TExES Core Subjects EC-6 (391) cheat sheet

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

Phonological awareness is the umbrella skill of hearing and manipulating sound units; phonemic awareness is the narrower ability to isolate and manipulate individual phonemes.

The alphabetic principle is the understanding that letters and letter patterns map systematically onto spoken sounds.

Fluency comprises accuracy, automatic word recognition, and prosody; it is typically benchmarked as words correct per minute on a grade-level passage.

The Simple View of Reading: reading comprehension = decoding ability x linguistic comprehension, so weakness in either factor limits comprehension.

The four reciprocal stages of the writing process are planning/prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing; publishing follows editing.

Six Traits of Writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.

Criterion-referenced tests compare a student to a standard; norm-referenced tests compare a student to a norming sample.

Running records and miscue analysis classify oral reading errors as substitutions, omissions, insertions, and reversals to identify cue-system reliance (meaning, structure, visual).

Place value is positional: in 4,072 the 4 is worth 4,000 and the 7 is worth 70; each place to the left is ten times the value of the place to its right.

Commutative property: a + b = b + a and a x b = b x a. Associative property regroups: (a + b) + c = a + (b + c). Distributive property: a(b + c) = ab + ac.

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

A fraction a/b is a quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b; equivalent fractions are generated by multiplying numerator and denominator by the same nonzero number.

Area of a rectangle = length x width; area of a triangle = 1/2 x base x height; area of a circle = pi x r^2; circumference = 2 x pi x r.

Volume of a rectangular prism = length x width x height; volume of a cylinder = pi x r^2 x height.

Mean = sum of values divided by the number of values; median = middle value of an ordered set; mode = most frequent value; range = maximum minus minimum.

Customary conversions: 12 inches = 1 foot, 3 feet = 1 yard, 5,280 feet = 1 mile, 16 ounces = 1 pound, 8 fluid ounces = 1 cup, 4 quarts = 1 gallon.

Metric conversions shift by powers of ten: 1 kilometer = 1,000 meters, 1 meter = 100 centimeters, 1 kilogram = 1,000 grams, 1 liter = 1,000 milliliters.

The Declaration of Independence was adopted July 4, 1776; the U.S. Constitution was signed in 1787 and ratified in 1788, with the Bill of Rights added in 1791.

The three branches are legislative (Congress: House and Senate), executive (President), and judicial (Supreme Court); checks and balances let each branch limit the others.

Federalism divides power between the national government and the states; the Tenth Amendment reserves unspecified powers to the states or the people.

The Louisiana Purchase (1803) doubled U.S. territory; the Texas Revolution (1836) produced the Republic of Texas, annexed as a state in 1845.

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

Latitude lines run east-west and measure distance north or south of the equator; longitude lines run north-south and measure distance east or west of the prime meridian.

Economic systems lie on a spectrum from traditional to command (government-directed) to market (price-directed), with mixed economies combining features.

Primary sources are firsthand records created at the time (letters, diaries, photographs); secondary sources interpret or summarize primary evidence.

The scientific method cycle: ask a question, form a testable hypothesis, design a controlled investigation, collect and analyze data, draw conclusions, and communicate results.

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

The water cycle steps are evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, and collection/runoff.

Photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide, water, and light energy to produce glucose and oxygen; cellular respiration releases energy from glucose and produces carbon dioxide and water.

Food chains transfer energy from producers to consumers to decomposers; only about 10 percent of energy passes to the next trophic level.

States of matter change by adding or removing heat: melting (solid to liquid), evaporation (liquid to gas), condensation (gas to liquid), freezing (liquid to solid).

Earth's layers from outside in are crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core; tectonic plate movement causes earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building.

The Sun's apparent east-to-west motion results from Earth's west-to-east rotation; one rotation equals about 24 hours and one revolution equals about 365.25 days.

The elements of art are line, shape, form, color, value, texture, and space; the principles of design include balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, and unity.

Primary colors in pigment are red, yellow, and blue; mixing two primaries yields a secondary color (orange, green, violet).

Warm colors (red, orange, yellow) appear to advance; cool colors (blue, green, violet) appear to recede.

Pitch is determined by frequency, dynamics by amplitude; a steady beat underlies rhythm, and meter groups beats into recurring patterns.

Instrument families are strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion; the human voice is classified as soprano, alto, tenor, or bass.

In theater, the script, director, actors, designers, and audience combine; stage directions describe setting, movement, and delivery.

In dance, elements are body, action, space, time, and energy; locomotor movements travel (walk, run, jump) and non-locomotor movements stay in place (bend, twist).

Responding in the arts uses description, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation, in that order of increasing judgment.

The five components of health-related fitness are cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition.

The FITT principle prescribes exercise by Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type.

Target heart rate range is commonly estimated as 60 to 80 percent of maximum heart rate, where maximum heart rate is roughly 220 minus age.

Skill-related fitness components are agility, balance, coordination, power, reaction time, and speed.

The five food groups are fruits, vegetables, grains, protein foods, and dairy; nutrient classes include carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water.

Ages 6 to 17 are recommended to get 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily, including muscle- and bone-strengthening activity.

Communicable diseases spread by pathogens through contact, airborne droplets, or vectors; handwashing is the single most effective routine prevention measure.

The stages of a skill-learning progression are readiness, exploration, discovery, and practice toward mastery, with feedback improving performance.