Generalist Ec-6 (Practice Test 2 Incorrect)

Bears add fatty tissue to their body in preparation for hibernation during the winter months. Hibernation is a survival mechanism and a system of adaption to avoid starvation during the winter months. It is highly improbable that hibernation is done to avoid competition with other animals (B), to maintain a healthy ecosystem (C), or to prevent the movement of animals to residential areas (D). Competency 037

Remembering that a face is a plain region of a geometric body, one can determine that since there are six sides to a cube that there are also six faces. Competency 016

Separating syllables into individual phonemes calls for syllabication and phoneme segmentation. Both concepts are part of phonological awareness. (A) is incorrect because sentence analysis was not the primary concern in the scenario. The intonation pattern describes the rhythm and pitch used in phrases and sentences. (C) is incorrect because in the latter activity, the issue is the phonological analysis of words. Vocabulary development was emphasized in the first part of the scenario only. (D) is incorrect because the scenario does not address pronunciation at all. Competency 002

The survival of the fittest (B) or the conservation efforts (C) are not addressed in the scenario. (D) is a very simplistic answer, and it does not address the main purpose of the lesson. Competency 032

An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure for solving problems. Although algorithms are often implemented using computers and can be used to evaluate students (A), this does not give the fundamental property of an algorithm. (B) and (C) are not appropriate answers for the definition of an algorithm, although they may be true. Therefore, (D) is the correct answer. Competency 014

The three sentences can be combined with appropriate connectors to avoid repetitions. In this particular case, the conjunctions can be used to create compound sentences. Sentence 3 shows faulty agreement, which suggests that the child can also benefit from this kind of instructional support. (A) and (B) are incorrect because the writing sample does not show problems with spelling or the use of active and passive voices. (D) is incorrect because the writing sample does not show problems with capitalization and punctuation. Competency 009

Activating schema, or background knowledge related to a topic, helps students to make connections between new information and what they already know. Teachers can help students to activate the correct schema as a pre-reading strategy so that students can better understand new ideas and terminology. While motivation is important (A), it does not activate their schema of the topic. (C) and (D) are related comprehension strategies; however, they are not the primary reason for a teacher to activate prior knowledge in students. Competency 007

Sketching a character is developmentally appropriate for students in first grade for viewing and representing and involves creating a visual depiction of a character that can then be discussed. (B), (C), and (D) are more appropriate activities for students in grades 3–6. Competency 011

Cold-blooded animals, like snakes and turtles, get their heat from solar energy. Competency 036

Oral retelling is a good strategy to use when having emergent and beginning readers recall the main elements of the story. It allows students opportunities to recall key events and details of the story, even before they become fluent readers. (A), (B), and (C) describe informal assessment techniques used with students who are already reading and writing at the intermediate and advanced levels. Competency 007

Teachers have to present the consistent sounds of English first to develop self-confidence among children. Once children master those initial grapheme-phoneme correspondences, they can attempt more challenging components. (A) is incorrect because it deals with a generic well-accepted practice, but it does not address the question. (B) is incorrect because the alphabetic principle does not specifically deal with the issue of the development of foreign accents. (C) is incorrect because it failed to address the question. It is always important to create an atmosphere of collaboration among students, but this statement does not address the linguistic nature of the question. Competency 003

Thematic instruction is ideal to teach social studies to ELLs because the multiple components of the theme are presented in multiple disciplines and contexts. This redundancy facilitates the understanding of the multiple components of a theme. (A), (C), and (D) are probably true statements, but they individually do not represent the true advantages of using thematic instruction with ELLs. Competency 019

Plants take energy from sunlight and convert it to produce chemical energy. Through the process of cellular respiration, this type of energy in converted into ATP—the type of fuel used by living things. As part of the process of photosynthesis, plants take carbon dioxide (B) from the environment and convert it into oxygen (D). Thus, these two elements are part of the process, not the final product. Plants contain a pigment called chlorophyll (C), which also plays a role but does not constitute the product of photosynthesis. Competency 037

