TExES PPR Keys for Texas Examination of Educator Standards. Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities. By Hudson Blair, 2005

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1 TExES PPR Keys for Texas Examination of Educator Standards Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities By Hudson Blair, 2005 The Keys to the TExES PPR Most prep courses for the TExES PPR emphasize a knowledge of content items such as Bloom s Taxonomy, the developmental stages of early childhood, learning styles, etc. and a familiarity with the various domains and competencies the test addresses. Such knowledge is sometimes useful and necessary, but most of the time it is neither. However, there are certain bits of knowledge that will enable most test takers to find the correct answer more often than not. We call these items the keys to the TExES PPR. Learn these, and practice applying them on practice questions, and you will have little trouble in eliminating wrong answers and finding the right answer. We have broken these keys into three broad categories; Best Teaching Methods, Best Teachers, and Best Answers. Keys under Best Teaching Methods include things such as; making teaching student centered, rather than teacher centered; adapting teaching to students; and addressing all learning styles by teaching with a variety of techniques. This category holds the majority of the keys. The category of Best Teachers is small and includes the need for teachers to keep administrators and parents informed and involved. The final category that of Best Questions looks at certain idiosyncrasies within the test constructions itself that may point to a correct answer. One good example is the fact that the longest answer tends to be the correct answer more often than it should. We ll look at each of these categories and the keys they include. A short explanation of each key will help you identify them on the test. Best teaching methods *Are student centered The best teaching methods center on the needs of the students NOT the needs of the teachers, school, parents, or administrators. This is one of the single most important

2 and commonly seen keys on the TExES PPR. An example of an answer that centers on the needs of the teacher would be, The project will enable the teacher to maintain the class schedule and facilitate the use of guest speakers. A student centered and therefore better answer might read, The project will expose the students to a variety of different outside resources. Student centered answers come in a large variety of forms and flavors. Here are the more common ones you are likely to run across. *Give students ownership Student centered lessons and projects give the students ownership of the learning task. They do this by giving the students a say in what they will study or how their work will be assessed, as long as the basic learning objectives are being met. You be the judge. Which of the following give students ownership of their learning? 1. Assigning students a research paper, but allowing them to pick their topic within a range of possibilities that will all meet the learning objectives. 2. Allowing students to define some of their own criteria by which their papers will be judged, in addition to those criteria the teacher has set forth. 3. Assigning students a research paper topic and clearly defining the criteria by which their work will be assessed. Situations one and two give the students ownership of their work. The third situation hands students an assignment and allows them no input. *Make students do the work Student centered learning means the students do the lion s share of the work. If a teacher stands in front of the class and lectures, the teacher is doing all the work. If, on the other hand, the teacher assigns a project to the student, the student does the work. This does not mean that the teacher does nothing. Teachers are responsible for identifying learning objectives, crafting assignments to help students reach those objectives, and assessing whether or not the objectives have been met, but students must

3 work to reach those objectives. *Realize all students are different and reach all of them. Student centered teaching keeps in mind that students are all different. They come from different backgrounds. They have different home lives. They learn in a variety of different styles. They have different strengths and weaknesses. This is one of the most important and most commonly seen keys on the TExES PPR! A good teacher must teach in such a way that all their students needs are addressed. Good instructional strategies will address learners at different levels, from different backgrounds, and with a variety of learning styles. You be the judge. Which of the following FAILS to address the differences in a classroom of students? 1. A lesson involving a short lecture, a movie, and student role-play. 2. An assignment asking students to write about good eating habits based on what their parents have taught them. 3. An assignment that requires each student in the class to create a four-slide, PowerPoint presentation that they will then present to the class. Situations two and three FAIL to address student differences. Situation one provides methods of instruction that will benefit auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning styles. Situation two assumes all students have parents whom they live with and who teach them good eating habits. Lesson three makes no allowances for those students who aren t familiar with PowerPoint or who are exceptionally nervous about class presentations, nor does it give more advanced students a way to increase the depth and complexity of their response. *Avoid singling out students In general, it is not good to single out a student for either praise or correction. Singling out a student for praise can cause ill feelings among classmates just as much as berating a student in front of the class. Better teachers will pull a student aside and praise or correct privately or they will praise or correct indirectly. For example, if a teacher

