Praxis PLT Grades 7-12 Online Center
This Praxis PLT Grades 7-12 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 PLT Grades 7-12 Practice Center
Both forms cover the 70 selected-response questions. The four constructed responses need a reader rather than an answer key, so they are covered in the review below. Read the explanation under every question you missed; the wrong choices here are all things a reasonable teacher might do, which is exactly what makes this test hard.
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Praxis PLT Grades 7-12 at a glance
This is the secondary version of the Praxis pedagogy test, taken by candidates for a licence in grades seven through twelve. The four PLT tests share an identical published outline, so what makes this one different is not the topic list but the classroom the questions are set in: departmentalized courses, five or six sections of the same subject, credit and graduation requirements, adolescent identity, and transition planning on an IEP. Study the theory once, then practise applying it to teenagers.
| Test code | 5624 (PLT Grades 7-12) |
|---|---|
| Status | Current. No retirement date or successor code is published. |
| Number of questions | 70 selected-response questions and 4 constructed responses, which come as two questions on each of two case histories |
| Time limit | 2 hours. The sections are not separately timed, though ETS suggests budgeting roughly 70 minutes for the selected response and 50 for the case studies. |
| What the case studies ask | Not essays. Each asks you to identify two of something in the scenario and explain each one. Each response is scored 0 to 2. |
| Format | Computer-delivered |
| Score scale | 100 to 200 |
| Passing score | ETS does not set one. Each state sets its own qualifying score. |
| The family of tests | There are four Principles of Learning and Teaching tests: Early Childhood (5621), Grades K-6 (5622), Grades 5-9 (5623), and Grades 7-12 (5624). The four differ mainly in the age band the items are set in, not in the published topic list. |
ETS publishes both the percentage and the item count for every category, and they are identical across all four PLT tests: Students as Learners 22.5 percent and 21 questions, Instructional Process 22.5 percent and 21, Assessment 15 percent and 14, Professional Development Leadership and Community 15 percent and 14, and Analysis of Instructional Scenarios 25 percent, which is the four constructed responses. The case studies are worth more than any single selected-response category.
The five categories, in plain language
ETS lists each category and the topics under it. Here is what each one asks of you.
I. Students as learners (22.5 percent, 21 questions)
Development, motivation, and the differences between the learners in front of you.
- Adolescent cognitive development and formal operational thinking
- Erikson’s identity versus role confusion, and the peer group
- Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development, and scaffolding
- Motivation, self-determination, and why secondary students disengage
- Metacognition and study strategies
- Learning differences, disability, and Section 504 at secondary level
- Multilingual learners in content-area classrooms
- Culturally responsive teaching with adolescents
II. Instructional process (22.5 percent, 21 questions)
Planning, teaching, and managing.
- Planning from standards and writing objectives
- Bloom’s taxonomy and levels of thinking
- Questioning, discussion, and wait time
- Direct instruction, inquiry, and cooperative learning
- Differentiation and scaffolding
- Technology in instruction
- Classroom management and the learning environment
III. Assessment (15 percent, 14 questions)
Finding out what students know and doing something about it.
- Formative and summative assessment
- Formal and informal measures
- Rubrics and scoring criteria
- Validity, reliability, and bias
- Interpreting standardized test results
- Feedback and grading practices
- Using data to adjust instruction
IV. Professional development, leadership, and community (15 percent, 14 questions)
The job around the teaching.
- Reflective practice and professional growth
- Professional learning communities and mentoring
- Working with families as partners
- School and community resources
- Working with colleagues, specialists, and assistants
- Legal and ethical obligations, including FERPA, mandated reporting, IDEA, and Section 504
V. Analysis of instructional scenarios (25 percent, 4 constructed responses)
Two case histories, two questions each, worth a quarter of the score.
- Read the case carefully and note what the evidence shows
- Identify exactly the number of things the prompt asks for, usually two
- Explain each one with reference to the case, not in general
- Use the professional vocabulary the rest of the test tests
- Keep it short; these are scored 0 to 2, not graded as essays
A study routine for a two-hour test
The single most under-prepared part of this test is the case studies. They are twenty-five percent, they take about fifty minutes, and most candidates practise them not at all.
Complete topic map
Every topic ETS lists under the five categories, weighted the way the test is weighted.
