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Question Types

You may see the following types of selected-response questions on the exam:

Below you will find descriptions of these commonly used question formats, along with suggested approaches for responding to each type.

Single Questions

The single-question format presents a direct question or an incomplete statement. It can also include a reading passage, movie clip, graphic, table, or a combination of these.

Example

The following question is an example of the single-question format. It tests knowledge of Early Childhood: PK–3 Competency 010: (English Language Arts and Social Studies): Understand the foundational principles, concepts, and methods in English language arts and social studies to provide developmentally appropriate instruction for students in prekindergarten to grade 3.

A prekindergarten teacher would like to integrate opportunities for child-centered vocabulary development to promote clear communication during an exploratory unit on weather. Which of the following practices would best support the teacher's goal?

  1. demonstrating how to spell weather-related words to improve children's sight-word recognition
  2. posting visuals around the classroom that depict common weather conditions for children's reference
  3. incorporating weather-related read-alouds and asking children to illustrate the images from the text
  4. creating a weather station with the children and using it at circle time to identify daily forecasts
Suggested Approach

Read the question carefully and critically. Think about what it is asking and the situation it is describing. Eliminate any obviously wrong answers, select the correct answer choice, and mark your answer.

As you read the question, think about child-centered vocabulary development, specifically as it promotes children's communication in academic areas. The question requires an analysis of how children develop vocabulary, and asks which practice would best support this development as related to a classroom activity, in this case, an exploratory unit on weather. Next, look at the response options and consider which of them describes the best practice for promoting child-centered vocabulary in this situation.

Option A suggests that demonstrating the spelling of weather-related words will improve children's sight-word recognition, and thus will improve children's vocabulary development. Word walls and other use of environmental print are important tools to familiarize children with words and to develop their recognition of sight-words. Sight-words are words that children can read automatically without having to decode them. However, increasing children's recognition of sight-words will not develop their understanding of vocabulary. To develop vocabulary, children must develop an understanding of the meanings of words. Since this is not a component of Option A, it can be eliminated as the best response to this item.

Option B suggests that posting visuals around the classroom depicting common weather conditions for children's reference will improve their vocabulary. Posting these types of visuals around the classroom will support the reinforcement of children's understanding of these terms once they understand which visual is associated with each concept and term. However, posting pictures and other visuals without an associated vocabulary word that the children have already learned does not directly support children's development or understanding of associated concepts, terms, or vocabulary, so Option B can be eliminated as a best response to this item as well.

Option C suggests that incorporating weather-related read-alouds and asking children to illustrate the images from the text will best promote children's vocabulary development. It is important to foster children's connections to text and stories they have heard read aloud, and one way of doing this is to encourage children to represent and apply what they have learned through drawing, writing, or another medium. This activity would provide information about children's understanding and interpretation of the read-aloud, but would not support children's acquisition of content-specific vocabulary. Therefore, Option C would not be the best response for this item.

Option D suggests that creating a weather station with the children and using it at circle time to identify daily forecasts will effectively support child-centered vocabulary development to promote clear communication about weather. Creating a weather station with children illustrates an activity that the teacher would do together with the children. By involving the children in creating a weather station, children would be involved in choosing words that they associate with weather, and would learn new weather-related words and vocabulary from each other and from the teacher through completing this activity. By using the weather station daily at circle time, the teacher would apply and make relevant the practice of describing weather through appropriate vocabulary for children, and daily use would strengthen and reinforce their understanding of this type of vocabulary.

Of the options offered, only creating a weather station with the children and using it at circle time to identify daily forecasts could be considered the best practice to support the teacher's goal of integrating opportunities for child-centered vocabulary development to promote clear communication during an exploratory unit on weather. Therefore, the correct response is option D.

Clustered Questions

Clustered questions are made up of a stimulus and two or more questions relating to the stimulus. The stimulus material can be a reading passage, graphic, table, or any other information necessary to answer the questions that follow.

You can use several different approaches to respond to clustered questions. Some commonly used strategies are listed below.

Strategy 1 Skim the stimulus material to understand its purpose, its arrangement, and/or its content. Then read the questions and refer again to the stimulus material to obtain the specific information you need to answer the questions.
Strategy 2 Read the questions before considering the stimulus material. The theory behind this strategy is that the content of the questions will help you identify the purpose of the stimulus material and locate the information you need to answer the questions.
Strategy 3 Use a combination of both strategies. Apply the "read the stimulus first" strategy with shorter, more familiar stimuli and the "read the questions first" strategy with longer, more complex or less familiar stimuli. You can experiment with the sample questions in the preparation manuals and then use the strategy with which you are most comfortable when you take the actual exam.

Whether you read the stimulus before or after you read the questions, you should read it carefully and critically. You may want to note its important points to help you answer the questions.

As you consider questions set in educational contexts, try to enter into the identified teacher's frame of mind and use that teacher's point of view to answer the questions that accompany the stimulus. Be sure to consider the questions only in terms of the information provided in the stimulus — not in terms of your own experiences or individuals you may have known.

Example

First read the stimulus (statements describing a classroom activity involving two-digit addition).

Use the information below to answer the two questions that follow.

A second-grade class is learning various ways to complete two-digit addition with regrouping. The students have worked with base-ten blocks to develop an understanding of physical regrouping in addition. They most recently have been working on solving two-digit addition problems by drawing dots for ones, lines for tens, and squares for hundreds.

Now you are prepared to respond to the first of the two questions associated with this stimulus. The first question tests Early Childhood: PK–3 Competency 011: (Mathematics): Understand foundational principles, concepts, and methods in mathematics to provide developmentally appropriate instruction for students in prekindergarten to grade 3.

