Praxis Middle School English Language Arts Online Center
This Praxis Middle School English Language Arts Online Center brings together practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Choose the resource that matches the skill you want to work on next.
Praxis Middle School ELA Practice Center
Each form gives you 110 selected-response questions built on five original passages, including a piece of student writing to analyze. Take a full form, then read the explanation under every miss. Reading is nearly half the test, so that is where a weak score usually lives.
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Praxis Middle School English Language Arts at a glance
This is the content test for teaching English in roughly grades five through nine. It has an unusual shape: the selected-response and the written sections are timed separately, so you cannot borrow time from one for the other. Reading is forty-six percent on its own, and one of the two written responses is a literary interpretation while the other is about teaching. Candidates who prepare only as readers get caught by the second one.
| Test code | 5047 (Middle School English Language Arts) |
|---|---|
| Status | Current. No retirement date or successor code is published. |
| Number of questions | 110 selected-response questions and 2 constructed-response assignments |
| Time limit | 160 minutes total, in two separately timed sections: 130 minutes for the selected response and 30 minutes for the two written responses, roughly 15 minutes each. |
| The written responses | The first asks you to interpret a literary or informational text and explain how its devices develop meaning. The second asks about an approach to teaching reading or writing, usually from a student work sample or a classroom situation. Both are rated 0 to 3 and they are equally weighted. |
| Format | Computer-delivered, at a test centre or at home |
| Score scale | 100 to 200 |
| Passing score | ETS does not set one. Each state sets its own qualifying score. |
ETS publishes the split, and it is lopsided in a way worth planning around. Reading is 46 percent, made up of 50 selected-response questions plus one written response. English Language Arts Instruction is 25 percent, 18 selected-response questions plus the other written response. Writing, Speaking, and Listening is 18 percent, 26 questions. Language Use and Vocabulary is only 11 percent, 16 questions. Together the two written responses are about a quarter of the score in half an hour of the clock.
The four categories, in plain language
ETS lists each category and the topics under it. Here is what each one asks of you.
Reading (46 percent: 50 questions and 1 written response)
Nearly half the test, across literature and informational text.
- Literary elements: point of view, character, theme, setting
- Figurative language, sound devices, and poetic form
- Genre, literary movements, and children’s and young adult literature
- Informational text structure and author’s purpose
- Rhetoric and evaluating an argument
- Comparing and integrating across texts
Language use and vocabulary (11 percent, 16 questions)
The smallest category, and the most drillable.
- Grammar, usage, and sentence structure
- Punctuation and mechanics
- Morphology, roots, affixes, and etymology
- Denotation, connotation, and word choice
- Dialect, register, and language variation
Writing, speaking, and listening (18 percent, 26 questions)
Composing and communicating.
- The writing process and the modes of writing
- Argument, claim, evidence, and reasoning
- Research, source evaluation, and citation
- Speaking for an audience and listening critically
- Multimodal and digital composition
English language arts instruction (25 percent: 18 questions and 1 written response)
Teaching it, not just knowing it.
- Reading and writing instruction in the middle grades
- Responding to student writing and conferring
- Choosing texts and judging complexity
- Supporting struggling readers and multilingual learners
- Discussion protocols and academic talk
- Assessing reading and writing
A study routine for a two-section test
Because the sections are timed separately, they are effectively two tests. Prepare them separately too.
Complete topic map
Every topic ETS lists under the four categories, followed by seventy-five lessons on reading and language, each opening in a new tab.
