This material supplements what is currently available on the Massachusetts DOE site.
What to expect:
· A four-hour test (there are no timed subsections; test-takers are free to use the four hours as they choose)
· Eighty multiple-choice questions
· Two essaysMultiple-choice section, topics:
· Literature in English, with the primary focus on contemporary American literature and multicultural literature in English
· Literary terms and technical vocabulary (alliteration, metaphor, sonnet, etc.)
· Composition and rhetoric (with a focus on "process" writing)
· History of the English language (etymology, cognate words)
· Literary theory ("schools" such as New Criticism, deconstruction; names of theorists; an emphasis on what would constitute a particular type of approach: "if one did X with King Lear, then one would be applying a Y theory")
Sample question taken from the Massachusetts Department of Education Website:Use the excerpt below from a poem by Queen Elizabeth I to answer the question that follows.
I grieve and dare not show my discontent,
I love and yet am forced to seem to hate,
I do, yet dare not say I ever meant,
I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate.
I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned,
Since from myself another self I turned.In this work, the poet constructs meaning by using:
A. Understatement to emphasize the speaker's sense of incompleteness.
B. Allusion to elevate the speaker's situation.
C. Onomatopoeia to heighten the dramatic effect.
D. Antithesis to dramatize the speaker's inner conflict.The Essays
So far, test-takers have been given a passage from a work of fiction (no more than a page), and very specific instructions for writing a focused critical analysis. Such an exercise requires a number of skills:
· An ability to read quickly and insightfully.
· An ability to construct a coherent, well-organized essay that clearly states an argument.
· An ability to support that argument through reference to the passage.
· An ability to produce an essay that employs the conventions of standard edited American English.
· A familiarity with different critical approaches to literary texts.
· A familiarity with the technical vocabulary of literary analysis.Note that the test-taker is not expected to be familiar with the text from which the excerpt is taken.
A description of the essay section, taken from the DOE Website:
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Most of the subject tests contain two open-response items for which candidates are asked to prepare a written response of approximately 300 to 600 words (or up to three pages) or to solve a problem for each assignment. These items are designed to measure the depth and breadth of the candidate's knowledge in the subject area, the candidate's understanding of fundamental concepts of the discipline, and the candidate's familiarity with field-specific methodologies. As a whole, the response to each assignment must demonstrate an understanding of the content of the field. The candidate is expected to demonstrate his or her understanding of the subject area by applying knowledge and skills rather than by merely reciting factual information. The open-response items are intended to assess subject area knowledge and skills. Responses must be communicated clearly enough to permit valid judgment by the scorers as to whether the responses meet evaluation criteria. Responses will be scored on the extent to which they achieve the purpose of the assignment, are appropriate and accurate in the application of subject knowledge, provide high-quality and relevant supporting evidence, and demonstrate soundness of argument and understanding of the subject area. |
Tip: read the essay questions first, and do some initial brainstorming. Then work through the questions until you begin to feel stale or tired, and return to the essays-keep switching back and forth. You should have one essay and half of the questions finished in two hours.
Essential Reference Texts for the Subject Test in EnglishGeneral
The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, Ian Ousby, ed., 1998.
Its scope extends beyond the United Kingdom and Ireland and beyond the traditional English-literature syllabus to include the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand.
There are entries for writers; individual works; literary groups or schools, such as the Bloomsbury Group; wider literary movements, such as Romanticism; schools of criticism, such as New Criticism; genres and subgenres; poetic forms; critical concepts and literary terms; and important theaters and magazines. Years of birth and death are provided for authors, as well as a few words classifying the authors' fields of endeavor, such as "poet" or "critic."English Literature
The Oxford Companion to English Literature, Margaret Drabble, ed., 1998.
An extensive chronological chart tracing English literature from Anglo-Saxon times through 1994, a list of British poets laureate, and lists of recipients of the Nobel, Pulitzer, and Booker prizes and the Carnegie Medal.
While it includes a number of entries on major Commonwealth, European, and American authors, its primary focus is the literature and culture of the British Isles. In this regard, it is significantly different from the Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, which has considerably fewer entries but offers better coverage of the English-language literatures of Australia, New Zealand, Africa, India, the Caribbean, Canada, and the U.S.American Literature
The Oxford Companion to American Literature (6th ed.), James David Hart, Phillip Leininger, ed., 1995.
With over 5,000 total entries, this anthology surveys virtually every aspect of American literature, from the Pulitzer Prize to pulp fiction, and from Walt Whitman to William F. Buckley. It provides historical background, literary awards, and a wide variety of other matters directly related to writing in America. Thoroughly cross-referenced, it features an extensive and fully updated index of literary and social history.The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature, James David Hart (Preface), 1988.
This paperback edition contains over 2,000 entries, including brief biographies of important authors, plot summaries of individual works, descriptions of important literary movements, and a wealth of information on other aspects of American literary life and history.African-American and Multicultural Literature
Multicultural Voices in Contemporary Literature: A Resource for Teachers, Frances Ann Day (1994).The Oxford Companion to African American literature, William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, Trudier Harris; foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (1997).
Post-Colonial Literatures: Expanding the Canon, Deborah L. Madsen (1999).
What Do I Read Next?: Multicultural Literature, Rafaela G. Castro (1997).
Literary Terms
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, Chris Baldick, 1992.A Handbook to Literature (6th ed.), C. Hugh Holman and William Harmon (1992).
The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, J. A. Cuddon, 1998.
Composition and Rhetoric
A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers, 2nd ed., Erika Lindemann, Oxford, 1987.In the Middle: Writing, Reading, and Learning with Adolescents, Nancie Atwell, 1987.
Rhetoric and Composition: A Sourcebook for Teachers and Writers, 3rd ed., Richard Graves, ed., 1990.
Teaching
In the Middle: Writing, Reading, and Learning with Adolescents, Nancie Atwell, 1987.The Art of Teaching Writing, Lucy McCormick Calkins, 1986.
What is English? Peter Elbow, 1990.
Writing: Teachers and Children at Work, Donald Graves, 1989.
NCTE's Position on the Teaching of English: Assumptions and Practices, 1991.History of the English Language
The Biography of the English Language, C. M. Millward, 1989.Literary Theory
The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, J. A. Cuddon, 1998.Literary Theory, 2nd ed., Terry Eagleton, 1996.
Essential English Courses for the Subject Test in English
ENG 1119 History of the English Language
ENG 1123 American Literature I
ENG 1124 American Literature IIENG 1126 Backgrounds to English and American Literature
ENG 1307 Literary Interpretation
ENG 1361 The Writing Process
ENG 1678/AFR 1121 Early African-American Literature
ENG 1679 Modern African-American Literature
ENG 1680 Multiethnic Literature of the United States
Any Shakespeare course; any period/major figure course/topics course with a focus on American and ethnic literature.
VERY IMPORTANT: See the materials NES produced for the Texas Teacher's Test. Click on English (secondary) for good sample questions and discussion of essay questions.
NOTE: This version emphasizes teaching lit; the MA test emphasizes literature as a subject in itself.Pay special attention to "Approaches to Answering Multiple Choice Questions" in the English subject booklet in order to understand how NES constructs such questions.