MTEL Foundations of Reading Online Center
This MTEL Foundations of Reading Online Center brings together practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Choose the resource that matches the skill you want to work on next.
MTEL Foundations of Reading Practice Center
Take a full form, then read the explanation under every question you missed. Sort the misses by subarea. Most candidates find the misses cluster in one place: either the sound and print skills of Subarea I or the assessment questions of Subarea III. The two practice forms here cover the 100 multiple-choice questions. Draft the two written assignments separately, on paper, with a timer.
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MTEL Foundations of Reading at a glance
This is the reading test Massachusetts requires for Early Childhood, Elementary, and Moderate Disabilities licenses, and it is the single test candidates most often have to repeat. The reason is that it asks about the mechanics of how children learn to read, not about how well you read. You need the vocabulary of the science of reading and you need to use it under a four-hour clock that also holds two written assignments. One more thing about the framework: field 190 replaced field 90, and the older objectives page is still on the vendor site. If your study guide lists ten objectives, it is the old one. The current framework has eleven.
| Test code | 190 (Foundations of Reading). Field 190 supersedes field 90; the field 90 objectives page still on the vendor site lists only ten objectives and older titles. |
|---|---|
| Program | Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure, administered by Evaluation Systems (Pearson) for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. |
| Who takes it | In Massachusetts, candidates for the Early Childhood, Elementary, and Moderate Disabilities licenses, plus Teacher of the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing and Teacher of the Visually Impaired. |
| Number of questions | 100 multiple-choice questions and 2 open-response assignments |
| Open response | Each assignment asks for roughly 150 to 300 words: interpret one student’s assessment results, name a strength and a need, describe an instructional strategy, and explain why it would work. |
| Time limit | 4 hours of testing time. Total appointment is 4 hours 15 minutes at a test center and 4 hours 30 minutes with online proctoring. |
| Format | Computer-based at a test center or online proctored, year-round by appointment, Monday through Saturday except certain holidays. |
| Calculator | None provided and none needed. |
| Score scale | 100 to 300. A scaled score of 240 passes. One score for the whole test; there are no separately passed subtests. |
| Score weighting | Multiple-choice items are 80 percent of the total score and the two written assignments are 20 percent. |
| Fee | $139 |
| Used elsewhere | Pearson’s July 2023 licensure-area document lists the same Foundations of Reading assessment as a requirement in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wisconsin. Other states use their own field numbers, so register through your own state’s program site. |
Massachusetts publishes the weights and the multiple-choice counts. Subarea I, Foundations of Reading Development (objectives 0001 to 0004), is 35 percent and 43 to 45 questions. Subarea II, Development of Reading Comprehension (objectives 0005 to 0007), is 27 percent and 33 to 35 questions. Subarea III, Reading Assessment and Instruction (objectives 0008 and 0009), is 18 percent and 21 to 23 questions. Subarea IV, Integration of Knowledge and Understanding (objectives 0010 and 0011), is 20 percent and consists of the two written assignments, 10 percent each.
The four subareas, in plain language
Massachusetts states every objective and lists what it expects under each one. Here is what the four subareas ask of you, with the published weight.
I. Foundations of reading development (35 percent, 43 to 45 questions)
Sound, print, and the machinery of accurate word reading, from emergent literacy through fluency.
- Phonological awareness against phonemic awareness, and the continuum from sentences to syllables to onset and rime to phonemes
- Phonemic tasks: identifying, blending, segmenting, deleting, adding, and substituting sounds
- Concepts of print, letter knowledge, and the alphabetic principle
- Systematic explicit phonics, from simple letter-sound patterns to complex ones, applied in connected text
- High-frequency words, including irregular ones, and inflectional endings
- The reciprocity of decoding and encoding, so spelling shows what a reader knows
- Morphemes, the six English syllable types, and orthographic knowledge
- Fluency as accuracy, rate, and prosody, and the instruction that builds each
II. Development of reading comprehension (27 percent, 33 to 35 questions)
Academic language, vocabulary, and making meaning from literary and informational text.
- Oral and written vocabulary and their link to comprehension
- Choosing words for explicit study, including tiered vocabulary
- Independent word learning through context, morphology, and reference tools
- Literal, inferential, and evaluative levels of comprehension
- Literary text: key ideas and details, craft and structure, integration of ideas
- Informational text: main idea, evidence, text features, and text structure
- Strategy instruction such as think-alouds, close reading, reciprocal teaching, and questioning
- Background knowledge, wide reading, and disciplinary literacy
III. Reading assessment and instruction (18 percent, 21 to 23 questions)
Choosing the right measure, reading the data, and turning it into a next step.
- Purposes of assessment: screening, diagnosis, progress monitoring, and outcomes
- Criterion-referenced and norm-referenced standardized measures
- Informal tools: phonics inventories, running records, oral reading records, informal reading inventories
- Using both code-based and meaning-based measures
- Interpreting results and naming the instructional decision that follows
- Identifying students at risk for reading difficulties, including signs of dyslexia
- Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and tiered intervention
- Planning, grouping, text selection, motivation, and support for multilingual learners
IV. Integration of knowledge and understanding (20 percent, 2 written assignments)
Two responses of roughly 150 to 300 words, each built on one student’s assessment results.
