Got the results today and I missed it by 3 points! Anyone want to do a study group with me in the Windermere/ocoee/winter garden area? Email me outofessence@hotmail.com.
Study Guide Britney may I ask what you used to study and prepare for this test? I am preparing to study and take this test and have set my goal date to be in Feb/March time frame if not sooner. I would like some ideas as to materials you used to prepare for this. Thanks!!
Hi andbel I purchased the XAM FTCE Elementary Ed K-6 study guide, I made flashcards and printed out every FTCE study guides I could find online (do a Google search...there are TONS of them!). I thought it was good enough and that I'd studied well. I'm going to retake it November 22nd. I'd say you could do a study group with me but you're taking it much later. I really wish more on here were taking it soon so I could do a study group. I really think that would give me those extra points. It really is a difficult test.
I took in for the 3rd time on the 20th of october! missed it by 9 the first time 8 the 2nd and 7 the 3rd and help would be much appriciated!!! I retake again on the 20th of November. I must pass it or I cant intern in the spring!!!
You can do something like a study group right here. It's neither permitted nor wise to reveal actual test questions on A to Z, but there's nothing to stop you from discussing the issues behind the questions.
I am having trouble understanding some of the literacy terms in the Language Arts & Reading section. There are all running together in my head and I can't for the life of me seem to separate them. I've done internet searches for them but still am having trouble. I remeber struggling with this part on the test as well. I think what I need is application and examples of each to truly grasp it (I guess). Can someone lend help with examples? The FTCE X-Am book I bought isn't doing a good job of helping me. Here's the words I mean, with what I "think" they are through application. Phonological Awareness-child is able to recognize sounds of words--"S" says "ssss". "T-H" says "Th" (blending) Phonics-sounding out words in segments (ie: clapping syllables to distinguish sounds). Phonemic Awareness-when listening, the child can orally recognize the sounds; rhymes, replacing sounds. Phonemes-single letter sounds that can have different sounds depending on what the word is--"gin" & "gun"..??? Please feel free to help me with any of the above. I'm staring at what I've written for the definitions but still don't "get" it because they all seem to be so similar!!!! Alphabetic Principle/Graphophonemic Awareness-My book says this has nothing to do with sounding out letters but only just recognizing that words are made up of patterns and each of those "patterns" makes a different sound....?????....but then, in the next paragraph it says "Students need to be able to take spoken words apart and blend different sounds together to make new words...& apply letter sounds to all reading". (I'M SO CONFUSED because then that makes it like Phonological Awareness & Phonemic Awareness, no?) Grapheme-Recognizing that languages are made up of and written in many different "forms/patterns"....????? Please help. I would GREATLY apprecaite it. I think this is probably the most difficult part of the test. At least for me.
Your book is telling you WHAT??? If it were in my hands, I'd try it for heresy and burn it at the stake, if I thought the fumes wouldn't foul my flue. Ick three times over! (This stuff really shouldn't be that hard, dagnabit!) - Phonemes are the sounds in a language that distinguish one word from another. When someone says heed and hid, we recognize those as different words, yes? What we're noticing is that where one word has "long e" (phonemically /i/), the other has "short I" (which I can fake here as /I/, since I don't think A to Z will let me write /ɪ/ or /ɩ/). In English, the difference between those vowels is phonemic. In Spanish and several other Romance languages, the difference between those sounds is merely phonetic - on the level of sound, but not on the level of meaning. For example, Spanish speakers tend to have a terrible time hearing and pronouncing /i/ vs. /I/, because those phones (sounds) don't belong to distinct phonemes in Spanish: "short i" is just a bad pronunciation of /i/. Note, by the way, that speakers of English who pronounce the word bad with the vowel that other speakers use in the word bed still distinguish the same phonemes as the other speakers: they just pronounce them using different phones. (The book's examples are very bad. Gin and gun do not constitute a minimal pair - that is, a pair of words that differs in just one phoneme in the same place in each word. Someone badly needs a basic course in linguistics.) - A grapheme is a symbol with which we spell. <b> is the grapheme with which we write the phoneme /b/. Alphabets pay a good deal of attention to phonemes - the letter /z/, for example, can generally be depended on to write one sound. In some cases, two letters combine to write a single sound: that's a digraph, and the word digraph conveniently ends in a digraph: that's the <ph>. The Alphabetic Principle is simply the principle that, overall, one letter should correspond to one sound and vice versa. English is better at this than many people believe. - Phonological awareness embraces recognizing phonemes in words, but it also includes the recognition of intonation (pitch and stress cues in speech). - Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize, discriminate, and manipulate phonemes in words - that is, not letters-and-sounds, just sounds. That, at least, your book seems to have gotten right. (And it darned well had better: this is one of the biggest Big Technical Terms out there for elementary ed these days.) Phonics is the systematic and explicit teaching of regular letter-sound correspondences. Note the "letter-sound" part: THIS is where the alphabet comes in. There are certainly graphophonemic correspondences - reliable correspondences between grapheme and phoneme - but I don't think I've ever before encountered the term "Graphophonemic Awareness"; it is either a neologism or simply bogus. Hope this helps. If you'll excuse me, though, I need to go kick something: that book has me genuinely angry.
