Preparing for the Component 1 assessment can be a daunting task. It includes 45 selected response questions and 3 constructed responses, all designed to test your knowledge of language acquisition, the Spanish language, phonetics, learning styles, the 5C’s, ACTFL proficiency levels and the list goes on. Here is my best advice before beginning to prepare: Take a breath. When viewed as a whole it is overwhelming, however I found that when I sat down and broke the test up into specific sections and topics, it became more manageable. Overall my Component 1 score was my highest and this is what worked for me, keep in mind you should always refer to the official instructions from the National Board when preparing.
Selected Response
The best advice I can give about the selected response section is that there are some questions you just won’t know. There is such a range of topics covered, which can be found in the Component directions, that it is impossible to be an expert on everything. I did very well on this section, but there were a few questions I just had to guess on and things I never would have thought to study. The most useful tool I used to study was Quizlet. I made a folder of sets I made myself and sets other people had shared, you can see the folder here. These sets also helped prepare for the constructed responses since some of them focus on ACTFL proficiency levels, language acquisition and the 5C’s. I also used two books, Teaching Language in Context by Omaggio Hadley and Teacher’s Handbook by Shrum and Glisan to study. The first one has a great chapter on the variety of language teaching methods and the second dives into ACTFL and proficiency based learning.
Constructed Response
When preparing for the 3 constructed response questions, my original plan had been to sit down and write practice responses for each one. However as I studied, I found the best option for me was to brainstorm and make outlines of what I would talk about for each topic. This worked well for me and helped me identify areas I could improve. Again the Quizlets I used to study for the selected response were incredibly helpful since these questions are asking you to apply that information.
Constructed Response #1: First and foremost, you have to know your ACTFL proficiency levels for this constructed response. You can download a copy from ACTFL here. Once you’ve mastered those, I would recommend going through each level of learner and brainstorm typical errors you might see in those students and how you would respond to them. Knowing your language acquisition theory is imperative for this constructed response, the books I mentioned before were incredibly helpful to me.
Constructed Response #2: Personally, I think this is the easiest to prepare for because the National Board instructions give you more to work with. You know the topic will be about culture, so I would brush up on your understanding of Culture as defined by the 5Cs. Then make a list of categories like: art, sites, people, foods, etc. and come up with an example for each category. Finally, expand on its importance in the Spanish-speaking world.
Constructed Response #3: I felt least prepared for this portion, however it ended up being my highest score. You know they will give you a resource and you’ll have to make a plan to integrate it with another content. To practice I went content by content and came up with collaborative ideas for each one. For example maybe you would discuss the culture importance of a recipe and then collaborate with your FCS department to have students prepare it.
As you can see, while breaking Component 1 into pieces helps sort through all the things you have to do, studying for one section helps with another. Component 1 is designed to test a range of topics, so figure out where you need a refresher and go from there!
Check out all my National Board Certification posts here.
2 Comments
Barb Winger-Rourke
Thank you so much for all your thorough work on this! I am so happy that you cared enough about colleagues you didn’t even know, to throw all of us a lifeline!
I have a question on culture. I like that you broke it down first into art, music etc. Since it is a constructed response, did you get to decide which idea to use or did they say something like Carribean music … and ask you to already know what they might want you to write about? That second method is what feels overwhelming because I don’t know which cultures and countries music art etc.
Was there anything on history of Spain and INdependence movements etc? Incas, Aztecs etc.
Señora Smones
I’m glad it was helpful! I’m happy to help after receiving so much guidance from others myself!
When I was preparing for the culture constructed response, I started with the example question provided in the Component 1 instructions. From there I brainstormed the different categories, like food or people and used the example question to guide what I might potentially say about an example from that category. Unfortunately I can’t give specifics about what was on my Component 1 test per the National Board’s guidelines, but I hope this helps! Best of luck!