Study Guide

Overview and Test Objectives
Field 130: English Language Arts (7–12)

Test Overview

Table outlining the test format, number of questions, time, and passing score.

Format	Computer-based test (CBT)
Number of Questions	100 multiple-choice questions
Time	2 hours 30 minutes*
Passing Score	220

*Does not include 15-minute CBT tutorial

Test Objectives

Table outlining test content and subject weighting by sub area and objective.

Subarea		Range of Objectives	Approximate Percentage of Questions on Test
I1	Pedagogical Knowledge and Professional Practices for Teaching English Language Arts	001–006	35%
II2	English Language Arts Foundations	007–009	15%
III3	Literature and Literary and Rhetorical Analysis	010–011	25%
IV4	Composition, Speaking, and Listening	012–013	25%

Hover over each subarea for details of subtest content or see table above.

Sub area 1 35%, Sub area 2 15%, Sub area 3 25%, and Sub area 4 25%.

Subarea I1—Pedagogical Knowledge and Professional Practices for Teaching English Language Arts

Objective 001—The English Language Arts Learning Environment

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of how to facilitate learners' access to a range of age-appropriate digital and print materials of a variety of genres (e.g., informative/explanatory texts, narrative texts, signage including environmental print, poetry) and media (e.g., books, magazines, digital texts, audio text, speech-to-text technologies).
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to create a variety of inclusive, organized, safe, and respectful learning environments that foster collaborative and meaningful opportunities for inquiry and learning (e.g., classroom libraries, choice reading, peer and teacher conferencing, writing/reading workshop, literature circles).
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to develop a language-rich environment through active use of visual aids, resources, and artifacts that promote learning (e.g., anchor charts; graphic organizers; interactive word walls; everyday, academic, and discipline-specific language; digital and non-digital tools).
• Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for critically selecting and evaluating digital technologies to aid English language arts learning, and facilitate learners' engagement with these resources (e.g., opportunities to create digital artifacts of learning, interactive simulations, game-based learning, infographics, digital narratives, informational texts).
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that provide students with access to and intentional interactions with socially, culturally, and linguistically diverse texts, including high-interest, self-selected reading and writing materials, with a variety of text complexity (e.g., through collaboration with a school librarian and/or a designated administrator/specialist, development of a classroom library, mentor texts, digital resources).
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to use flexible grouping strategies to address learners' specific literacy strengths, needs, prior knowledge, interests, and other factors, as well as to capitalize on the social, cultural, and linguistic diversity of the classroom to maximize learning for all students.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that cultivate dialogue across differences to promote social justice, critical engagement, and civil discourse around complex issues related to creating and maintaining a diverse, inclusive, and equitable society.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to create learning opportunities and contexts that leverage student and community literacies, learning, and knowledge to connect and engage with authentic audiences and communities beyond the classroom walls.

Objective 002—Culturally Responsive Practices in English Language Arts

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of how to apply theories and research about social justice, diversity, equity, students' salient identities, and schools as institutions to enhance students' opportunities to learn.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that create learning experiences responsive to all students' local, national, and international histories; individual identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender fluidity, age, appearance, ability, spiritual belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, community environment); and languages/dialects (including bilingual and multilingual English learners) as they affect students' opportunities to learn.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that create opportunities to deconstruct and investigate intersections between language, identity, and power as a way to acknowledge and value students' multiple language identities and their use of home and community language(s) and dialect(s) to develop additional languages and literacies.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that build upon students' use of their first or home language(s) to enable rhetorical choices and language practices, including code switching and code meshing, for a variety of audiences, contexts, and purposes within and beyond the classroom.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to gather and leverage authentic information about all students' individual identities and funds of knowledge as data to create inclusive, relevant, and socioculturally-meaningful learning opportunities that engage all students as active participants in their own learning.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to establish and maintain high expectations for students by challenging them with increasingly complex texts to create equitable access to high-quality learning experiences.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to connect teaching and learning to social, political, and cultural contexts in ways that support students' growth of critical consciousness.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to advocate for diversity, inclusion, justice, and equity in English language arts classrooms, curricula, and instruction and within the school and district at large.