1. The activities involving two-digit addition problems most directly support students' acquisition of which of the following skills from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Grade 2 Mathematics?

  1. communicating mathematical ideas using multiple representations, including symbols
  2. using strategies based on place value to describe the relationship between addition and subtraction
  3. connecting repeated addition to multiplication through situations that equal grouping
  4. representing problems involving addition of whole numbers using visual and tactile models
Suggested Approach

As you read the question, think about second-grade students' development in mathematics, specifically in developing the ability to solve two-digit addition problems. The question requires analyzing mathematics activities and comparing them to skills from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Grade 2 Mathematics. After making this comparison, look at the response options and consider which of them describes an activity that would best support students' development of the ability to solve two-digit addition problems.

Option A suggests that communicating mathematical ideas using multiple representations, including symbols, is the skill from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Grade 2 Mathematics that is most directly supported by the activities described in the stimulus. To communicate mathematical ideas using multiple representations, the students would need to demonstrate that they understand how to solve one problem in these various ways. For example, to demonstrate this understanding, the students would need to show their understanding of a problem through writing it as an equation, drawing pictures to represent it, and using manipulatives to illustrate the concept. As the focus in this stimulus is on exploring a concept (two-digit addition) and not on representing one problem in a number of ways, Option A (communicating mathematical ideas using multiple representations, including symbols) is not the skill from the TEKS best represented in this item.

Option B suggests that using strategies based on place value to describe the relationship between addition and subtraction is the skill from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Grade 2 Mathematics that is most directly supported by the activities described in the stimulus. Although base-ten blocks and dots (ones), lines (tens), and squares (hundreds) can be used for regrouping in subtraction as well as in addition and can also be used to compare the relationship between the two, the focus in this stimulus is solely on two-digit addition using base-ten blocks and dots, lines, and squares. For this reason, Option B (using strategies based on place value to describe the relationship between addition and subtraction) is not the skill from the TEKS best represented in this item.

Option C suggests that connecting repeated addition to multiplication through situations that equal grouping is the skill from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Grade 2 Mathematics that is most directly supported by the activities described in the stimulus. Base-ten blocks and dots, lines, and squares could be used to visually and tactilely illustrate repeated addition and its relationship to multiplication. However, in this stimulus, the teacher is specifically focusing on two-digit addition with students. For this reason, Option C (connecting repeated addition to multiplication through situations that equal grouping) is not the skill from the TEKS best represented in this item.

Option D suggests that representing problems involving addition of whole numbers using visual and tactile models is the skill from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Grade 2 Mathematics that is most directly supported by the activities described in the stimulus. In this activity, the students are developing an understanding of physical regrouping in two-digit problems in addition using concrete, tactile objects (base-ten blocks) and visual, pictorial models (dots, lines, and squares).

Of the options offered, the activity described in the stimulus involving addition of two-digit addition problems most directly supports students' acquisition of the skill from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Grade 2 Mathematics that includes representing whole numbers using visual and tactile (pictorial and concrete) models. Therefore, the correct response is option D.

Now you are ready to answer the second question. The second question also measures Early Childhood: PK–3 Competency 011: (Mathematics): Understand foundational principles, concepts, and methods in mathematics to provide developmentally appropriate instruction for students in prekindergarten to grade 3.

2. Once students have mastered solving two-digit addition problems by drawing dots for ones, lines for tens, and squares for hundreds, which of the following strategies would be most effective for the teacher to instruct students in to support their learning of two-digit addition with regrouping?

  1. placing interlocking cubes on place-value mats
  2. practicing skip counting by twos, fives, and tens
  3. using algorithms based on knowledge of place value
  4. memorizing number families that total ten
Suggested Approach

Again, consider carefully the information presented in the stimulus.

Option A suggests that placing interlocking cubes on place-value mats would be most effective for the teacher to instruct students in to support their learning of two-digit addition with regrouping. Interlocking cubes are an effective concrete, tactile manipulative that can be used to develop an understanding of addition and could be used to reinforce students' existing understanding of the concept. However, they would not build on understanding students have already developed and would therefore not be an effective next step in the students' development of understanding of two-digit addition. Therefore, Option A would not be the best response for this item.

Option B suggests that practicing skip counting by twos, fives, and tens would be most effective for the teacher to instruct students in to support their learning of two-digit addition with regrouping. At the second-grade level, practicing skip counting for equal groups of twos, fives, and tens would be most effective to build a strong foundation for multiplication and division. Regrouping in addition would not effectively be supported by skip counting, so Option B can be eliminated as the best response for this item.

Option C suggests that using algorithms based on knowledge of place value would be most effective for the teacher to instruct students in to support their learning of two-digit addition with regrouping. An algorithm is a widely accepted process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations. When supporting students' development of new and unfamiliar mathematical concepts, teachers often use tactile and pictorial models to promote a deeper understanding of the process students are learning. Once students understand the mathematical concepts behind operations, it is then effective to teach them algorithms to support their completion of mathematical equations more efficiently.

Option D suggests that memorizing number families that total ten would be most effective for the teacher to instruct students in to support their learning of two-digit addition with regrouping. Students would have already learned number families that total ten by second grade. Although this practice is helpful for automaticity and accuracy in adding, this practice would not support further understanding of completing two-step addition problems accurately. Therefore, Option D is incorrect.

Of the options offered, using algorithms based on knowledge of place value would be most effective for the teacher to instruct students in to support their learning of two-digit addition with regrouping. Therefore, the correct response is option C.

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