MTTC TEST LOWER ELEMENTARY TEST -119 ACTUAL

MTTC TEST (LOWER ELEMENTARY TEST -119) ACTUAL

EXAM QUESTIONS AND CORRECT DETAILED ANSWERS

GRADED A

• Two students play in the block area. One student builds a tower using five blocks. A second student

tries to build a similar tower with the same type of blocks, but it keeps falling over. The teacher hears the students have the following conversation.

Student A: You have to put this kind on the bottom. It's the biggest one.

Student B: No, this one is the biggest.

Student A: Not the biggest this way, the biggest that way.

The teacher wants to facilitate the students' thinking and language about shapes. Which of the following questions should the teacher use to achieve this goal?

• "What can you do to help your friend?"

• "Do you know how many sides your block has?"

• "Do you mean the base block needs to be bigger?"
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• "Can you show or tell your friend how the block is bigger?" - ANSWER✔✔.A. This question is vague

and does not help facilitate the students' discussion.

• The students are discussing an attribute of the block that does not depend on its number of sides.

• With this question, the teacher clarifies that the block can be called the "base block," but this

information does not help students establish a common understanding of the attribute they are discussing.

• CORRECT. This question helps students establish a common understanding about how the word

"biggest" applies to the shape.

• A teacher introduces a paired activity involving index cards that the teacher has numbered from 0

through 9. For the activity, the teacher gives each pair of students a set of index cards. Each student draws two cards, and together they use the numerals on the cards to make 2 two-digit numbers. They determine which of the two numbers is greater, recording their thinking as an inequality. Then, the students build both numbers using base-ten blocks to check if their thinking is correct. An appropriate

learning target for this activity is for students to be able to:

• identify reasonable numbers as solutions.

• compare two numbers using place values.

• use mathematical tools to explain their thinking.
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• construct numbers to solve mathematics problems. - ANSWER✔✔.A. The students check their work

by modeling the numbers with base-ten blocks and not by determining whether the numbers are reasonable solutions.

• CORRECT. Students compare numbers when they record their thinking as an inequality, and they use

place values concepts to create representations of two-digit numbers to check their work.

• The use of mathematical tools in this activity, such as the use of base-ten blocks, supports students'

understanding of the learning target but is not the learning target itself.

• This learning target does not specify the types of mathematics problems that are solved in this

learning activity.

• During a lesson on subtraction within 20, first-grade students engage with a series of word problems

about lost items (e.g., books, toys, mittens). Some students have difficulty solving the subtraction problems without drawing out the entire scenario. The teacher can support these students as they think

about subtraction by:

• encouraging the students to try a count-back or a count-up strategy.

• explaining how to use context to determine which operation to use.

• reminding the students of their prior learning regarding operations.
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• explaining how addition and subtraction are related operations. - ANSWER✔✔.A. CORRECT. Students

who consistently solve subtraction problems by drawing (i.e., by creating lines or pictures to represent objects and then crossing them out) should be encouraged to practice other subtraction strategies, such as counting-back or counting-up, to promote their conceptual and procedural understanding.

• The students demonstrate that they know to use subtraction, so an explanation about determining an

operation from a situational context is not necessary.

• This response does not specifically target students' demonstrated need to practice subtraction

strategies that do not involve drawing them out.

• An explanation of how subtraction and addition are related operations (e.g., by explaining how the

equations a − c = b and a + b = c are related) does not directly guide the students to apply subtraction strategies that do not require drawing.

• A kindergarten teacher observes as a small group of students practice comparing numbers and

quantities using manipulatives. Each student has four counters. One student's counters are spaced farther apart than the other students' counters, and several members of the group claim that student has more counters than everyone else. The teacher can build on the students' understanding of counting

and cardinality by:

• encouraging the one student to count their counters for the group.

• identifying the error and moving the one student's counters closer together.
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