Thank you Teacher! I am going to study more of what you've written, as I've just quickly glanced and read through it, but not comprehensively. I should point to you, that the "gin" "gun" was my own application/example and NOT one that was in the book. The book didn't have an example. (Which is a major issue I have with it. I am an EXAMPLE person, in order to truly understand something). All of the definitions (aside from the ones I quoted) were what I had interpreted and put into my own words from what the book had said. Let me tell you though, this book has a confusing way of explaining itself in my opinion. I went back and checked it to see if it did indeed use the word Graphophonemic Awareness and it sure does! It says "The Alphabetic Principle is sometimes called Graphophonemic Awareness." I wish I would've purchased a different study guide book but I truly don't have another $30 to go out and spend on another one. Oh well! Your reply is VERY much appreciated. Hope your foot doesn't hurt from all that kicking!
(somewhat mollified, but still eyeing the furniture with thoughts of destruction) All right, if gin/gun was your example, that's a little different. Do you get that gin and gun are not good examples of a minimal pair because they differ in TWO phonemes rather than just one? There's no excuse not to have given good examples, dagnabit: that's basic teaching practice! And most of the good Web sites about reading and the teaching of reading are FULL of examples. So, for that matter, should be the articles on Wikipedia - which I recommend accessing via Answers.com (http://www.answers.com: click on the "Reference topics" button, then start typing the term for which you want to search (say, "alphabetic principle"), and watch the search options pop up as you type...)
I do understand the "gin" and "gun" and would like to substract that from my example!!! I was searching the web and a better phoneme example would be "pin" and "spin", no? Or as wikipedia uses "kit" and "skill". Yes, examples are essential to the learning processes so I simply don't understand why there aren't more in this book. That isn't to say that they aren't there, but not in all aspects. It's very frustrating because in some things they explain, I feel, as if they only "half explain" things. Like they are under the assumption we already know what they're talking about. I really, really want to pass this test this time. I am still in awe that I only missed it by 3 points!! Makes me almost sick to my stomach.
No, actually: pin and pen or pin and pig or pin and bin or spin and skin or spin and span or spin and spill or skill and still That is, the words differ in exactly ONE sound in EXACTLY THE SAME position in the words. Propose me a few more possible examples, okay? Missing by three points tells me you've got what it takes to pass. Keep asking questions, please: For one thing, you never know who else will be helped thereby. ,
OH, same position! Ok, that makes more sense (Wondering why Wikipedia used that example? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoneme. It's saying that from the words "skill" and "kit" you are saying the k's differently) My examples: (I don't know how to underline the letters. Sorry. So I will capitalize the contrasts in phonemes) Met & Bet sAt & sEt Fat & Pat maT & maP skiP & skiM I appreciate you working with me. I've read people say the Language Arts & Reading is the most difficult and it's so true. I think I took it for grant it when taking the actual exam. I thought I understood it the 1st go round but I think this was the part that cost me the passing score.
Oh my goodness. I just wrote out this really long reply and the site timed out on me. Ok, let's try this again. Here are my examples of phonemes from your explanation. I don't know how to underline the letters so I will contrast them by capitilizing the differences. (Sorry). skiP skiM caP caT Tap Lap scIn scAn Fog Log Is that right? I've read peoples reply on this board and it's true that the Language Arts & Reading is the most difficult section. (Though I wish I knew as much as you about the subject! I would be confident then!) I thought I understand this stuff the first go round but I can see that I didn't. In fact, it's probably what cost me the passing score.
Knowing as much as TG does on this subject takes a LOT of work. That goes for mastering ANY subject. It doesn't happen overnight. Keep at it and you'll get there. I tell my math students all the time "When you've done this type of probem as many times as I have, you too will make it look this easy." Same concept applies here.