Objective 003—Student Motivation and Engagement

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that foster a community of confident readers and writers, a reading and writing culture, engagement with diverse texts, and habits of lifelong readers and writers.
• Demonstrate knowledge of ways to build rapport and interpersonal relationships that encourage mutual trust and commitment by arranging inquiry activities that validate students' curiosity, questions, and emotional responses and collaborative activities that foster literacy learning through social interactions.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that cultivate students' identities and positive self-concept as readers and writers by building their self-efficacy through multiple scaffolded techniques such as notebooks, text and task choice, productive feedback, meaningful interactions, opportunities to read and write for pleasure, self-reflection, goal setting, and metacognition.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to model and make visible to students the habits of a lifelong reader and writer (e.g., think-alouds, writing and reading with students, author visits, annotations, comprehension strategies, conferring with others, community readers/writers, peer reading programs, participation in reading events and networks).
• Demonstrate knowledge of ways to provide students with avenues for publishing and communicating with authentic audiences (e.g., online, public spaces, classroom guests, conferences).
• Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for offering students substantive options, choices, and input into learning activities and for providing a variety of meaningful purposes for curricular units and tasks in the service of critical disciplinary inquiry.
• Demonstrate understanding of the need to provide continual encouragement for academic and personal attainment and interests by emphasizing the utility, value, and enjoyment of literacy and literacy tasks (e.g., reading of high-interest texts).

Objective 004—English Language Arts Curriculum Design

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of how to establish authentic purposes for students to read and write for their enjoyment and interest; to ask and answer questions about humanity, society, their communities, and their individual lives; to address needs in their communities and diverse communities unlike their own; or to communicate with specific audiences.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to develop and implement interactive units of instruction that frame important relationships, explorations, problems, or questions to provide opportunities to read and compose texts; study literature and language variation; listen, speak, and view; represent ideas in multiple modalities; and use language effectively and intentionally.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to design, adapt, and implement English language arts curricula that support learning in a variety of participation structures (e.g., whole class, small group, individual) across domains of literacy.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to select diverse texts and materials of varying complexity that align with instructional purposes (e.g., independent practice; study of author's craft, structure, and purpose, including argumentative writing; expand cultural perspectives; integrate knowledge and ideas).
• Demonstrate awareness of the principles of language acquisition and the impact of language on society, as well as of students' home languages, when evaluating, adapting, and supplementing curriculum.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to plan, implement, and adjust instruction informed by ongoing observation and assessment of students' language, literacy, social development, and evolving identities as readers and writers.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to plan and implement coherent and relevant learning experiences in English language arts using evidence-based instruction aligned to Michigan standards for English language arts in grades 7–12.

Objective 005—Assessment in English Language Arts

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of how to design, select, and use various assessment practices (e.g., formal, informal, formative, summative) for reading and writing processes, interests, and motivation to generate data to inform instructional decisions.
• Demonstrate awareness of the principles of language acquisition and the impact of language on society, as well as of students' home languages, when evaluating, adapting, and supplementing assessment.
• Demonstrate knowledge of multiple ways to assess reading comprehension, including questioning, retelling, dialogic conversations, summarizing, and authentic demonstrations of deep understanding of texts.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to assess students' developing reading and writing identities and engagement with texts through formative assessment tools such as interest surveys, questionnaires, teacher observations, participation in peer-to-peer talk, informal conferences, self-assessments (e.g., reading ladders, logs, territories), conference records, portfolios, and artifacts of student work.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to analyze data patterns that document students' strengths and most critical needs in English language arts to provide relevant feedback for evaluating the effectiveness of instructional practices and informing subsequent instruction.
• Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for involving students in self-assessment, including developing success criteria, identifying learning goals, and monitoring their own progress.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices for providing specific, timely, and constructive feedback that emphasizes students' strengths and targets their most critical needs during the process of reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and visually representing and to communicate with students about their performance in ways that actively involve them in their own learning (e.g., peer and teacher conferencing, discussion boards, interactive journals).

