NYSTCE Multi-Subject: Secondary (Grades 7-12), Part One: Literacy and English Language Arts (241) Practice Tests

Competency 0001 makes up about 30% of the 241 score. It covers: language and literacy development; knowledge of english language arts.

• Language and literacy development: Language processing in proficient reading and writing: phonological, orthographic, semantic, syntactic and discourse; Literacy development: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension and developmental stages; Individual variation: specific reading difficulties and cognitive, behavioral, environmental, social, cultural, technological and linguistic factors; Factors affecting motivation for independent literacy practice; Literacy assessment (screening, diagnostic, progress monitoring) and effective instruction; Decoding and encoding: phonemes, grapheme-phoneme correspondence, historical influences, spelling patterns, irregular words, six syllable types; Word and sentence comprehension: morphology (inflections, affixes, Anglo-Saxon, Latin and Greek morphemes), semantic relationships, parts of speech, phrase and sentence structures
• Knowledge of English language arts: Literary text types across cultures and periods: stories, drama, poetry forms; Analysis of major literary works, including Shakespeare; Foundational 18th- to early 20th-century American literature; Literary nonfiction: exposition, argument, functional text, including digital sources; Documents of historical and literary significance to the U.S.; Visual literacy and effective viewing across print and nonprint media; Analyzing and evaluating opinion, informative/explanatory and narrative writing; Academic discussion, collaboration and oral presentation; Language functions in context, varieties of English, and language choices that affect meaning and style

Competency 0002 makes up about 30% of the 241 score. It covers: instruction in vocabulary; instruction in language knowledge; text complexity and comprehension.

• Instruction in vocabulary: Factors affecting vocabulary development and its link to comprehension; Broad academic experiences and repeated exposure to words in varied contexts; NYSLS grade 7 to 12 vocabulary standards and college and career readiness; Evidence-based word study: word consciousness, Tier Two and Tier Three words, figurative language, word relationships, word nuance, text-specific vocabulary; Independent word-learning strategies: structural analysis, context clues, resources
• Instruction in language knowledge: Academic experiences that build command of standard English grammar and conventions; Factors affecting developing grammar and usage; NYSLS grade 7 to 12 conventions and language standards; Assessment and data-driven instruction for grammar, usage, capitalization, punctuation, spelling, phonics and word analysis; Varieties of English and language choices across reading, writing, speaking and listening
• Text complexity and comprehension: Factors affecting comprehension: vocabulary, background knowledge, decoding, fluency; Reading complex text for college and career readiness; wide reading and close reading of high-quality literature and literary nonfiction; Planning and facilitating purposeful academic conversations about text; Cognitively complex, text-based questions; scaffolding and extending discussions; Content-rich, text-rich classrooms and independent reading across genres; Fluency instruction: accuracy, rate, expression; Quantitative and qualitative measures of text complexity; Matching readers and tasks to texts; selecting texts that support learning goals; Assessing comprehension factors and planning instruction and interventions

Competency 0003 makes up about 10% of the 241 score. It covers: reading literature and informational text; writing and research; speaking and listening.

• Reading literature and informational text: NYSLS grade 7 to 12 reading standards and college and career readiness; Key ideas and details, craft and structure, and integration of ideas in literature and informational text; Independent reading strategies across media: predicting, visualizing, connecting; Skills for responding to literature
• Writing and research: NYSLS grade 7 to 12 writing, production, distribution and research standards; Text-rich classroom, text-based discussion and explicit instruction in writing functions and conventions; Composing arguments, informative/explanatory texts, narratives, stories and plays; Writing processes suited to task, purpose and audience; research and presenting knowledge; Extended and short discipline-specific writing tasks; Digital tools for research and multimedia composition
• Speaking and listening: NYSLS grade 7 to 12 speaking and listening standards; Purposeful oral language to reinforce reading, writing and language; A collegial, inclusive literate environment; mutual understanding across perspectives and cultures; Oral, nonverbal and listening skills for collaboration; Evaluating a speaker's point of view, reasoning, evidence and rhetoric; Presenting knowledge to varied audiences and integrating diverse media

Competency 0004 makes up about 30% of the 241 score and is the constructed-response item. It covers: constructed response.

• Constructed response: Analyze and interpret one student's literacy assessment results; Select relevant evidence from multiple sources and reason soundly from it; Select and describe effective strategies to address needs or build strengths in reading, writing, listening, speaking, language or vocabulary; Discuss how well the chosen strategies are working