Test Information Guide
Field 72: Early Childhood
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions
Recommendation for individuals using a screenreader: please set your punctuation settings to "most."
Child Development, Language Foundations, and the Writing Process
Objective 0001
Understand the science, including neuroscience, of child development and learning and its application to provide and differentiate experiences that holistically promote early childhood development across all domains for all children.
1. Use the information below to answer the question that follows.
Following a read-aloud, a kindergarten teacher engages children in a whole-group activity in which they discuss and illustrate an episode of the story to identify the feelings, thoughts, and actions of characters.
The graphic organizer includes a title, a key, and an illustration describing the thoughts, feelings, and actions of characters from the story read aloud. In the top left corner of the graphic organizer is the title "Story Map." In the right-hand corner of the graphic organizer is the key with three symbols and corresponding words. The first symbol is a cloud with the word "Thoughts," the second symbol is a heart with the word "Feelings," and the third symbol is a thunder bolt with the word "Actions." Directly below the title and the key is the class illustration.
On the left side of the illustration is a shark, a heart, a cloud, a thunder bolt with a written description in or next to each shape. In the heart it says, "Excited and happy," in the cloud it says, "I want to play with all of my friends," and next to the thunder bolt is says, "Clark the Shark is so excited to play with his friends. He knocks the toys over and pushes his friends." On the right side of the illustration are two fish, a heart, a cloud, and a written description in each shape. In the cloud it says, "We don't want to play with Clark when he pushes us," and in the heart is says, "Sad."
Based on the whole-class illustration, this activity best supports children's development of which of the following social and emotional skills?
- recognizing that one's actions impact the perspective of others
- distinguishing between socially appropriate and inappropriate behaviors
- identifying personal feelings and situations that influence these emotions
- using coping strategies to manage feelings brought on by difficult situations
- Answer
- Correct Response: A.
Correct Response: A.
Objective 0002
Understand the foundations of language development and developmentally appropriate, evidence-based methods for supporting children's emergent literacy development.
2. Use the information below to answer the question that follows.
After providing students with explicit instruction and modeling, a second-grade teacher creates a visual display of established communication strategies for students to reference during small-group discussions.
Communication Strategies What do you mean by that?
I agree with you because blank
This reminds me of blank
I disagree with you because blank
In other words, you are saying blank
The teacher's scaffolding approach would most likely support progress toward which of the following instructional goals?
- encouraging students to produce complex grammatical structures while engaging in social exchanges with peers
- promoting the productiveness of students' reciprocal communication during academic discourse
- increasing students' knowledge of content-specific vocabulary through participation in unstructured conversations
- establishing the expectation that students need to contribute equally while taking part in academic discourse
- Answer
- Correct Response: B.
Correct Response: B.
Objective 0002
Understand the foundations of language development and developmentally appropriate, evidence-based methods for supporting children's emergent literacy development.
3. Use the information below to answer the question that follows.
A prekindergarten teacher engages a four-year-old child in pretend play involving a picnic lunch and animal toys. The following is the dialogue between the teacher and the child.
Child: Give me the cup.
Teacher: Do you want the green cups or the yellow cups?
Child: I want the yellow cup.
Teacher: Do you want one yellow cup or two yellow cups?
Child: Yes. I want two cups.
Teacher: Okay. Here are your two yellow cups.
Child: Milk in the cup.
Teacher: Do you want milk in both yellow cups?
Child: Yes. Milk in this cup. Milk in that cup.
The teacher's engagement approach demonstrates knowledge of which of the following language-teaching techniques?
- correcting the child's production so that language forms are overtly stated
- exposing the child to language concepts through direct, explicit instruction
- reframing the utterances produced by the child to model expanded language
- prompting the child to repeat target concepts during incidental opportunities
- Answer
- Correct Response: C.
Correct Response: C.
Objective 0003
Understand the foundations of writing development and developmentally appropriate, evidence-based strategies for promoting children's emergent writing skills and writing competence.
4. A second-grade teacher creates an activity in which students interview family members about their cultural traditions as part of a lesson on family and individual identity. Students will record descriptions of cultural traditions in a journal to share with peers during a small-group discussion. Following the discussion, students will then create a digital presentation summarizing the cultural traditions of their family members using writing and images to share with the class. The teacher's instructional approach is likely to be effective in promoting the writing development of students who are culturally and linguistically diverse by:
- encouraging students to engage in reading about global traditions before writing to activate their prior knowledge.
- establishing a family shared-writing routine so that students develop habits to increase their writing fluency.
- embedding discussion as part of the writing process to improve students' transfer of oral language to writing.
- integrating students' experiences to create meaningful opportunities to engage in writing.
- Answer
- Correct Response: D.
Correct Response: D.
Core Knowledge in Mathematics
Objective 0004
Understand concepts and processes of mathematics as they apply to early childhood education.
5. As a kindergarten teacher distributes materials for an exploratory project, a child exclaims, "No fair. They got eight and I only got seven!" The child's statement demonstrates acquisition of which of the following mathematical skills?
- generating qualitative comparisons using object counting
- distributing objects equally among classmates
- counting on from some number other than one
- understanding that numerals represent quantities
- Answer
- Correct Response: A.