4 notices that one student is failing to follow proper form when citing sources on a research paper, she might remind the class as a whole of the importance of using the proper form for citations. *Avoid grouping students by similarities Grouping students by sex, ethnic background, ability, etc. is usually a no-no. Examples of this might include; boys against girls in a class competition; a group of advanced readers, average readers, and poor readers; and teams arranged by ethnic background. *Use students interests Projects and assignments that align with students interests are generally a good thing, as long as they don t do so at the expense of instructional goals. For example; a lesson on poetry might allow students to bring examples of poetry drawn from the lyrics of their favorite pop-stars. Another example might have third-graders learning about adjectives by describing their favorite cartoon characters. *Variety is best When given a choice between teaching in only one way versus using a variety of methods, variety rules. This is one of the main keys you will see on the TExES PPR. For example, an average teacher might give a lecture on volcanoes, but an exceptional teacher will combine lecture with videos, student experiments, student presentations, etc. *Address all learning styles Addressing all learning styles goes hand-in-hand with using variety. While the majority of students will learn best when presented with information visually, those who learn primarily by hearing are very common as well. Students who learn by touching and movement kinesthetic learners should not be left out either. Whatever a learner s preferred way to learn, all will benefit from gaining information in all three ways. The normal classroom lecture that bored you to tears in grade school teaches mainly by the auditory path students hear what the teacher is saying. It may have a visual component if the teacher takes notes on the board or points out pictures in the text. The best lessons, however, will address all three learning styles; visual,

5 auditory, and kinesthetic. When in doubt, look for the answer that includes a kinesthetic component, such as students role-playing, building models, doing presentations, etc. If the kinesthetic component is included in a learning experience it is hard not to include visual and auditory as well. *Use real world examples Examples would include using pictures of the pyramids to teach about geometry; using class pets, such as hamsters and goldfish, to teach about adaptation to the environment; and having students measure different objects at home and in school to teach them how to use rulers. *Higher on Blooms is better Remember Blooms Taxonomy? If not, learn it now and learn it well. It s almost guaranteed that you will be asked about it at your job interviews, and you will certainly need to know it for the test. The basic idea, however, is that teaching that requires the students to use higherlevel thinking skills is best. For example, having students judge which planets would be the best candidates for human colonization is better than a lesson that asks students to memorize a list of facts about the climate of each planet. *Emphasize quality over quantity For example, having students build a model of the digestive system using modeling clay and rubber hoses is better than having them draw out the digestive system and write a paragraph about the function of each organ. Having students play the banker in Monopoly, and do it correctly, is better than having them add and subtract columns of numbers on numerous worksheets. *Focus on instructional goals The instructional goals are why the teacher is teaching in the first place. Any lesson or modification that sacrifices the teaching goals by dumbing down the work,

6 leaving out components, etc. is not going to be correct. *Are feasible Doing everything perfectly in a classroom, or during a given time period, is not always possible or affordable. While a field trip to Sea World might be a great way to teach about sea life, it s may not be possible because of time and budget constraints. *Teachers have limited time While teaching every student one-on-one is optimal, a teacher doesn t have time to do that in a class with twenty students. A teacher also probably doesn t have time to visit each and every child s home during the first week of the semester, although that might be a reasonable goal for a first six weeks. Sometimes an answer on the PPR may look very good because it uses real-world examples, addresses all learning styles, makes students do the work, etc. but it fails because it would require too much time or resources. Best teachers *Keep parents involved and informed Answers that involve parents in their child s educational success and keep them informed about how their students are doing are generally better answers than those that leave them out. *Keep administrators involved and informed Similarly, keeping principals, assistant principals, department heads, and counselors informed is generally a good thing. *Use routines and procedures Best teachers use routines and procedures to help their classes run smoothly. For example, a good teacher should have a procedure for taking roll and a routine that students follow when they first come to class each day.

7 Best answers *Show a correlation between question and answer It is often helpful to underline the question being asked and any key words in the initial statement or situation provided for a given set of answers. You may be surprised how often answers can be eliminated because they don t actually address the question being asked. *Tend to be longer If you were to go through each of the sample PPR tests provided by SBEC and mark only the longest answers, you would be right slightly less than half the time. That s very significant when you consider that there are four choices given for each question. If answer length had no bearing on correctness it should only get you a right answer one fourth of the time. If you must guess, pick the longest answer. This is a last resort technique. Only use it, if you are forced to guess. *Avoid I, Me, and My This is another technique that you should only use if you have no other options. In general, avoid answer choices that contain the words, I, me, or my. *Emphasize objective over subjective When given a choice between an answer that requires subjective, personal opinions to be used, versus an answer that objectively assesses the same information, choose the objective answer. For example, it is preferable to assess student mastery of a topic using a multiple choice test or a paper graded with a rubric (more objective) as opposed to having the teacher use their best judgment as to whether or not the student has mastered the instructional goals (more subjective).