Praxis 5001 flashcards

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

Phonemic awareness

The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual phonemes, the smallest units of sound, in spoken words. It is a subset of broader phonological awareness and predicts later reading success.

Phonics

Instruction in the relationship between letters and the sounds they represent, used to decode unfamiliar printed words. It differs from phonemic awareness, which involves spoken sounds only.

Alphabetic principle

The understanding that letters and letter combinations systematically represent speech sounds, letting readers decode printed words. English uses 26 letters to represent roughly 44 phonemes.

Reading fluency

The ability to read connected text accurately, at an appropriate rate, and with prosody, meaning expression and phrasing. Fluency bridges word recognition and comprehension.

Morpheme

The smallest unit of meaning in a word. Free morphemes stand alone as words, such as 'dog,' while bound morphemes like prefixes and suffixes must attach to a base.

Onset and rime

A way of dividing a syllable into its initial consonant sound or cluster, called the onset, and the remaining vowel-plus-ending unit, called the rime, as in /c/ + /at/.

Text structure

The organizational pattern of informational text: description, sequence, compare-contrast, cause-effect, or problem-solution. Signal words such as 'because' or 'however' reveal the pattern.

Formative assessment

Ongoing, low-stakes checks during instruction, such as exit tickets, observations, or running records, used to adjust teaching. Summative assessment instead measures learning at the end of a unit.

Place value

The value of a digit determined by its position in a number. In base ten, each place is ten times the value of the place to its right.

Order of operations

The agreed sequence for evaluating expressions: grouping symbols first, then exponents, then multiplication and division left to right, then addition and subtraction left to right.

Prime number

A whole number greater than 1 with exactly two factors, 1 and itself, such as 2, 3, 5, 7, and 11. The number 1 is neither prime nor composite.

Mean

A measure of center found by adding all values in a data set and dividing by the number of values. It is sensitive to outliers in the data.

Median

The middle value in an ordered data set, or the average of the two middle values when the count is even. It is less affected by outliers than the mean.

Least common multiple

The smallest number that is a multiple of two or more given numbers. For 4 and 6, the multiples are 4, 8, 12… and 6, 12…, so the LCM is 12.

Area of a triangle

One-half the base times the height: A = ½bh, where the height is perpendicular to the chosen base. A triangle is half of a related parallelogram.

Greatest common factor

The largest number that divides evenly into two or more numbers. For 12 and 18 the common factors are 1, 2, 3, and 6, so the GCF is 6.

Checks and balances

Constitutional mechanisms letting each branch limit the others, such as the presidential veto, a two-thirds congressional override, Senate confirmation of appointments, and judicial review.

Federalism

A system dividing power between a national government and state governments. The Tenth Amendment reserves powers not delegated to the federal government to the states or the people.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, protecting freedoms such as speech, press, religion, assembly, and the rights of the accused.

Latitude and longitude

Latitude lines run east-west and measure distance north or south of the equator at 0°. Longitude lines run north-south and measure distance east or west of the prime meridian.

Opportunity cost

The value of the next-best alternative given up when a choice is made. Because resources are scarce, every economic decision carries an opportunity cost.

Push and pull factors

Conditions that drive people to leave a place, such as war, famine, or persecution, or attract them to a new one, such as jobs, safety, or freedom. Together they explain migration.

Three branches of government

Legislative (Congress) makes laws, executive (President) carries out laws, and judicial (courts) interpret laws. Articles I, II, and III of the Constitution establish them.

Reconstruction amendments

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, the 14th granted citizenship and equal protection, and the 15th protected voting rights regardless of race.

Photosynthesis

The process by which plants use light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen inside chloroplasts: 6CO₂ + 6H₂O + light → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂.

Water cycle

The continuous movement of water through evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, and collection or runoff, driven mainly by energy from the Sun.

Food chain energy

Energy flows from producers to consumers to decomposers. Only about 10 percent of the energy at one trophic level passes to the next; the rest is lost as heat.

States of matter

Solids keep a fixed shape and volume, liquids keep volume but take their container's shape, and gases expand to fill their container. Plasma is a fourth state of matter.

Newton's first law

An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion at constant velocity, unless acted on by an unbalanced net force. It is also called inertia.

Rock types

Igneous rock forms from cooled magma or lava, sedimentary rock from compacted and cemented deposits, and metamorphic rock from existing rock changed by heat and pressure.

Earth's layers

From outside inward: the crust, the mantle, the liquid outer core, and the solid inner core. The core is composed mostly of iron and nickel.

Rotation and revolution

Rotation is a body spinning on its axis; Earth's rotation takes about 24 hours and causes day and night. Revolution is orbiting the Sun, taking about 365¼ days.