Correct Response: A.
Objective 0005
Demonstrate the ability to provide developmentally appropriate instruction to promote mathematics learning.
6. Use the information below to answer the question that follows.
A second-grade teacher organizes students into pairs to solve a two-digit addition problem using concrete representations. The following is a recorded teacher observation of a student pair as they engage in problem solving.
Math Problem of the Day: Use your base-ten blocks to solve 55 + 36. Observed Student Work
Step #1
As a first step to solving the math problem, the students place five, ten blocks and five, one blocks on the left, an addition sign in the center, and three, ten blocks and six, one blocks on the right.
Step #2
As a second step to solving the math problem, the students place five, ten blocks on the left, an addition sign in the center, and three, ten blocks on the right. Directly to the right of this, the students place five, one blocks on the left, an addition sign in the center, followed by six, one cubes on the right. The student discussion directly follows the observed problem-solving strategies.
Student Discussion Student #1: Let's add the ten blocks first. We have five tens and three tens, so that makes eight tens.
Student #2: Okay. We should add the ones next. We have five ones and six ones, so that makes eleven ones.
Student #1: Well, if we have eleven ones that means we have another ten and a one.
Student #2: So now we have nine tens and a one. Now we can find the solution!
Based on the work sample and discussion, the teacher's instructional approach supports students' development of which of the following mathematical skills?
- estimating to assess the reasonableness of a solution
- developing fluency with the standard addition algorithm
- composing numbers using place-value understanding
- using mental math strategies to regroup for addition
- Answer
- Correct Response: C.
Correct Response: C.
Core Knowledge in History and Social Science
Use the information below to answer the two questions that follow.
As part of a civics unit on the qualities of a good leader, a first-grade teacher assigns the role of Classroom Leader to one student each day. Once every student has been the classroom leader, the teacher engages students in a whole-group discussion to identify specific examples of leadership traits demonstrated by classmates. The following is a chart in which students recorded leadership traits of classmates during the discussion.
The chart created by the class includes a rectangle divided into four quadrants. In the center of the four quadrants is a small rectangle with the title "Traits of a Good Classroom Leader." In the upper left-hand corner, the quadrant is labeled "Acts for the Common Good" and directly below this label is the statement, "Abigail helped Oliver go to the nurse when he wasn't feeling well." In the lower lower-left hand corner, the quadrant is labeled "Honest" and below this label is the statement, "When Ms. Rivera asked who broke all the pencils, Isaiah told the truth." In the upper right-hand corner, the quadrant is labeled "Unselfish" and directly below this label is the statement, "Jaden always makes sure that everyone gets a turn when we play games." In the lower right-hand corner, the quadrant is labeled "Inspires Others" and directly below this label is the statement, "Aaliyah tries really hard and tells everyone, 'We can do it!'"
Objective 0006
Understand principles and concepts of history and social science as they apply to early childhood education.
7. Connecting good leadership traits to student actions is an important component of the classroom lesson for which of the following reasons?
- facilitating students' observance of classroom rules that encourage leadership
- increasing students' ability to identify leadership traits of school authority figures
- establishing the understanding that all students can achieve positive leadership habits
- developing a consensus about which students possess leadership characteristics
- Answer
- Correct Response: C.
Correct Response: C.
Objective 0007
Demonstrate the ability to provide developmentally appropriate, content-specific instruction to promote history and social science learning.
8. Which of the following instructional strategies did the teacher implement to support the students' understanding of the roles of citizens in the classroom?
- encouraging students to reflect on their own leadership qualities to increase self-awareness
- offering specific feedback to increase students' concept development of good leadership
- having students make connections between leadership qualities in the classroom and those of school authority figures
- building students' knowledge of leadership through meaningful, student-centered activities
- Answer
- Correct Response: D.
Correct Response: D.
Core Knowledge in Science and Technology/Engineering
Objective 0008
Understand principles and concepts of science and technology/engineering as they apply to early childhood education.
9. Second-grade students are given a variety of materials to create a model showing the characteristics of a plant, such as a water lily or cactus, and how it lives in its own environment. This activity would best support students' understanding of the ways in which:
- the location and climate of a habitat contribute to plant diversity.
- ecosystems contain microhabitats that support diverse plant life.
- adaptations promote the survival of plants in specific habitats.
- plants are the primary producers of energy in an ecosystem.
- Answer
- Correct Response: C.
Correct Response: C.
Objective 0009
Demonstrate the ability to provide developmentally appropriate, content-specific instruction to promote science and technology/engineering learning.
10. Use the information below to answer the question that follows.
As part of the daily morning meeting, kindergarten children use observations to collect data about the weather. The teacher records the class's data in a weekly weather tracker, as shown below.
What is the weather today? Sunny
Rainy
Cloudy
At the end of the week, kindergarten children engage in a whole-group discussion to compare any consistencies or changes in the weather. The teacher's instructional approach would best promote students' application of which of the following science and engineering practices?
- designing solutions to problems
- analyzing data to identify patterns
- using evidence to support an argument
- applying computational thinking
- Answer
- Correct Response: B.
Correct Response: B.