- Objective 0010: analyze results related to foundational reading skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, high-frequency words, syllabication, morphemic analysis, automaticity, and fluency
- Objective 0011: analyze results related to reading comprehension, including vocabulary, academic language structures, comprehension levels, strategies, and text analysis
- Cite specific examples from the student’s performance to identify one strength and one need
- Describe an appropriate instructional strategy, activity, intervention, or extension in concrete detail
- Explain why that choice would work, using sound reasoning about reading development
A study routine for a four-hour reading test
The clock is generous for the multiple-choice section and tight if you leave the writing until the end. Plan the four hours before test day, and spend your study time where the weights are.
Complete competency map
Forty-eight points drawn from the current field 190 objectives, grouped by subarea. Work down the list and mark the ones you could not explain to another teacher in two sentences.
Subarea I: Foundations of reading development (35 percent)
- 01Separate phonological awareness from phonemic awareness and place any task on the continuum
- 02Blend, segment, delete, add, and substitute phonemes in spoken words
- 03Teach concepts of print: print carries meaning, directionality, spaces between words
- 04Build letter naming and letter formation, then the alphabetic principle
- 05Move from letter-sound correspondence to blending sounds into whole words
- 06Deliver systematic explicit phonics, simple patterns before complex ones
- 07Teach high-frequency words, including words with irregular spellings
- 08Use phonics in connected decodable text rather than in isolated drills only
- 09Know the terms of phonics instruction: phoneme, grapheme, digraph, blend, schwa, inflection
- 10Use the reciprocity of decoding and encoding, reading spelling as evidence
- 11Analyze morphemes: base words, roots, inflections, derivational affixes
- 12Apply the six English syllable types to divide and decode long words
- 13Connect orthographic knowledge to accurate, automatic word recognition
- 14Teach fluency as three measures: accuracy, rate, and prosody
- 15Build automaticity through repeated and wide reading of appropriate text
- 16Name common causes of disrupted fluency and match instruction to each
- 17Differentiate foundational skills instruction and plan classroom intervention
Subarea II: Development of reading comprehension (27 percent)
- 18Link oral vocabulary, written vocabulary, and comprehension
- 19Select words for explicit study using tiered vocabulary and utility
- 20Teach independent word learning: context, morphology, dictionaries, and glossaries
- 21Develop word consciousness, idioms, proverbs, and figurative language
- 22Distinguish literal, inferential, and evaluative comprehension and question at each level
- 23Teach key ideas and details in literary text: theme, character, plot, setting
- 24Teach craft and structure in literary text: point of view, word choice, genre
- 25Integrate knowledge and ideas within a literary text and across texts
- 26Teach main idea, supporting evidence, and text features in informational text
- 27Recognize informational text structures: sequence, cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution
- 28Evaluate author’s purpose, argument, and the evidence offered
- 29Model strategies: think-alouds, close reading, reciprocal teaching, summarizing, questioning
- 30Build background knowledge and academic language structures before and during reading
- 31Develop disciplinary literacy in science, history, and mathematics texts
- 32Differentiate comprehension instruction and plan intervention
Subarea III: Reading assessment and instruction (18 percent)
- 33Match the assessment purpose: screening, diagnostic, progress monitoring, outcome
- 34Compare criterion-referenced and norm-referenced standardized measures
- 35Use informal tools: phonics inventories, running records, oral reading records, informal reading inventories
- 36Balance code-based and meaning-based measures across the components of reading
- 37Interpret results and state the instructional decision that follows from them
- 38Identify students at risk for reading difficulties, including signs of dyslexia
- 39Explain the major components of reading instruction and how they support each other
- 40Apply tiered models such as Multi-Tiered Systems of Support
- 41Plan, group, and manage standards-based reading instruction
- 42Judge the challenges and supports in a text: decodability, predictability, illustrations
- 43Build motivation, engagement, and a classroom that sustains reading practice
- 44Support multilingual learners and students with reading difficulties
Subarea IV: Integration of knowledge and understanding (20 percent, two written assignments)
- 45Read the student data in the exhibit and interpret it accurately before writing anything
- 46Name one strength and one need, each tied to a specific example from the student’s performance
- 47Describe one instructional strategy, activity, intervention, or extension in enough detail to picture it
- 48Explain why that strategy addresses the need, using reading development knowledge
Before test day
Two habits separate candidates who pass from candidates who retake. The first is answering the question that was asked. A stem usually describes a student, gives evidence, and asks what to do next, and several choices will be good teaching that does not address that evidence. Match the strategy to the specific weakness in front of you. The second is protecting the writing. The two assignments are a fifth of your score and they are the easiest points on the test to leave on the table, because a candidate who runs the multiple-choice section slowly ends up writing two thin paragraphs at 3:45. Decide now how much of the four hours the writing gets, and hold to it.
A USEFUL NEXT STEP
MTEL Foundations of Reading: study questions
What can I study in this MTEL Foundations of Reading Online Center?
This MTEL Foundations of Reading Online Center includes practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Topics on the page include IV. Integration of knowledge and understanding (20 percent, 2 written assignments), Subarea I: Foundations of reading development (35 percent), Subarea II: Development of reading comprehension (27 percent).
How should I use the MTEL Foundations of Reading resources?
Choose a topic or practice activity from this Online Center. Review the linked explanation, try the practice, and use the result to decide what to study next. Check each resource’s directions for its format and access requirements.
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