Locate the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards for the grade and subject levels you teach. Determine which TAKS exams are given at your grade level. This information can be found online at the Texas Education Agency (TEA) website. Become very familiar with curriculum expectations. TAKS exams are based on these TEKS state standards.
Design engaging instruction around the TEKS curriculum standards. Students will retain information more readily if learning is interactive. Jennifer Ledwith, owner of Houston's Scholar Ready, has been preparing high school students for TAKS exams since 2004. Teachers should avoid TAKS practice worksheets that have been "photocopied to death," Ledwith says. Go past simple objectives and teach the basic principles. Students must understand definitions and be able to apply abstract concepts, Ledwith notes. Incorporate TAKS vocabulary all year long into lesson plans.
Conduct ongoing informal assessments to check student understanding of concepts. "I taught it, but the kids just didn't get it" simply isn't acceptable, Johnson says. Amass a repertoire of instructional strategies and use them as needed with particular students. Coordinate small-group instruction to re-teach specific skills. Employ interventions that speak to learners of all types: visual, auditory or kinesthetic. Each high school test administration is a dress rehearsal for the exit-level exam given in 11th grade, according to Ledwith. Concepts vary, but core objectives remain the same. Students who struggle in 8th grade need interventions if they are to succeed on the exit exams.
Identify special education students. As a classroom teacher, you are part of the special education student's Admission, Review and Dismissal (ARD) committee. Advocate for the student by ensuring that proper TAKS accommodations are in place. There are three versions of alternate TAKS tests utilized for students with special needs.
Teach with an emphasis on algebra skills for the math portion of TAKS. Over 50 percent of the high school math TAKS is based on algebra, according to Ledwith. Functions, equations, graphs and word problems are the main elements. Invest time in those skills.
Administer practice tests to the students. Simulate the testing environment. Familiarize students with the TAKS format. Search the TEA website for blueprints of the exams and released exams from previous years. State Rep. Scott Hochberg has links to the actual TAKS tests given during 2009 in grades 3 through 11 on his website. Tests are released every three years, according to Hochberg. Use these test questions, and similar ones, as warm-ups all year long to reinforce skill understanding.