Objective 006—Accommodations and Differentiated Instruction in English Language Arts

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of ways to differentiate instructional processes, product and content expectations, and the classroom environment to account for varying academic needs and capabilities and appropriately challenge all students.
• Demonstrate knowledge of ways to provide scaffolded support to diverse students (including English learners) as needed to assist them in developing their English language arts proficiencies, removing supports over time to generate more independence.
• Demonstrate knowledge of ways to differentiate instruction based on students' self-assessments and formal and informal assessments of learning in English language arts, and communicate with students about their performance in ways that actively involve them in their own learning and in groups with students of differing abilities, including English language proficiency.
• Demonstrate knowledge of factors that influence the development of English language arts proficiencies (e.g., linguistic, cognitive, neurodevelopmental, social, cultural, behavioral, identity) and of how to adjust instructional contexts and practices to address students' skills and connect them with appropriate strategies, resources, and assistive technologies.
• Demonstrate knowledge of diverse profiles of reading difficulty and how they vary in presentation and degree (e.g., dyslexia, dysfluent reading, language comprehension problems) and an understanding that difficulties change as literacy develops, and that instructional support should change accordingly.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to structure learning activities so students simultaneously use multiple learning modalities (e.g., listening, speaking, moving, touching, reading, writing) to increase engagement and support English language arts learning.

 

Subarea II2—English Language Arts Foundations

Objective 007—Language Conventions and Reading Comprehension

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the conventions of the English language as they relate to various rhetorical situations (e.g., grammar, usage, mechanics) and appropriate language use across modes of communication and contexts.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices for teaching grammar and sentence structure in context to guide students toward an understanding of how grammar functions across contexts and to build the necessary knowledge for reading and writing within and outside the classroom.
• Demonstrate understanding of the concept of dialect and familiarity with relevant grammar systems (i.e., prescriptive and descriptive).
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices for developing students' understanding that some dialects and language forms are marginalized and that others, including "Standard English," are socially constructed, reproduced, and privileged by dominant groups.
• Demonstrate understanding of the relationship between fluency and comprehension, including when these skills support each other and when they develop independently, as well as how this understanding should inform instruction.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to recognize when students require support to decode, make meaning, and deeply understand texts and how to utilize multimodal strategies for building fluency and comprehension that consider students' experiences, strengths, needs, and interests.
• Demonstrate understanding that comprehension of text occurs as a dynamic interaction between characteristics of readers (e.g., prior knowledge, interest, cultural connection), text (e.g., density, level of abstraction, structure), activity (e.g., purpose, structure, clarity), and context (e.g., classroom climate, culture of expectations), and demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that shape that interaction.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that support and develop reading comprehension during instruction (e.g., by building readers' background knowledge, modeling and guiding readers' use of metacognitive strategies, and clarifying readers' purpose for reading).
• Demonstrate knowledge of different levels of comprehension (e.g., the difference between literal and inferential comprehension of text) and of how to use questioning and other means of formative assessment to gauge student comprehension and support students' close reading to develop deep understanding within and across texts.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics of various genres and text types, including informational, argumentative, and narrative text; real world; digital; and academic.

Objective 008—Vocabulary and Language Study in Context

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the intrinsic, extrinsic, and environmental factors that are causally related to vocabulary growth, including adult-child interaction patterns; school, socioeconomic, and community contexts; first language and dialect; and neurodevelopmental differences in language processing.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that incorporate awareness of nuanced meanings within opportunities for students to demonstrate the depth to which words are known and can be used with associative, contextual, and generative knowledge.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that provide practical opportunities for students to learn vocabulary as language in context and encourage students to actively and independently use and analyze their own language(s), as well as those of others.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to create a language-rich classroom culture through available physical and social resources (e.g., conversation, read-alouds, audiobooks, silent reading, wide reading, writing, peer reviews, partner talk, inquiry) that expose students to new vocabulary and build sociocultural and academic conceptual knowledge.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that create intentional and incidental word learning experiences to capitalize on and expand students' expressive and receptive language use across modes of communication and contexts.
• Demonstrate the ability to select appropriate words for instruction that are central to the meaning of a text or topic and likely to generalize to other contexts.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that create learning opportunities for students to study multiple facets of words in context, including phonology, word associations, orthography, morphology, etymology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics through wide reading, inquiry, and explicit and implicit instruction, while taking into consideration students' experiences, strengths, interests, and development opportunities.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to plan, modify, and implement evidence-based instructional approaches to develop students' accurate use of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases that are sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level.
• Demonstrate knowledge of ways to assess students' vocabulary strengths and constraints, such as range of word use, awareness of multiple meanings of words, understanding of idioms, word retrieval pace, and complexity of definitions through engagement in purposeful reading, writing, and oral language tasks.

