FTCE Prekindergarten/Primary PK-3 flashcards

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

Florida Consent Decree

A 1990 legal agreement requiring Florida districts to identify English language learners, provide ESOL instruction, notify parents, and ensure teachers receive ESOL training and endorsement.

McKinney-Vento Act

Federal law requiring immediate enrollment for students experiencing homelessness, allowing them to remain at their school of origin with transportation when feasible.

Section 504 eligibility

A student qualifies when a physical or mental impairment substantially limits one or more major life activities, requiring accommodations but not necessarily specialized instruction.

Mandatory reporting duty

Florida school employees must report suspected child abuse, abandonment, or neglect to the state abuse hotline; failure to report is a criminal offense.

MTSS tiers

A three-tier framework: Tier 1 core instruction for all students, Tier 2 targeted small-group intervention, and Tier 3 intensive individualized supports with frequent progress monitoring.

Progress monitoring

Frequent brief assessments graphed against a goal line so educators can judge whether an intervention is working and adjust it based on trend and level.

Formative versus summative assessment

Formative assessment occurs during instruction to guide teaching decisions; summative assessment occurs after instruction to measure achievement against standards.

Instructional walkthrough evidence

Low-inference, observable data about what teachers and students say and do, collected without evaluative judgment to inform coaching and professional learning.

Andragogy principles

Adult learning theory holding that adults need relevance to their roles, problem-centered tasks, autonomy, and immediate application of new knowledge.

Coaching cycle

A structured sequence of pre-conference goal setting, classroom observation with data collection, and reflective post-conference feedback with agreed next steps.

Deliberate practice

Improvement through repeated practice of a clearly defined skill with immediate feedback and refinement, rather than mere repetition of familiar tasks.

Zone of proximal development

Vygotsky's concept describing tasks a learner can complete with guidance but not yet independently, the target range for scaffolding and support.

Two-way family communication

Engagement practices that invite response and dialogue, delivered in families' preferred languages and formats, rather than one-way announcements only.

Crisis communication sequence

Acknowledge the situation, state verified facts, identify next steps and timelines, and give a contact point, updating as information becomes confirmed.

Active listening

A communication technique using paraphrasing, reflecting feelings, open-ended questions, and summarizing before responding to confirm understanding of the speaker's message.

Nonrestrictive clause punctuation

A clause adding nonessential information is set off by commas; a restrictive clause that identifies the noun takes no commas.

Subject-verb agreement traps

Intervening phrases, indefinite pronouns like each and everyone (singular), and collective nouns often cause agreement errors in sentences.

Dangling modifier

A modifier whose intended subject is missing or unclear, so the sentence appears to attribute the action to the wrong noun.

Tier 2 vocabulary

Cross-content academic words such as analyze, compare, and evidence that appear across subjects and warrant explicit instruction for comprehension.

Simple View of Reading

The formula that reading comprehension equals decoding ability multiplied by language comprehension; weakness in either component limits overall comprehension.

Phonemic awareness

The oral ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words, such as blending, segmenting, and deleting phonemes, without reference to print.

Fluency components

Reading fluency comprises accuracy, appropriate rate, and prosody; fluent reading frees attention for comprehension of text meaning.

Text structure types

Common organizational patterns: compare-contrast, cause-effect, problem-solution, chronological sequence, and description, each signaled by specific cue words.

Screening versus diagnostic assessment

Screening identifies students at risk of reading difficulty; diagnostic assessment pinpoints specific skill gaps to guide intervention planning.

Dividing fractions rule

To divide by a fraction, multiply by its reciprocal; for example, dividing by three-fourths is the same as multiplying by four-thirds.

Equivalent fractions

Fractions naming the same value; multiplying or dividing numerator and denominator by the same nonzero number produces an equivalent fraction.

Distributive property

Multiplying a sum by a number equals the sum of the products: a times the quantity b plus c equals ab plus ac, underlying partial-products algorithms.

Mean versus median

The mean is the arithmetic average and is pulled by outliers; the median is the middle value and resists extreme scores.

Piaget concrete operational stage

Ages roughly seven to eleven, when children master conservation, classification, and reversible thinking but still reason best about concrete rather than abstract ideas.

Negative reinforcement

A consequence that increases the likelihood of a behavior by removing an unpleasant stimulus, distinct from punishment, which decreases behavior.

Bloom's revised taxonomy

Six cognitive levels ordered from lower to higher: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create; objectives should target appropriate levels.

Erikson initiative versus guilt

The preschool psychosocial stage in which children assert purpose through play and choices; overcontrol or criticism can produce guilt about initiating activity.