Hands-on activities can make the curriculum more relevant and guide children to construct their own knowledge. Hands-on activities can probably lead children to think abstractly (A), but the activity is not designed exclusively to accomplish this goal. Hands-on activities can make the class more interesting and enjoyable (B), but they are not the reasons for the activities. (D) is incorrect because there is no evidence to suggest that hands-on activities can promote equity, equality, or freedom among students. Competency 013

The Civil Rights Act passed in 1964 prohibited segregation in all public facilities and discrimination in education and employment. President John F. Kennedy proposed new civil rights laws as well as programs to help the millions of Americans living in poverty. After his assassination in Dallas in 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson urged Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act in honor of Kennedy, persuading the majority of Democrats and some Republicans. (B), (C), and (D) are incorrect because these were important aspects of the Act but not the name of the Act. Competency 020

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous I Have a Dream speech took place during the march in Washington in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The eloquent speech and orderly demonstration gained more supporters for the cause. He was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, but his work resulted in the official Civil Right Act in 1964. (A) is incorrect because the speech did not prompt a riot. (B) is incorrect because the Montgomery Improvement Association was formed after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in 1955. (C) is incorrect because the speech did not result in a loss of supporters. Competency 020

The alphabetic principle has been described as the ability to connect letters with sounds and to create words based on these associations. The only option that completely captures these two components is (B). Therefore, (A), (C), and (D) are incorrect. (C) describes the process to identify and create syllables—syllabication. Competency 003

The year is calculated based on the time needed for the planet to go around the sun (revolution), and the distance from the Sun determines the length of the year. Since Mercury is the closes planet to the Sun, it takes shorter time to complete the revolution. Competency 041

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) challenged the laws of segregation with the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case. In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. (A) and (C) are incorrect because there were no civil rights associations by those names. (D) is also incorrect because while the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was an association led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it was not the group that challenged the Topeka Board of Education. Competency 020

The word 'bound' in this type of morpheme should immediately indicate that this type of morpheme cannot occur in isolation; that is, it is bound to 'something else.' In this case, a bound morpheme must always be attached to a root word or another morpheme. This explanation makes (A), (B) and (C) incorrect. Competency 001

Telling the students the mode of writing is likely not sufficient to support students' understanding of writing for an audience (D). Revising a piece of writing based on feedback provided from the audience (B), and asking students to role play and react to it can guide children to adjust the writing (A). (C) helps students internalize that a specific audience will be reading their paper and that they need to develop the writing accordingly. Competency 010

In any triangle, the sum of the angles must equal 180°. If a triangle has two equal sides, the third side cannot be unique and must be a set length. The lines associated with the equal sides will intersect the third side at the same angle. Therefore, the only answer that can be determined true from the information is (D). Competency 016

Confirming predictions is one of the most common ways to engage students in reading, focus their reading, and help them read with comprehension. By thinking aloud a teacher can explicitly model the procedures used when reading a text. Reader's theater (A) is a technique designed for the purpose of building fluency through repeated reading, while (C) and (D) focus primarily on decoding words or word meanings. Competency 007

When reading informational text, students have to analyze the type of text structure and organizational pattern used in the writing. The faster they learn to decipher the structure, the faster they will be able to retrieve information and read with greater efficiency. Using graphic organizers (A) and developing academic English (C) are important but secondary strategies that children need to master to move to the stage of "reading to learn." Predicting the content (D) is an effective strategy for narrative text, but it loses its effectiveness with expository writing. Competency 008

The state of Texas does not have a state personal income tax. The personal and corporate tax structure, together with the technological development of the state, attracts corporations and investors to the state. The climate (A) and the history (B) play minimal roles in the decision of corporations to relocate in Texas. The proximity with Mexico and Central American (C) might play a role, but not as strong as the financial incentives offered in the state. Competency 022

A full moon occurs 12 months a year. Because the year contains about eleven extra days, these days accumulate, in such a way that every two or three years, we have an extra full moon a year. This extra full moon is called a blue moon. (B) is incorrect because a blue moon does not necessarily precede a lunar eclipse. (C) and (D) are incorrect because they do not provide a scientific explanation for the saying. In (C), the idiomatic expression makes reference to a strange rare event in general. (D) incorrectly links this expression to another idiomatic expression that links the color blue with sadness. Competency 041