Objective 009—Digital Literacies

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional strategies and teaching resources, including contemporary technologies (e.g., software, hardware, supporting technologies) and digital resources (e.g., Web sites, videos, games), that are consistent with current research about effective student learning in English language arts.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that encourage strategic, connected reading practices with both print and multimodal texts, inviting students to encounter, evaluate, and engage with texts as individual readers as well as within a community of readers.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to design instruction that builds compositional fluency with multimodal rhetoric, adapting various technologies and writing styles for different audiences, purposes, and modalities.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to design meaningful learning experiences that allow students to use a range of contemporary technologies and digital resources to generate ideas, test theories, create innovative artifacts, solve authentic problems, and promote local and global collaboration.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the safe, legal, and ethical use of digital tools, recognizing students' rights of transformative use of copyrighted materials while also encouraging the use of public domain and Creative Commons–licensed materials.
• Demonstrate knowledge of generative learning activities that develop students' critical literacies for the purpose of accessing, evaluating, and creating digital (e.g., Web sites), media (e.g., audio, video), and visual (e.g., infographics) texts.

 

Subarea III3—Literature and Literary and Rhetorical Analysis

Objective 010—Literature

Includes:

• Demonstrate an understanding of literature as oral, written, enacted, and visual texts that reflect diverse cultures, values, traditions, perspectives, and identities, including, but not limited to, books written for young adults (e.g., fiction, nonfiction, multimodal texts).
• Demonstrate knowledge of a wide variety of quality contemporary and classic literature relevant for secondary students in English language arts classrooms and appropriate for different developmental levels and student needs, including diversity literature and world literature, literature by authors of all genders, and literature for young adults.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to design instruction that builds on the power of literature to affirm lived experience; create empathy; catalyze conversations; and respect the questions, challenges, and emotions of adolescence.
• Demonstrate understanding of the inherent value of young adult literature for general reading and classroom use and of how to teach young adult literature in ways that honor literary quality as well as the potential to spark personal and social transformation.
• Demonstrate the ability to select instructional materials that represent a range of diversity literatures and world literatures, cultural and historical traditions, genres, and the experiences of a range of genders, ethnicities, races, and social classes.
• Demonstrate knowledge of ways to serve as a reading role model, lifelong reader, book matchmaker, and advocate for diverse children's and young adult literature.
• Demonstrate the ability to employ critical literacy practices to critique the social narratives that are embedded in classic and contemporary literature to read with and against the text.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that support students in making independent reading choices (e.g., book talks, peer recommendations, book browsing, book clubs and communities, book reviews), while taking into consideration students' individual experiences, strengths, development opportunities, interests, emotions, and personal and social identities.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to advocate for students' reading selections and right to read, as well as how to prepare rationales for selection and use of literature and other texts to present to students, parents/guardians, and other stakeholders and to respond to potential challenges.

Objective 011—Literary and Rhetorical Analysis

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of how to plan and implement instruction respective to reading and interpreting texts through multiple theoretical and critical lenses.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that engage students in the rhetorical analysis of texts' audiences, purposes, contexts, and craft, including, but not limited to, form, organization and structure, style, register, language, voice, mechanics, and literary devices.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that engage students in literary analysis of authors' craft and devices, including, but not limited to, symbolism, figurative language, characterization, dialogue, setting, plot development, theme, and rhetorical moves.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that engage students in genre analysis that includes naming, describing, and modeling the conventions, strategies, and patterns of thinking that are typical of different genres (e.g., literary analysis, creative nonfiction, journalism, poetry, book reviews, technical documents).
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that support and develop students' ability to reflect on, respond to, and act upon their analyses through writing, reading, research, and speaking in ways that are appropriate to the range of contexts where the texts are being used (e.g., academic, personal, professional, public, community contexts).
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to model for students and guide them through reading, analyzing, and evaluating print and multimodal texts composed in various styles, tones, and levels of formality, including how to model texts to illustrate authors' craft and rhetorical moves.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that engage students in critical evaluation of sources for credibility, bias, quality of evidence, and quality of reasoning.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that guide learners in applying literary theory to critically analyze print and nonprint texts to identify themes, patterns, and biases that perpetuate or challenge stereotypes, injustices, and inequalities.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices for guiding students to analyze and interpret data to support claims with specific evidence and examples.

