MTEL General Curriculum cheat sheet

Phonemic awareness: ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words; distinct from phonics, which is the mapping of sounds to letters.

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

Fluency comprises accuracy, rate, and prosody; assessments often measure words correct per minute (WCPM).

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

Narrative elements: plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution), setting, characters, conflict, theme, and point of view.

Figurative language: simile (like/as), metaphor (direct comparison), personification, hyperbole, idiom, and onomatopoeia.

Writing process stages: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing; revising focuses on content and organization, editing on conventions.

The six traits of writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.

Running records and miscue analysis evaluate oral reading, coding substitutions, omissions, insertions, and self-corrections to inform instruction.

U.S. Constitution: Article I creates the legislative branch, Article II the executive, Article III the judiciary; the Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments.

Federalism divides power between national and state governments; enumerated powers are federal, reserved powers are state, concurrent powers are shared.

Checks and balances: presidential veto, congressional override (two-thirds), Senate confirmation of appointments and treaties, judicial review (Marbury v. Madison, 1803).

Major eras: Colonial, Revolutionary, Constitutional, Westward Expansion, Civil War/Reconstruction, Industrialization, Progressive, World Wars, Cold War, Civil Rights, Modern.

Massachusetts history: Plymouth Colony (1620), Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630), Boston Tea Party (1773), Battles of Lexington and Concord (1775).

Primary vs. secondary sources: primary sources are firsthand (letters, diaries, artifacts); secondary sources interpret primary sources (textbooks, biographies).

Economic concepts: scarcity, opportunity cost, supply and demand, specialization, and the role of incentives in decision making.

Geography themes: location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region; map tools include scale, legend, compass rose, and latitude/longitude.

Place value: each position is ten times the value of the position to its right; decimals extend this pattern to the right of the decimal point.

Operations with fractions: a/b + c/d = (ad + bc)/(bd); a/b ÷ c/d = a/b × d/c; a/b × c/d = ac/bd.

Order of operations: parentheses, exponents, multiplication/division (left to right), addition/subtraction (left to right).

Area formulas: rectangle A = lw; triangle A = ½bh; circle A = πr²; parallelogram A = bh; trapezoid A = ½(b₁ + b₂)h.

Volume: rectangular prism V = lwh; cylinder V = πr²h; sphere V = (4/3)πr³; cone V = (1/3)πr²h.

Pythagorean theorem: a² + b² = c² for right triangles, where c is the hypotenuse.

Measures of center: mean (average), median (middle value when ordered), mode (most frequent); range = maximum − minimum.

Probability of an event = number of favorable outcomes / total number of equally likely outcomes; independent events: P(A and B) = P(A) × P(B).

Proportional reasoning: set up a proportion a/b = c/d and solve by cross-multiplication (ad = bc).

Scientific method: question, research, hypothesis, experiment (variables, controls), data collection, analysis, conclusion, communication.

Cell theory: all living things are made of cells; cells are the basic unit of life; cells arise from existing cells.

Photosynthesis: 6CO₂ + 6H₂O + light energy → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂; occurs in chloroplasts; cellular respiration is the reverse process in mitochondria.

Newton's laws: 1) inertia, 2) F = ma, 3) action-reaction; weight = mass × gravitational acceleration (g ≈ 9.8 m/s² on Earth).

Earth's layers: crust, mantle, outer core (liquid), inner core (solid); plate tectonics explains earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain formation.

Water cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, infiltration, transpiration.

Rock types: igneous (cooled magma/lava), sedimentary (compacted/cemented sediments), metamorphic (heat and pressure).

Food web: producers (plants) → primary consumers (herbivores) → secondary consumers (carnivores) → decomposers; energy decreases at each trophic level.

Matter: atoms combine to form molecules; states of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma) depend on particle energy and arrangement.

Engineering design process: define the problem, research, imagine/brainstorm, plan, prototype, test, evaluate, redesign, communicate results.

Constraints are limits (budget, time, materials, safety); criteria are requirements the solution must meet.

Simple machines: lever, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, screw; they trade force for distance or change direction.

Mechanical advantage (MA) = output force / input force; for a lever, MA = effort arm length / load arm length.

Types of bridges: beam, arch, truss, suspension, cable-stayed; forces include compression (pushing) and tension (pulling).

Electric circuits: series (one path, current same, voltage divides), parallel (multiple paths, voltage same, current divides); Ohm's law V = IR.

Digital citizenship: safe, legal, and ethical use of technology; includes privacy, cyberbullying awareness, and responsible online communication.

Technological systems have inputs, processes, outputs, and feedback; examples include transportation, communication, and manufacturing systems.