The median is the middle number when the numbers are lined up from the greatest to the least. If this is done, one can see that since there are 28 total numbers there is no clear "middle number." The middle number falls between the fourteenth and fifteenth numbers which happen to be 6 and 6, respectively. Therefore, the two numbers are averaged obtaining the median of 6. Competency 017

Syllabication and word stress are part of the concept called phonological awareness. (A) is incorrect because the activity goes beyond establishing the connection between letters and sounds typical of the alphabetic principle. (B) is incorrect because the development of fluency goes beyond the analysis of individual words. The development of phonological awareness is a prerequisite for the development of fluency. (D) is incorrect because the concept of syllabication is only one of two elements presented in the scenario—syllabication and word stress. Competency 003

The TEKS introduces the history of the United States in fifth grade. (A) is incorrect because in second grade the social studies curriculum covers local communities. (B) is incorrect because in third grade the curriculum centers on how individuals change their communities and the world. (C) is incorrect because in fourth grade students become familiar with the history of Texas. Competency 019

These divisions are based on physical and cultural similarities. (A), (B), and (C) are partial answers, but individually they do not constitute an appropriate answer. Competency 021

The use of pictures to represent events in the story can be used to represent the sequencing of events in the story. It can also be used to introduce visually the parts of the story, i.e., characters, setting, plot, climax, and resolution. (A) is incorrect because the teacher is not connecting directly the pictures with the written text and the appropriate pronunciation. Teachers can fill the background knowledge of the students through visuals (B); however, this activity is usually done as a pre-reading activity. Since the visuals were used as a post-reading activity, we can believe that filling the gaps was not the primary purpose of the activity. The teacher is definitely using developmentally appropriate practices (D), but the real intent of the activity goes beyond that. Competency 007

The word mine is a free morpheme when used in isolation; however, it is not a free morpheme in the word predetermined (B). There is no evidence to suggest that the student is having problems with suffixes or prefixes (A). Since she recognized that the segment mine can be classified as a free morpheme in certain conditions, there is no evidence to suggest that she does not understand the concept of free morphemes (C) and (D). Competency 001

The main reason for the creation of the language experience approach (LEA), also known as language charts, was to eliminate the discrepancy between the background knowledge that the child brings to the reading process and the experiential background required to understand the story, i.e., the schema of the author. (B) is incorrect because it eliminates the need to discuss the schema of the story by exposing children to a common experience and guiding them to dictate a story using the experience. (C) is incorrect because students will use their own vocabulary in the story; if they use idioms, these are probably known to children in the group. (D) is incorrect because the main purpose of LEA is not to contrast L1 and L2. Competency 004

Culture shapes the way that children behave and perform in school. Linguistic limitations can also affect the ability of children to demonstrate capabilities and potential. The option of making students feel valued and wanted (A) is a noble cause, but it should not be the main concern when assessing CLD learners. (B) presents a true statement when it indicated that students go through different stages of development, but invalidated the answer by saying that these should not affect the way in which they are assessed. The term cultural deficit used in (D) invalidates the answer because CLD learners cannot be considered culturally deficient since they already bring with them their language and culture. Competency 012

Children that are four and five years old may not understand that changes in the appearance do not necessarily change the characteristics of an object. For example, if an apple is cut in half the children may not understand that there are two pieces of one apple. Instead, many students may say that there are now two apples. The difficulty these students face is with the concept of conservation. Competency 013

Anecdotal records are notes a teacher takes while observing students as they work on tasks in the classroom. It provides insight into the processes and interactions the group is using during their discussion and work on activities. The teacher can also provide feedback to the students at a later time using the anecdotal record for reference. (A) is incorrect because running records are used mostly for assessing miscue analysis, reading accuracy, and fluency. (B) is incorrect because portfolios focus more on looking at student work products and/or self-assessments and reflections over time, while summative evaluation (C) is more for end-of-term evaluations on students. Competency 012

The traditional states of matter found in the Earth are liquid, solid, and gas. In space, the most common form of mass is plasma. Plasma cannot be identified as a solid, liquid, or gas; thus, this new classification was created to describe it. Competency 031

