MTLE cheat sheet

Phonological awareness is the broad umbrella (words, syllables, rhyme, onsets and rimes); phonemic awareness is its narrowest level and focuses on individual phonemes in spoken words.

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

Ehri's phases of word reading develop in order: pre-alphabetic, partial alphabetic, full alphabetic, and consolidated alphabetic.

Fluency has three measurable dimensions: accuracy, rate (correct words per minute), and prosody (expression and phrasing).

Comprehension instruction uses before-, during-, and after-reading strategies such as predicting, questioning, visualizing, monitoring, and summarizing.

Vocabulary is often organized into three tiers: Tier 1 everyday words, Tier 2 cross-content academic words, and Tier 3 domain-specific terms.

The writing process is recursive, not linear: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.

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

Text complexity is judged by qualitative factors (levels of meaning, structure, knowledge demands), quantitative measures (readability), and reader-and-task considerations.

In base-ten place value, each position represents ten times the value of the position to its right; in 4,703 the 7 has a value of 700.

Standard algorithms for the four operations on whole numbers depend on regrouping (carrying and borrowing) grounded in place value.

Fractions are equivalent when a/b = (a × n)/(b × n) for a nonzero n; addition and subtraction require a common denominator.

To multiply fractions, multiply numerators and denominators; to divide by a fraction, multiply by its reciprocal.

Order of operations: grouping symbols, then exponents, then multiplication and division left to right, then addition and subtraction left to right.

Properties of operations: commutative and associative apply to addition and multiplication only; distributive is a(b + c) = ab + ac.

Perimeter and area formulas: rectangle A = lw and P = 2(l + w); triangle A = ½bh; circle A = πr² and C = 2πr.

Volume formulas: rectangular prism V = lwh; cylinder V = πr²h.

Measures of center and spread: mean = sum ÷ number of values; median = middle value of ordered data; mode = most frequent value; range = maximum − minimum.

Scientific inquiry proceeds from question to hypothesis to controlled investigation to data analysis to evidence-based conclusion.

In a controlled experiment the independent variable is manipulated, the dependent variable is measured, and all other variables are held constant.

Science and engineering practices include asking questions, developing and using models, planning investigations, analyzing data, and arguing from evidence.

States of matter: solids have fixed shape and volume, liquids have fixed volume but not shape, gases have neither; phase changes involve transfer of thermal energy.

Photosynthesis converts carbon dioxide and water using light energy into glucose and oxygen, and takes place in chloroplasts.

In food chains and webs, energy flows from producers to consumers to decomposers, with roughly ten percent transferred between trophic levels.

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

Newton's laws: an object in motion stays in motion unless acted on by a net force; F = ma; every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

The water cycle moves water through evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and infiltration.

The five themes of geography are location, place, human–environment interaction, movement, and region.

Map essentials include title, legend or key, scale, compass rose, and grid; latitude runs east–west but measures north–south distance.

The three branches of government are legislative (makes laws), executive (enforces laws), and judicial (interprets laws), linked by checks and balances.

Federalism divides power among delegated (national), reserved (state), and concurrent (shared) powers.

Minnesota became a territory in 1849 and a state in 1858; the Mississippi River begins at Lake Itasca, and the Dakota and Ojibwe are the Indigenous nations of the region.

Core economic concepts include scarcity, opportunity cost, supply and demand, producers and consumers, and specialization and trade.

A primary source is a contemporaneous original record (diary, letter, photograph, artifact); a secondary source interprets or analyzes primary sources.

Historical thinking skills include chronology, cause and effect, continuity and change, perspective, and evaluating evidence.

On a BCE/CE timeline, BCE years count downward toward year 1 and there is no year 0.

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (birth–2), preoperational (2–7), concrete operational (7–11), and formal operational (11 and older).

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can do with scaffolding from a more knowledgeable other.

Bloom's revised taxonomy orders objectives as remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create, in increasing cognitive demand.

Formative assessment is ongoing and used to adjust instruction; summative assessment measures achievement at the end of a unit or course.

Backward design (Wiggins and McTighe) sequences planning as identify desired results, determine acceptable evidence, then plan learning experiences.

Differentiated instruction adjusts content, process, product, or environment based on student readiness, interest, and learning profile.

IDEA guarantees a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment through an IEP; Section 504 provides accommodations for students with disabilities affecting a major life activity.

Validity means an assessment measures what it is intended to measure; reliability means results are consistent across time, forms, or raters.

Effective classroom management rests on clear routines, high expectations, active supervision, positive reinforcement, and least-intrusive redirection.