How to Teach for the Third Grade TAKS Test

3rd grade teachers have an especially challenging job in preparing students.

Standardized testing has become an unfortunate reality for teachers in grades K-12. Test results weigh heavily on school funding and teacher autonomy. In addition, the results are often used to evaluate teachers and can even affect pay raises. It is no wonder that teachers feel compelled to teach to the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test. This test is even more challenging in 3rd grade, as students are now expected to be solid readers. Using the essential standards, teachers can teach in a way that will ensure improvement in student scores.

Things You'll Need

• Released test questions
• A class set of whiteboards and markers

Instructions

1. Teach the essential standards as presented by the Texas Education Agency. (see reference 1) All of these standards are important, but as you close in upon your test date, you should focus on testable skills. This is not the time to worry about the oral language or writing standards. Focus most of your attention on reading strategies and skills and reviewing key terms like persuasion and inferences.

2. Practice essential skills and check for understanding. Review vocabulary and spelling words from your curriculum series. Use white boards to check understanding and be able to see in an instant if your students understand. This is a key strategy in math as well. White boards can be used to work out fraction problems or displaying number values. Concrete models for fraction and other math problems should be implemented as well. These strategies not only keep your students active in learning, but let you, the teacher, assess quickly whether your students understand the material.

3. Use released test questions. The closer you get to the actual test, the more emphasis you should place on using tests that are in the actual format of the test. You do not want your students to be tripped up by the format or phrasing of questions. Using these released test questions can alleviate that problem, and they are available from the Texas Education Agency. Use the data from these tests to let you know where you need to practice more with your students. (see reference 2)

Tips & Warnings

• Be careful about over focusing on the test. While test prep is important, so are projects and writing and other skills that can't be measured by a multiple choice test.

References

• Texas Education Agency: Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills by Grade Level
• Texas Education Agency: Released TAKS Tests