Reading
- 01Identify the authors, titles, and historical or literary context of major works of United States, British, and World literature appropriate for adolescents
- 02Identify the typical characteristics of literary genres, apply the correct terminology for a genre, and compare and contrast genres
- 03Distinguish major subgenres from one another by their defining features
- 04Comprehend the literal meaning of a literary text, draw inferences from it, and identify the textual evidence that supports an analysis
- 05Identify the theme of a text, analyze how a theme is developed within and across works, and recognize universal themes from myths, traditional stories, and religious works
- 06Analyze how literary elements shape meaning, including point of view, plot structure, setting as it creates mood, tone, and conflict, key lines of dialogue or events, and direct and indirect characterization
- 07Analyze how word choice shapes meaning and tone, including connotation versus denotation, types of figurative language, and the gap between what is stated and what is meant
- 08Analyze how poetic devices and the structure of a poem contribute to its meaning
- 09Identify literacy skills that support active reading, evaluate a summary of a passage, and judge the strength of a prediction against textual evidence
- 10Comprehend, infer from, and cite evidence in informational texts, and compare two or more texts that present conflicting facts or perspectives
- 11Identify the central idea of an informational text, analyze how the author develops or refines it, identify the organizational pattern such as problem and solution, cause and effect, or chronological, and analyze how ideas connect
- 12Analyze word choice in informational text, including connotation and denotation and the purpose of technical language
- 13Determine an author’s point of view or purpose and analyze how the author uses rhetoric to support it
Language Use and Vocabulary
- 14Explain the function of the different parts of speech
- 15Identify errors in standard English grammar, usage, syntax, and mechanics
- 16Justify a grammar, usage, syntax, or mechanics choice rather than only spotting the error
- 17Identify examples of the different sentence types
- 18Apply knowledge of affixes to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word
- 19Use context clues to determine word meaning
- 20Apply knowledge of syntax to determine word meaning
- 21Choose the most appropriate print or digital reference material to support correct language usage
- 22Identify variation in dialect and diction across regions, cultural groups, and time periods
Writing, Speaking, and Listening
- 23Distinguish among and identify examples of the common types of writing, including argumentative, informative or explanatory, and narrative, and identify the typical characteristics of each
- 24Identify the task, purpose, or intended audience for a piece of writing
- 25Choose the most appropriate type of writing for a particular task, purpose, or audience, and evaluate how effective a given piece is for a specific task
- 26Identify details that develop a main idea and organize the parts of a text clearly and coherently
- 27Choose appropriate transitions and justify stylistic choices within a clear and coherent piece of writing
- 28Identify relevant information during research on a topic and identify effective research practices
- 29Evaluate the credibility of a print or digital source
- 30Interpret a citation and apply appropriate documentation techniques when quoting or paraphrasing
- 31Identify the characteristics of effective delivery of a speech or presentation
- 32Evaluate the integration of multimedia components or visual displays and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of different media
- 33Identify methods of appeal or persuasion and evaluate how effective an author’s methods of appeal are
- 34Evaluate the argument and specific claims in an expository or persuasive text, assess whether the reasoning is sound, and assess whether the evidence is relevant, factual, and sufficient
English Language Arts Instruction
- 35Recognize and evaluate research-based approaches to supporting language acquisition and vocabulary development, and interpret research and apply it to instructional challenges
- 36Identify techniques for instructing students to participate productively in collaborative discussions and evaluate them against particular discussion goals
- 37Identify techniques for instructing students to communicate effectively using technological tools and evaluate their effectiveness
- 38Identify research-based approaches to grouping and differentiated instruction and evaluate them against specific objectives
- 39Identify approaches to choosing texts for students based on ability and interests
- 40Recognize research-based strategies for teaching adolescent reading, evaluate a strategy against a particular reading task, and apply research to reading instruction challenges
- 41Recognize research-based approaches to teaching the components of writing, evaluate a strategy against a particular writing task, and apply research to writing instruction challenges
- 42Recognize the approaches to and purposes of formative and summative assessment, evaluate their effectiveness, and apply research to assessment challenges
- 43Identify approaches to gathering student input, feedback, and reflection
- 44Identify approaches to helping students become monitors of their own work and growth
Key ideas, details, and textual evidence
Inference, conclusions, and how ideas develop
Word meaning, word choice, and tone
Text structure, features, and organization
Purpose, perspective, and point of view
Evaluating claims, evidence, and reasoning
Integrating information across texts and formats
Sentence Foundations
Sentence Boundaries
Agreement, Verbs, and Pronouns
Punctuation and Capitalization
Spelling and Confused Words
Knowledge of Language
Before test day
Two things separate a comfortable pass here. The first is discipline in the reading section: answer from the text, not from what you know about the author or the period. The second is the teaching written response, which candidates prepare least and which is worth as much as the literary one. Practise reading a student draft and saying, in two sentences, what the writer already controls and what you would teach next.
A USEFUL NEXT STEP
Praxis Middle School English Language Arts: study questions
What can I study in this Praxis Middle School English Language Arts Online Center?
This Praxis Middle School English Language Arts Online Center includes practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Topics on the page include Reading, Language Use and Vocabulary, Writing, Speaking, and Listening.
How should I use the Praxis Middle School English Language Arts 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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