You've nailed it, brittneyl. Now have you found a list of phoneme manipulations that kids can do? - identifying words that begin with the same phoneme, etc.? If not, please look either on the FCRR Web site (which is something original :^) like www.fcrr.org - I don't remember whether it's .org or .com or .somethingelse...) or on the Reading Rockets Web site and see if you can find a list of said tasks. (You'll find lots of other goodies in the process.) Once you've located it, go through it and tell me what kind of phonemic manipulation we've just done.
Well, some of this is simply having... let's just say, a decade or two on the young'uns. But, yes: even learning to learn is a matter of practice.
Yeah, well, I was trying to avoid that implication :lol: But since you said it first....TG's an old fart with way more years of practice than most people.
mmswm, you are correct. I hope to get there. My strongest skill on the test was probably English (punctuation, grammar, etc) and the Music & Arts section! HA. However, there was only 1 grammar question on the test. ONE! (edited) It went something like this (and I got it wrong. At least I'm 99.9% sure I did after rethinking it after I couldn't go back). At any rate, I'll get it all one of these days I suppose.
As to the implication, kind of you. As to the latter... well, I can't dodge it so I may as well embrace it. Which, however, doesn't give anyone ELSE the right to say so... (Watch yourselves, young'uns all!)
brittneyl, we don't post actual specific test questions on A to Z. Please read the WARNING at the top of this page; I guarantee you signed something both when you registered for your test and when you took it that indicated that you wouldn't publicize for-real questions from the test.
I thought we were allowed to pose the questions as long as it wasn't the "actual" question. (Which it wasn't) I completely reworded it and just used generally what the question was about. But ok, don't want to break any rules!
Oh! My abject apologies: I leapt magnificently to a conclusion, didn't I? (Grovel, grovel.) Could I trouble you to repost?
I appreciate it. You have one as well! Back to studying. Going to locate a question like that in my book to try and understand it more!
TG, the Reading Rockets page you've recommended have been very helpful. I love the tests that it has at the end of each module. I did 100% on the Phonemes (sounds of speech) and Print Awareness modules. Am going to do the rest of the modules now. Are there any sites like this that you, or someone else, can recommend for science? I really like the idea of the modules with pre-tests, information and then the post-tests
I passed!!!!! Thank you so much TG! You really did help me more than you know. Your wisdom, guidance and resources were terrific! I feel like a weight has been lifted from me!
Congratulations, brittneyl - and make sure you take full credit: nobody ever passed a test like this purely by luck. Think about what you've learned that can help you better help your future students - including the experience of having struggled AND SUCCEEDED with this test. I'm thrilled for you!
Thanks TG. I knew when I came out of the test the last time that I had done so much better. I felt confident. First time, not so much! Second time's a charm!
TeacherGroupie and Brittneyl - I'm prepping for the k-6 exam. I am curious if you all could offer me some options for sites I can review for Social Studies and Science. Anything you used to refresh your memory before taking the exam. I'm freaking out - especially since they increased the price. I would like to take it once - which is why I'm starting pretty early. I appreciate any sites and other information you used to prepare for this exam. Thanks in advance!!!
Start by skimming this thread for useful resources. Then move out to other threads - and don't neglect threads for other states' tests: aside from specifics of state history, there aren't that darned many differences in the subject matter that's being tested.
Oh, and be creative with the questions: instead of telling yourself that a given question is on something about which you know nothing, NOthing, try instead looking for what you do know that ties into it.
Hi andbel. I am just now getting to this. So sorry! (Wish I received emails when replies came.) When is your test date? Or did you already take it? I no longer have the websites that I used to study but if you do google searches for FTCE practice questions, etc then you should find loads of helpful information. Really study Language Arts. I thought that I had that subject down pat but it helped to study it more!
My very favorite science resource is out in a new edition under a slightly revised title: The Usborne Science Encyclopedia. It is the size and shape of a textbook on the outside but is full of nifty visuals and accessible explanations on the inside. The more you start seeing science all around in your everyday life, the better.
hi i need help in social studies and math i took the test and missed it by 20 points i was lost in social studies and math part pls help thanks my e-mail is yarlenis.otano@yahoo.com
I found this FREE WEB BASED online study guide for the Elementary K-6 exam extremely helpful. It is put out by the Florida Department of Education Bureau of Exceptional Student Education: http://fdlrshrd.nefec.org/elemK6/main.aspx It is free, you just have to register. Despite what it says, you do not have to currently be teaching to register. To register: http://fdlrshrd.nefec.org/elemK6/register.aspx Good luck! You can do it! Tim