 

Subarea IV4—Composition, Speaking, and Listening

Objective 012—Composition

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of how to apply theory, research, and practice in English language arts to plan instruction, provide a supportive environment, and design assessments for composing texts (i.e., oral, written, and visual) to promote learning for all students.
• Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for encouraging habits of mind for continuous writing development (i.e., creativity, flexibility, persistence, curiosity, openness, engagement, responsibility, and metacognition).
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that support and develop the multiliteracies and cultural and linguistic assets students bring to writing experiences, including their home and community languages, as well as code switching and code meshing.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to use models and mentor texts to illuminate features of a genre, rhetorical moves, and choices made by published authors, student writers, and teachers as writers.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to plan coherent and relevant composing experiences that reflect an understanding of writing processes and strategies in different genres using evidence-based instruction aligned to Michigan standards for English language arts in grades 7–12.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that create opportunities for students to write for various authentic audiences (e.g., peers, community members, other public audiences).
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to design a range of formative and summative assessments and related rubrics or scoring guides at both the student and class levels and use resulting data to promote students' development as writers of argumentative, narrative, informative, or explanatory writing texts.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to provide ongoing feedback to student writing throughout the writing process (i.e., prewriting, planning, drafting, revising, feedback, editing, and publishing) and to finished texts in ways that engage students' ideas and encourage their growth as writers (e.g., face-to-face conferences, digital comments, peer review, screencasts).
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices, including structured writing workshops, that support and guide students through a recursive writing process that involves prewriting, planning, drafting, revising, feedback, editing, and publishing.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to provide explicit instruction related to the strategic use of language conventions (e.g., grammar, usage, mechanics, textual elements, rhetorical devices) in the context of students' writing for different audiences, purposes, and modalities.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to utilize individual and collaborative approaches and contemporary technologies to compose in multiple modalities and a variety of genres for academic and out-of-school purposes.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to facilitate students' individual and collaborative use of technology to communicate ideas clearly and express ideas creatively for a variety of purposes and in a variety of modalities by selecting platforms, tools, styles, formats, and digital media appropriate for students' goals.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices for teaching and supporting students in gathering and organizing evidence through inquiry-based research to demonstrate understanding of the investigated subject.

Objective 013—Speaking and Listening

Includes:

• Demonstrate knowledge of how to facilitate a range of collaborative discussions to generate knowledge and to express ideas clearly and effectively for specific rhetorical situations.
• Demonstrate knowledge of evidence-based instructional practices for designing authentic communication experiences that integrate listening, speaking, viewing, visually representing, reading, and writing.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices for teaching active listening for understanding, empathy, and synthesis of ideas and information from multiple perspectives to support collaborative inquiry and classroom community-building.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that provide regular opportunities for students to critically view, listen, and respond to oral presentations and stories, including those that incorporate visual and quantitative information (e.g., debates, reports, presentations to external audiences).
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices that provide regular opportunities for students to present information, understanding, concepts, and ideas to diverse audiences, based on students' strengths, identities, interests, and development opportunities.
• Demonstrate understanding of how the structure, conventions, and evolution of language (e.g., patterns, dialects) affect the oral communication process and of how to apply that knowledge in instruction and assessment.
• Demonstrate understanding of how language choices, including dialect and home languages, shape students' listening and speaking as part of the social, cultural, and dynamic nature of verbal and nonverbal language.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to guide students in analyzing oral, written, and visual texts to determine style, voice, and language choices, and evaluate appropriateness to context, purpose, audience, and genre.
• Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for modeling and facilitating productive discussions by making discursive moves and constructing norms appropriate to the discipline of English language arts and to civic discourse around public issues, including potentially controversial topics.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to engage students in discussion around digital and media literacies and in dialogue using digital tools to share and communicate ideas through text, speech, and visualizations.

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