Students as learners (22.5%)
- 01Apply the major learning theories, including behaviorist, cognitive, constructivist, and social learning views
- 02Recognize the contributions of Bandura, Bruner, Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Kohlberg, and Bloom, and of Thorndike, Watson, Maslow, Skinner, and Erikson on motivation and behavior
- 03Describe cognitive processes: schema, transfer, metacognition, self-efficacy, self-regulation, zone of proximal development, and classical and operant conditioning
- 04Identify the physical, social, emotional, moral, and cognitive characteristics of adolescents in grades 7 to 12, including typical and atypical variance within a stage
- 05Plan for the range of learners, including cognitive, auditory, visual, motor and physical, speech and language, and behavioral exceptionalities, intellectually gifted students, and English learners
- 06Apply the legal frame for diverse learners: ADA, IDEA, and Section 504, and select appropriate accommodations
- 07Apply what is known about motivation, including self-determination, attribution, intrinsic and extrinsic sources, and cognitive dissonance
- 08Use classroom management approaches that support learning rather than only control behavior: routines, procedures, records, conduct standards, and physical arrangement of the room
Instructional process (22.5%)
- 09Plan from district, state, and national standards, with observable measurable objectives across the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains using Bloom’s taxonomy
- 10Build a workable scope and sequence and select content that serves the objective
- 11Choose instructional strategies that fit the objective across the direct, indirect, independent, experiential, and interactive models
- 12Use specific strategies well: explicit teaching, lecture, demonstration, inquiry, case studies, concept mapping, learning contracts, research projects, simulations, role play, cooperative learning groups, discussion, and debate
- 13Select resources, materials, and technology that serve the lesson, including computers, the internet, library collections, video, artifacts, manipulatives, and guest speakers
- 14Plan thematic and interdisciplinary units, and collaborate with special education teachers, librarians, gifted teachers, IEP team members, and paraeducators
- 15Question at a range of cognitive levels, use wait time and think time, handle incorrect answers well, and keep the discussion forum safe for risk taking
- 16Communicate clearly in verbal and nonverbal modes, allowing for cultural and gender effects on communication, and listen actively
Assessment (15%)
- 17Distinguish formal and informal assessment, and diagnostic, formative, and summative purposes
- 18Choose an assessment format that matches what you want to know: essay, selected response, portfolio, conference, observation, or performance
- 19Use rubrics, analytical checklists, scoring guides, anecdotal notes, and continuums
- 20Set up student self-assessment and peer assessment, and know their strengths and limits
- 21Distinguish achievement, aptitude, and ability tests, and norm-referenced from criterion-referenced scoring
- 22Interpret testing and scoring terminology: validity, reliability, raw score, scaled score, percentile, standard deviation, mean, mode, median, grade-equivalent and age-equivalent scores
- 23Choose between holistic and analytical scoring and know when each fits
- 24Use assessment results to decide what to teach next and to communicate results to students, families, and school personnel
Professional development, leadership, and community (15%)
- 25Use professional development resources: professional literature, associations, workshops, conferences, learning communities, graduate courses, independent research, internships, mentors, and study groups
- 26Access research on teaching practice, interpret its data and conclusions, and relate it to a real classroom situation
- 27Reflect on practice with evidence, using reflective journals, self and peer assessment, incident analysis, portfolios, peer observation, and a critical friend
- 28Work with school support personnel: guidance counselors, IEP team members, special education teachers, speech, physical and occupational therapists, librarians, gifted teachers, and paraeducators
- 29Take up teacher leadership roles, shaping and advocating for the profession
- 30Build productive collaborative relationships through action planning, identifying stakeholders and purpose, and supporting communication
- 31Build partnerships with parents, families, and the wider community
- 32Apply the legislation and court decisions that bind teachers: equal access, privacy and confidentiality, First Amendment issues, intellectual freedom, mandated reporting of child neglect and abuse, due process, liability, licensing and tenure, and copyright
Before test day
Two habits carry this test. When two answers both sound reasonable, choose the one that finds out something before acting, because the test is written by people who have watched teachers act on an assumption about a teenager. And give the case studies real practice time: twenty-five percent of your score sits in four short answers that most candidates have never written before test day.
A USEFUL NEXT STEP
Praxis PLT Grades 7-12: study questions
What can I study in this Praxis PLT Grades 7-12 Online Center?
This Praxis PLT Grades 7-12 Online Center includes practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Topics on the page include V. Analysis of instructional scenarios (25 percent, 4 constructed responses), Students as learners (22.5%), Instructional process (22.5%).
How should I use the Praxis PLT Grades 7-12 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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