GACE Middle Grades Language Arts
The Middle Grades Language Arts assessment, offered as part of the Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators, is composed of one test. The test consists of 60 selected-response questions (80% of the test score) and 2 constructed-response assignments (20% of the test score). The content areas covered by the test are: reading literature and informational texts; reading across the curriculum; writing processes, purposes, and conventions; and listening, speaking, and viewing. The topics covered by the reading literature and informational texts subarea are: the various literary genres and forms of informational texts; the cultural and historical aspects of various literary genres; the structures and elements of literary works and informational texts; word identification strategies for promoting vocabulary development; and the reading strategies used to construct meaning, aid comprehension, and increase fluency. The topics covered by the reading across the curriculum subarea are: the strategies for promoting students' independent reading in multiple subject areas; reading for information in multiple subject areas; how reading helps to expand content vocabulary and modes of discourse in various subject areas; and how reading helps to develop skills of critical analysis and evaluation and to form personal responses. The topics covered by the writing processes, purposes, and conventions subarea are: effective and appropriate organizational structure and focus in writing; techniques for effective narrative, analytical, expository, persuasive, and technical writing; and the techniques for effectively revising and editing writing and for appropriately documenting sources used in writing; and the rules and conventions of standard American English grammar and usage. The topics covered by the listening, speaking, and viewing subarea are: the listening and speaking skills that are effective and appropriate for communication in a classroom setting and in a variety of formal and informal social situations; and the skills that are effective for responding to and delivering various forms of media presentations.
The examination must be completed within four hours. The total test score is placed on a scale of 100 to 300, with 220 as the lowest passing score. Scores are based on the number of selected-response questions answered correctly and the scores assigned by judges to the constructed responses. Test-takers will also receive performance indices indicating their success in each subarea of the examination. Scores will be available approximately a month after the date of the examination; unofficial results are posted on the internet, and an official score report is mailed to the test-taker, the Professional Standards Commission, and the institution specified by the test-taker during registration.
GACE Middle Grades Language Arts Practice Questions
1. A teacher is introducing a lesson on alphabetization. Which of the following word lists would be most appropriate at first?
A: human, eagle, apple, jellybean
B: rabbit, radish, rash, raffle
C: state, super, spoon, salamander
D: welcome, wallet, yellow, volume
2. Students are asked to compose an alternate ending for a short story. Which critical thinking skill is exercised by this assignment?
A: comprehension
B: synthesis
C: evaluation
D: application
3. According to language arts research, which important step in composition is most frequently omitted by students?
A: drafting
B: editing
C: outlining
D: rewriting
4. What kind of language arts instruction relies on the use of graded books of specially-composed reading samples?
A: literature-based reading instruction
B: word analysis
C: emergent literacy approach
D: basal reader approach
5. In which stage of spelling development might a student spell the word liberty "lbrte"?
A: pre-communicative
B: transitional
C: semi-phonetic
D: mature
Answer Key
1. A. To begin with, a teacher should start with a list in which the initial letters are different.
2. B. Synthesis is the ability to understand and reconfigure information from a text.
3. D. Most students do not take the time to rewrite their essays unless they are forced to do so.
4. D. The basal reading approach is the most common form of literacy instruction in the United States.
5. C. In the semi-phonetic stage of spelling development, spelling indicates some of the sounds in a word.