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Study Guide

Field 085: Middle Level
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions

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Subarea 1—THE NATURE OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE

Objective 001
Understand the characteristics of the developmental period of early adolescence and the needs of young adolescents.

1. Which of the following statements is generally true regarding the intellectual characteristics of young adolescents?

  1. Most young adolescents are fully capable of understanding abstract concepts and hypothetical situations.
  2. While most young adolescents understand abstract mathematical concepts, they are less able to deal with abstractions in other subjects.
  3. Most young adolescents are still at a relatively early stage of concrete thinking.
  4. While most young adolescents are increasingly capable of abstract thought, many still need the support of concrete examples.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 003
Understand the significance of human diversity for the development and learning of young adolescents.

2. Which of the following best explains why it is important during the middle level years to create a school environment that values diversity and promotes an understanding of and respect for diversity?

  1. It is a time when many young adolescents begin to examine their values and establish lifelong patterns of behavior.
  2. Young adolescents tend to misbehave if not given clear guidelines regarding what are acceptable and unacceptable behaviors.
  3. It is a time when young adolescents are more interested in their social development than in academic progress.
  4. Young adolescents tend to want to conform to an accepted standard that is considered to be the ideal among their peers.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Subarea 2—PHILOSOPHY AND SCHOOL ORGANIZATION

Objective 005
Understand the philosophy and foundations of the middle school concept.

3. Some students may have inadequate coping skills for making the transition from elementary school to middle school, which can negatively affect their self-esteem and motivation to learn. Which of the following features of a middle school is likely to be most significant in helping these students successfully negotiate this transition?

  1. noncompetitive intramural programs that encourage student involvement in physical activities and teamwork
  2. well-designed advisory programs that promote trusting relationships between an adult and a small group of students
  3. flexible scheduling that allows sufficient class time for students to explore topics in enough depth to be meaningful to them
  4. diverse exploratory programs that encourage student experimentation and risk taking in a wide variety of areas
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 008
Understand the use of flexible grouping and scheduling at the middle level.

4. Before the beginning of the school year, the principal of a middle school assigns 112 students to a seventh-grade teaching team. The team must then divide the students among the four teachers. Which of the following approaches would be most appropriate for the teachers to use in making the group assignments?

  1. using information from students' records and previous teachers to create groupings of students who are likely to function well together
  2. examining students' grades and test scores to create groups of students with similar ability levels
  3. giving students the opportunity on the first day of school to self-select the group to which they are assigned
  4. randomly assigning every fourth student from an alphabetical list to the same group
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Subarea 3—CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Objective 010
Understand how to create and implement a curriculum in the middle school.

5. Of the following, which is the most important element of a curriculum for young adolescents?

  1. testing students to guarantee that they are placed in classes that will meet their academic needs
  2. offering students a wide-ranging scope of content that prepares them for high school course work
  3. providing students with structure to compensate for the uncertainty of their lives away from school
  4. giving students developmentally appropriate learning challenges that allow for individual differences
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 012
Understand how to use student voice in the planning of curriculum and learning activities.

6. During the first day of a new unit about family living, the health teacher asks the students to write down two questions related to the topic that they would like to have answered and bring them to class the next day. This activity is an especially effective way for the teacher to foster the students' awareness that:

  1. their questions are important enough to be considered and explored in school.
  2. they are responsible for their own learning.
  3. their use of brainstorming will help them understand new information.
  4. they can study a familiar subject if specific learning goals are identified.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Subarea 4—PEDAGOGY AND ASSESSMENT

Objective 016
Understand the purpose and use of various grouping strategies in the middle level classroom.

7. A middle school teacher wants to use cooperative, heterogeneous groups for work on a special project. The teacher can most effectively foster cooperation among members within each group by:

  1. promoting competition among groups by rewarding the one that produces the best work.
  2. reminding high-achieving students that they should help peers who are having difficulty.
  3. giving each member a specific role or task that contributes to the group's overall effort.
  4. encouraging all group members to work efficiently by spending their time on task.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 018
Understand multiple strategies for the evaluation and assessment of development and learning.

8. A teacher regularly uses rubrics for evaluating student performance on class activities and projects. Before students begin work on an activity or project, the teacher gives them a copy of the rubric for that task and discusses it with them. Which of the following is a primary advantage of using this approach to evaluation over most other methods of assessment?

  1. The results can be communicated more easily to parents and guardians.
  2. The amount of time the teacher needs to devote to correcting student work is significantly reduced.
  3. Specific gaps in knowledge or skills can be identified more readily.
  4. Students have a better understanding in advance of the standards by which their work will be evaluated.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Subarea 5—COLLABORATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Objective 019
Understand the importance of and strategies for collaborating with families, resource persons, and community groups.

9. The teachers at a middle school take many steps to involve parents and guardians as active partners in their children's learning. This strategy is likely to have which of the following benefits?

  1. Students will receive support and more consistent messages from both home and school.
  2. Teachers will have less responsibility for the success or failure of individual students.
  3. Parents and guardians will be able to take over instruction of some topics to their children.
  4. The school will have more volunteers available to assist in a variety of capacities.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 021
Understand methods and resources for advancing one's professional knowledge and practice.

10. Use the excerpt below from a teacher's journal to answer the question that follows.

Sept. 25

Assigning students to cooperative groups worked much better than allowing them to pick their own groups like last time. There was some moaning at first, but once they got going, most of the groups worked well together. Next time, though, I think I'll give any handouts for an activity to students as they are moving into their groups rather than at the start of class — several students seemed distracted by them, so they didn't pay very close attention to my instructions and had a lot of questions later.

This journal entry best illustrates which of the following points?

  1. Teachers often learn as much from students as students learn from teachers.
  2. Self-reflection is an effective way to make improvements in one's teaching practice.
  3. Young adolescents need a great deal of structure in the classroom to function effectively.
  4. The way information is presented is more significant to student learning than the information itself.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.