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TIMELINE FOR NEW ENGLISH /
LANGUAGE ARTS / READING STANDARDS
(TEKS) IN TEXAS
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(K -
12)
Fall 2008 -- transition year (That's now.)
Fall 2009 -- implementation
into classrooms (K-12)
Fall 2010 -- new Reading/Literature books
for grades 2 - 12 and middle school Reading elective; K-2 receive
Reading/ELBA books
Fall 2011 -- new ELA textbooks for grades
2 - 12
Spring 2011 -- End-of-Course Tests for incoming
freshmen
Spring 2012 - End-of-Course Tests for English
II and III
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ABOUT MYSTUDYHALL.COM
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MyStudyHall.com, an online
tutorial, is a perfect way for teachers to prepare themselves with
the content knowledge they will need to transition their students
into the new English / Language Arts / Reading (ELAR)
standards. The advantage of MyStudyHall.com is that teachers
can do their staff development in the ease and comfort of their homes
or classrooms.
MyStudyHall.com is also great for students (Grade 4 through adults);
and site licenses are very inexpensive -- $35 per student/per year
with 24 hours a day, 7 days a week access. If a school buys at
least 10 site licenses for its students, MyStudyHall.com will allow
all educators in the school building to have free 24/7 access for a
year. This means that English teachers can basically do their staff development
over the new ELAR's for free.
Because of its hands-on, self-paced learning, MyStudyHall.com is an
excellent site to help at-risk, LEP, ESL, AEP/ISS, and college-bound
students. The three grammar modules build from simple-to-complex
while keeping students engaged and motivated. The three ELAR
levels offer numerous stand-alone units that will teach students
need-to-know but difficult-to-master skills. Because students
are intrigued with the computer and the Internet, MyStudyHall.com
presents a new way for students to learn the content knowledge they
must learn to do well on the TAKS, ACT, SAT, and NAEP tests.
If you would like to inquire about a free 30-45 minute demo of
MyStudyHall.com done by phone/computer, please contact Donna Garner
at 254-666-2798; wgarner1@hot.rr.com.
Tim Thomasson
President, MyStudyHall, LLC
106 N. Denton Tap Rd.
Suite 210, Box 159
Coppell, TX 75019
214-695-8347
tim.thomasson@mystudyhall.com
www.mystudyhall.com
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WELCOME
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Dear Educators,
Welcome to our newsletter sent to you from MyStudyHall.com, an online
tutorial that teaches students English, Language Arts, and Reading (Grades
4 through adults). We will be sharing with you the latest
ELAR information to help you do your job better and more
easily.
As an example, what is it about the present ELAR-TAKS tests that makes them so stressful for both
students and their teachers?
Last month I attended the Pearson (Pearson Educational Measurements)
two-day training to find out how the essay and open-response
questions are scored on the present English / Language Arts / Reading
TAKS tests. (Pearson charges $900 per day to come into a district
to do the training.) My report details what I learned through
first-hand observations at the training.
HERE ARE EXCERPTS FROM MY REPORT:
Those people who fault teachers for "teaching to the test"
simply do not understand how terribly complicated the Texas Education
Agency and Pearson have made the TAKS tests.
If teachers did not repeatedly have students take practice TAKS
tests, students would not have a chance at passing them - not because
they are ignorant but because it takes much class time for
them to learn to "dance the two TAKS
dances."
Please picture the ELAR-TAKS subjectively scored sections (open
response and essay) as two separate dances with two separate
sets of intricate dance steps; yet on TAKS test day, the student is
supposed to be able to jump from one "dance" to the next
without missing a step...
Since not even 1% of the Grade 11 students on the Spring
2008 ELAR-TAKS test (open-response questions -- OE) scored
3's, then I believe there is either something terribly wrong with the
test, with the scoring, or with both...
To read the rest of the report entitled "New ELAR TAKS
Tests: A New Beginning for Texas," please go to the
homepage of MyStudyHall.com and look under the "Articles and
Newsletters" dropdown box:
http://mystudyhall.com/myskillbuilder/articles/NEW%20ELAR-TAKS%20TESTS%20-%20A%20NEW%20BEGINNING%20FOR%20TEXAS.mht
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UPDATE ON THE ELAR TEKS
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A new beginning for Texas: You probably know that the ELAR-TEKS
used in Texas
from 1997 through spring 2008 have now been replaced with the new
ELAR-TEKS adopted by the Texas State Board of Education on May 23,
2008. This time, the new ELAR's will be
measurable, specific to each grade level, and much more explicit.
During the past ten years, English teachers have had too many TEKS
elements to teach in one school year; and since the same TEKS were
repeated year after year, English teachers have gotten used to
picking and choosing certain elements to stress. Under the new
TEKS, this will change because now separate elements are listed at
each grade level.
The high-school English teachers will need to be particularly aware
of this change because in Spring 2011, freshmen will take the English
I end-of-course test (EOC) that will be based upon the English I
ELAR-TEKS. The next year, English II students will take the EOC that
is based upon the English II TEKS; the same will hold true for the
English III and English IV EOC's.
Eventually, new TAKS tests will also be developed for Grades 4 - 8;
and they will undoubtedly follow the same grade-specific pattern.
Another big change in the new ELAR-TEKS is the addition of a separate
strand for Oral and Written Conventions (K-12). All teachers will
be responsible to teach their students grammar, usage, sentence
structure, capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and
handwriting.
The emphasis in composition will be on persuasive, expository, and
research-based writing rather than on the personal narrative as seen
on the present TAKS tests.
To learn more about the new ELAR-TEKS and how they will impact the
TAKS tests, please take the time to read my detailed report entitled
"New ELAR-TAKS Tests: A New Beginning for Texas."
If you have not seen a copy of the new ELAR-TEKS yet, you will want
to go to the following link where we have posted Grades 4 - 12.
We have highlighted in yellow the elements that we cover on
MyStudyHall.com:
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I hope you
have found the inaugural edition of the ELAR / Grammar Newsletter useful and informative.
Please contact me at the email address below if you have any comments
or suggestions.
 Sincerely,
Donna Garner
ELAR and
Grammar Newsletter
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