New Early Childhood

This course includes five sessions, each two hours long. The Early Childhood prep course begins with an introduction to essential test-taking strategies and the Open Response, then concludes with a four-week review of the specific content included—and what is NOT included—on the exam; we focus on only what is necessary to pass. Test-taking skills and strategies are a focus of the first session and interwoven through each subsequent session. 

This class meets together with the General Curriculum Multi-subject class. Where the exams differ is highlighted, but most of the science, history, and ELA content is the same.

The curriculum is a copywritten series of documents and practice exams written specifically for this MTEL. The curriculum and the ETI guarantee* are included with the program fee.  

Recommended study materials (which are NOT included in the fee and must be purchased separately if you want them) are:

Everything You Need to Know About World History Homework
Everything You Need to Know About American History Homework
Everything You Need to Know About Geography Homework
Everything You Need to Know About Science Homework

All by Zeman and Kelley and published by Scholastic books—they are available on Amazon.

• Session 1: The instructor guides students through reliable test-taking strategies. Students learn how to recognize multiple choice answers designed to distract or confuse them. They discover the best logical process for narrowing down answer choices. This is unlike other “test-taking strategy” sessions you have experienced. Multiple-choice exams are a game, but you have not been taught the rules—it’s unfair. This session will give you the tools you need to play the game. You will learn how to NOT fall for attractors, answer choices written specifically to confuse you, how and when to apply the “process of elimination,” and even how to correctly answer questions that you do not know the answer to. Logic and phenomenology drove the development of this program, and it will change the way you experience and approach multiple-choice exams. Finally, the instructor reviews the open response (OR), highlighting what graders look for and how to compose an answer that hits all the marks. Current and past MTELs are provided to review and practice the test-taking skills and strategies. Practice OR questions based on real MTEL content are provided for practice. You will learn a “cookie-cutter” method for the general content OR. You can learn one OR that can be modified and applied to all of the others.

• Session 2: The instructor teaches information needed for the science portion of this MTEL. The basic science concepts from biology, chemistry, geology, engineering, and physics are reviewed. Emphasis is placed on Open Response content and more complex topics (such as Punnett squares and genetics). Many topics such as “MTEL-worthy scientists” and plant biology are included in the provided materials for student review after class. Students complete practice tests created using real MTEL content.

• Session 3: The instructor teaches information needed for the history portion of this MTEL. Starting with the Agricultural Revolution, history is taught not by memorizing dates but by thinking about the zeitgeist, the spirit of times, of each important historical period. Understanding how people thought and how each historical period influenced the next aids our ability to comprehend the people and events we will study. Emphasis is placed on OR contend and more complex and interconnected topics. Many topics and key terms to know are included for student review after class. Students complete practice tests created using real MTEL content.

• Session 4: The instructor teaches information needed for the English and language arts portion of this MTEL. Literary devices/terms, narrative forms, poetry, “MTEL-worthy authors” are discussed and placed in context. Important conceptual topics such as “the writing process,” parts of speech, and necessary grammar/usage/punctuation are reviewed. Many skills and strategies are covered while reviewing a practice test created from real MTEL content. Further study materials are available for grammar/usage/punctuation review.

• Session 5: Students taking the Early Childhood exam meet for a fifth session to review those topics unique to their exam. This includes special education, child development, and mathematics. The developmental theorists (Piaget, Vygotsky, etc.), theories (such as Malsow’s hierarchy of needs), and concepts (such as learned helplessness, human physical and social development, receptive/expressive language) are discussed and placed in context. Special education law, practice, and eligibility are discussed, as is the IEP document itself. A practice exam developed using MTEL content is reviewed and discussed. Many items such as the disorders/conditions crucial for the exam are listed and described for student review. Important math concepts are discussed. Math problems based on real MTEL content are explained and completed together as a group.