strategies to teach: predicting, questioning, visualizing, summarizing, inferring, monitoring comprehension, and using text features (headings, captions, glossaries).

Close reading cycle: first read for key ideas and details, second for craft and structure, third for integration of knowledge and ideas, each with text-dependent questions.

Writing workshop structure: minilesson, independent writing with teacher conferring, and sharing. Conferring is the primary vehicle for individualized feedback and goal-setting.

Data-driven instruction: analyze item-level and subgroup results, identify patterns, reteach targeted skills, and reassess. Avoid whole-class reteaching when only a subgroup needs support.