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Descriptive Statements:
- Demonstrate knowledge of language acquisition theories and strategies as they apply to adolescents.
- Demonstrate knowledge of adolescent language and literacy development in the areas of critical thinking, reading, writing, speaking expressive communication, and listening/receptive communication.
- Demonstrate knowledge of how adolescents' language use is affected by various educational factors.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the relationships across students' linguistic skill sets that may include, but are not limited to, home languages, native languages, dialects, and academic languages as they are learned, developed, and used in the classroom.
Sample Item:
Which of the following statements accurately explains why English learners who receive explicit language instruction during adolescence typically have better learning outcomes than English learners who receive implicit language instruction as children?
- Adolescents' eagerness to be accepted leads them to apply corrective feedback.
- Adolescents' longer attention spans support their ability to practice discrete skills.
- Adolescents' level of cognitive maturity enables them to engage in problem solving, deduction, and analysis.
- Adolescents' motivation to learn English increases exponentially as academic subjects increase in complexity.
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. Cognitive development during adolescence results in an increase in the ability to engage in abstract reasoning as well as increased metalinguistic awareness, allowing adolescents to benefit from explicit language instruction.
Descriptive Statements:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the structures and purposes of argumentative, informative, and narrative writing and of methods for selecting an effective organizational approach for writing.
- Demonstrate knowledge of processes for planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing texts and of technological tools to use during all stages of the writing process.
- Apply knowledge of how to introduce and support claims in argumentative texts using reasoning supported by relevant evidence from accurate, credible sources.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for anticipating and responding to potential questions, concerns, and counterarguments in argumentative texts.
- Apply knowledge of methods for establishing a clear central idea in informational texts and for developing the idea with relevant facts, details, and other information and examples.
- Apply knowledge of how to use effective and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify relationships between claims, counterclaims, reasons, and evidence in an argumentative text and between ideas and concepts in an informative text.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for selecting and maintaining style, tone, voice, and diction appropriate to a given task, purpose, and audience.
- Apply knowledge of how to develop, sequence, and pace experiences and events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole in a personal or fictional narrative.
- Apply knowledge of how to use dialogue, descriptive details, sensory language, and reflection to develop experiences, events, and characters in narrative writing.
- Demonstrate knowledge of academic English conventions, effective word usage, and grammatical sentence structure in written texts.
Sample Item:
Read the draft paragraph below; then answer the question that follows.
1Scientists have recently discovered that laughter is a survival mechanism possessed by both humans and animals. 2Animals laugh in order to signal to other animals when they are playing and not fighting. 3When rats laugh, they emit a high-pitched chirp that is inaudible to the human ear. 4In both humans and animals, laughter comes as an involuntary response, like sneezing. 5Studies have shown that humans are more likely to laugh because they want to gain acceptance in a social group than because they think something is funny. 6It is possible to suppress laughter, but it is difficult to produce laughter convincingly without some kind of real, spontaneous stimulus. 7Therefore, laughter is generally interpreted as an honest expression of friendliness and sociability.
Which of the following sentences should be removed from the paragraph to eliminate extraneous information?
- Sentence 2
- Sentence 3
- Sentence 5
- Sentence 6
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
B. The primary purpose of the paragraph is to explain why both humans and animals laugh. Sentence 3 provides a minor detail about the sound of a particular animal's laughter, which is peripheral to the primary purpose of the paragraph and should therefore be removed.
Descriptive Statements:
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for developing research questions and for narrowing or broadening the scope of a research topic.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for locating sources of relevant information for a research topic.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for assessing the credibility, objectivity, and reliability of sources of information.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for accurately paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting directly from sources while avoiding plagiarism and following standard citation formats.
Sample Item:
A writer is developing a research report about butterflies. The writer's preliminary notes appear below.
- Butterflies live in many different habitats, including arctic plains and tropical rain forests.
- Butterflies can be found at a wide range of altitudes, from below sea level to high mountain elevations.
- In North America, monarch butterflies gather in the autumn and migrate south up to 1,800 miles for the winter.
- Parnassian butterflies live in mountainous regions of Asia, Europe, and North America.
- Ecologists can sometimes predict changes in the environment by studying the behavior of various butterfly species in the wild.
Given the information in these notes, the writer would be best prepared to address which of the following questions in the report?
- In what types of environments can butterflies survive?
- What are the feeding patterns of monarch butterflies during the winter?
- In what ways do monarch butterflies differ from parnassian butterflies?
- What are the various stages in the life cycle of a butterfly?
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
A. Because the writer's notes focus on the various habitats, ranges, and regions in which butterflies can be found, the writer will be best prepared to address the question "In what types of environments can butterflies survive?"
Descriptive Statements:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics, purposes, and challenges of various modes of listening and communicating.
- Demonstrate knowledge of factors that affect oral language and interpersonal communication development (e.g., familial, educational, socioeconomic, linguistic, and developmental characteristics).
- Demonstrate knowledge of techniques for planning, initiating, facilitating, and participating in a range of collaborative discussions.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for facilitating respectful, collaborative discussions and decision making.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for effective participation in academic discussions, including posing and responding to questions; referencing supporting evidence; synthesizing comments, claims, and evidence; and clarifying, verifying, and challenging conclusions.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for incorporating effective language styles, rhetorical devices, and vocal techniques into oral presentations for various purposes, audiences, and occasions.
Sample Item:
The conversation below takes place among three coworkers at an electronics store.
Coworker 1: We have great products at low prices, but we don't have enough customers. We need to attract more business.
Coworker 2: Some electronics stores let people try out the products right in the store. People seem to like that.
Coworker 3: Yes, but doesn't that get expensive for the stores? They can't sell used merchandise, right?
Coworker 2: It's worth the cost if people end up buying something after they try it out. We all know that customers rarely take our word that a product is good.
Coworker 3: Maybe you're right. Some customers think we're just trying to trick them into buying things.
Coworker 2: Exactly! But if we let them try the products in the store first, then they'll end up convincing themselves to buy them.
Coworker 1: __________________________________________________________________
Which of the following responses from Coworker 1 would most clearly indicate that they have been actively listening to Coworkers 2 and 3?
- "Maybe we should increase our advertising in local newspapers and on television."
- "I don't know. It can be fun to test-drive a new car, but that doesn't mean you're going to buy it."
- "There will be serious consequences for all of us if our sales don't increase sometime soon."
- "I guess business is slow everywhere these days, but that's no excuse. We really have to try harder."
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
B. Coworker 1 indicates that they have been listening actively by summarizing and then reflecting on comments made by Coworkers 2 and 3.
Descriptive Statements:
- Analyze messages, meanings, and themes conveyed through various media and in various combinations of media.
- Demonstrate knowledge of how components of media can be manipulated to misrepresent or alter information and can impact an individual's response or influence public opinion.
- Demonstrate knowledge of how individuals' personal experiences and prior knowledge affect their interpretation of multimedia texts.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for establishing a clear purpose and organizing a presentation to meet the requirements of a particular task, purpose, and audience.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for incorporating various media into presentations in order to engage the audience's interest and promote comprehension of the topic.
Sample Item:
An author is planning to give a multimedia presentation on the process of writing a graphic novel to a large group of middle school students. During the presentation, the author will highlight key steps in the process by using drawings, charts, diagrams, and animation. A chart would be the most effective presentation medium to highlight which of the following steps?
- establishing a mood
- choosing an illustrator
- plotting scenes in the story
- determining target audience
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. A chart would be most effective to use when planning and organizing the different scenes in the story prior to writing and drawing the graphic novel.
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