Fine Arts
What the test asks
Fine arts items cover the four disciplines-music, visual art, drama/theatre, and dance-with emphasis on the elements, principles, and appropriate grade-level integration. Expect questions on the elements of each art form, vocabulary, and how to connect arts to other content.
Concepts to master
- Visual art elements: line, shape, color, value, texture, form, space; principles: balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, unity.
- Music elements: rhythm, melody, harmony, form, timbre, dynamics, tempo; families of instruments.
- Drama: story elements, character, setting, plot; role-play and tableau.
- Dance: space, time, force/energy, body; locomotor vs. non-locomotor movement.
- Integration: arts as a way to represent understanding across content areas.
Traps
Color theory items confuse primary (red, yellow, blue) with secondary (orange, green, violet). Music traps confuse tempo (speed) with dynamics (loud/soft), or rhythm with melody. Drama items may ask for the best integration strategy-tableau and role-play support comprehension. Dance items test locomotor (traveling) vs. non-locomotor (in place) movement.
Rule of thumb
For any arts item, identify which element or principle is being used, then ask whether the activity is creating, performing, responding, or connecting-the four artistic processes.
Worked example: Students freeze in poses to show a story's key moment. This is a tableau-a drama strategy that builds comprehension through non-verbal representation.
Health and Physical Education
What the test asks
Health/PE items cover physical fitness components, movement skills, health content (nutrition, disease prevention, safety), and the pedagogy of developmentally appropriate activity. Expect questions on fitness components, the FITT principle, nutrition basics, and safe practice.
Concepts to master
- Health-related fitness: cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, body composition.
- Skill-related fitness: agility, balance, coordination, power, reaction time, speed.
- FITT principle: Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type.
- Movement: locomotor, non-locomotor, manipulative skills; spatial awareness.
- Nutrition: food groups, balanced diet, hydration, moderation.
- Safety/health: warm-up/cool-down, injury prevention, hygiene, communicable disease prevention.
Traps
Health-related vs. skill-related fitness is a frequent confusion-flexibility is health-related, agility is skill-related. FITT items may test which component a change affects. Nutrition traps involve identifying the most balanced choice, not the most restrictive. Safety items favor proper warm-up, hydration, and supervision. Developmentally, young children need exploratory, non-competitive movement, not intense training.
Rule of thumb
Classify each fitness component as health-related or skill-related first; then apply FITT to describe how to improve it.
Worked example: To improve cardiorespiratory endurance, apply FITT: jog 3×/week (frequency), moderate intensity, 20 minutes (time), running (type). Endurance is health-related, so this targets the right component.