MTEL English (61) case studies
MTEL English (61) · Put your knowledge to work in context.
MTEL English (61) is one of the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure, the assessment suite candidates must satisfy to obtain a Massachusetts educator license. It is aimed at prospective English language arts teachers - candidates completing a traditional educator-preparation program as well as those pursuing licensure through an alternative route - and it assesses both subject-matter knowledge and the ability to write analytically about texts. The MTEL English (61) case studies are 5 cases and about 3,053 words.
1From Plot Recall to Dramatic Irony in Ninth-Grade Romeo and Juliet
A ninth-grade teacher has just finished Act III of Romeo and Juliet with five sections (28 students each, 140 total; 22 multilingual learners and 19 students with IEPs across the grade). On the common quiz, 118 of 140 students correctly sequence the major plot events, but only 47 can explain how dramatic irony shapes the audience's experience of Juliet's refusal to marry Paris.
717 words, about 4 min2Diagnosing Spelling Errors: Morphology, Phonology, or Dialect?
During the first month of seventh grade, a teacher collects 50-word writing samples and a dictated sentence list from 26 students (6 multilingual learners and 4 students with identified language impairments). She tallies errors: 38% of past-tense verbs omit -ed ('walk' for 'walked'); 22% spell 'went' as 'whent'; 15% confuse 'their,' 'there,' and 'they're'; 9% write 'aks' for 'ask'; and 6% write 'childs' for 'children.' A colleague recommends a packaged phonics program; the reading coach suggests morphology mini-lessons; the ESL teacher suggests explicit dialect awareness.
620 words, about 3 min3When Persuasion Becomes Assertion: Revising a Persuasive Essay Unit
An eleventh-grade teacher has just finished a persuasive writing unit with 31 students. The prompt asked whether high schools should start later.
585 words, about 3 min4Screening Data That Do Not Add Up: Decoding Intact, Comprehension Low
A middle school literacy team reviews fall universal screening for 118 eighth graders. On the state-approved comprehension measure, 34 students score below the 25th percentile.
563 words, about 3 min5Choosing a Whole-Class Novel: Text Complexity and Access
A tenth-grade team must choose the next whole-class novel. Candidate A is Of Mice and Men (quantitative measure around 630L; qualitative factors: simple sentence structure, mature themes of mercy killing, racism, and loneliness; 107 pages).
568 words, about 3 min