In minimal pairs, students are required to identify whether two sets of words are different or the same based on the phoneme sequence contained in each word. For example, the words vine and fine are different because they differ in at least one phoneme, i.e., the /v/ and /f/. (A) is incorrect because morphology is not taken into account when comparing the two words. (C) is incorrect because there is no connection between minimal pairs and syntax. (D) is incorrect because lexicon deals with vocabulary development, and minimal pairs attempt to test whether children can understand how phonemes change the meaning of the words. Competency 012

Information in social studies can be presented in graphic form through the use of graphs and charts. This makes the content accessible to all children, including ELLs. (B), (C), and (D) describe possible ways to use advanced organizers and graphic representations, but individually these options do no fully explain their value. Competency 019

When children over generalize like in the example—bestest—they are in reality applying grammar rules which indicate that they have passed the stage of mere repetition, and they are beginning to decipher the grammar of the language. This overgeneralization is typical of English native speakers acquiring a language, and does not show any kind of interference from a language. This statement eliminates (B) and (C). (D) is incorrect but it can be confusing because cartoons such as "Rugrats" often use this kind of overgeneralization to mimic the speech of children; however, the continuous overgeneralization typical of children cannot be attributed to cartoons on television. Competency 005

The TOP contains a checklist of specific skills for teachers to document when these behaviors occur during observation. (A) and (B) are incorrect because the TOP does not contain rating scales or multiple-choice questions. (C) is incorrect because the TOP is a checklist identifying the specific linguistic features for observation. Competency 012

The LAD is said to be an internal mechanism that allows human beings to produce language and to make use of their own internal grammar. Of particular interest is Chomsky's work, which led to understanding that the LAD is adaptable to the language that is being learned. Competency 001

The Andes and the Amazon River are geographical barriers that separate the many ethnic groups in Central and South America. Competency 021

The Fourteenth Amendment declared that all persons born in the U.S. were citizens, that all citizens were entitled to equal rights, and that their rights were protected by due process. The amendment, however, excludes Native Americans. (A) and (B) are incorrect because while blacks and women did not enjoy the benefits of full equal rights, such as voting rights, until later on, the amendment did not specifically exclude them. (C) is incorrect because the rights of children were not mentioned in the amendment. Competency 023

The main purpose of DRTA is to enable students to make ongoing predictions and confirmations of those predictions while reading a text. The teacher models this during a read-aloud or shared reading and instructs students to do the same as they read. (A), (B), and (D) focus on activities that will enhance and develop students' comprehension; however, they are not centrally related to the specific instructional focus of DRTA. Competency 008

The expansion of the railroad system made transportation of cattle and agricultural products easier for Texas' farmers and ranchers. (B) is incorrect because the railroad facilitated the industrialization of the state but this development did not happen in the nineteenth century. Connecting the East and the West (C) is not necessarily a relevant economic development. (D) is a false statement; the economy of Texas in the latter part of the 19th century was still developing. Competency 022

Bringing concrete objects to class are generally used to build interest in the lesson. In lesson planning, this segment of the lesson is called focus activity or motivation. (B) and (C) provide a generic rationale for the answer. (D) is incorrect because there is no evidence to suggest that the tree was used for experimentation. Competency 025

The state curriculum officially introduces children to the people and places of the contemporary world in sixth grade. (A) is incorrect because in third grade the social studies curriculum covers how individuals change their communities and the world but does not include places of the contemporary world. (B) is incorrect because in fourth grade students become familiar with the history of Texas. (C) is incorrect because in fifth grade the curriculum centers on the history of the United States. Competency 019

Artists use the principles of art to create and communicate through their artwork. (B) is incorrect because it describes the elements of art, as opposed to the principles of art. (C) is incorrect because subjects are communicated through art. (D) is incorrect because there are several different artistic concepts presented in the standards for kindergarten through grade 6. Competency 042

The discovery of oil and the economic and technologic development that followed moved Texas from a rural/agrarian society to a modern industrial state. During the twentieth century the production of oil in the United States has never been large enough to supply local and international demands (A). The discovery of oil has not had a direct impact in the production of textiles and cattle in Texas (B). The discovery of oil helped the development of the American economy, but it was not the only element that helped the nation in its economic development (D). Competency 022