The TEKS process skills, explained for parents
The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) list what students learn in each grade and subject. In every grade, each subject also starts with process standards: the ways students are expected to think and work, such as solving problems step by step, planning an investigation, asking questions about a text or reading a map and a graph. They aren't a separate subject. Teachers build them into everyday lessons, and they show up on state tests too.
Mathematical process standards
Using math in everyday life, solving problems with a plan and explaining the reasoning.
- Problem solving. Understanding the problem, making a plan, solving it and checking that the answer makes sense.
- Tools and techniques. Choosing tools like objects, drawings or technology, and techniques like mental math and estimation.
- Communicating. Showing and explaining ideas with symbols, diagrams, graphs and precise words.
Ideas for home
- Ask “How do you know?” after an answer, even when it's right.
- Estimate first (the grocery total, the drive time), then check.
- Let your child solve a real problem, like doubling a recipe, and explain each step.
Scientific and engineering practices
Asking questions, planning safe investigations, collecting data and building solutions.
- Investigating. Asking questions, making a plan and carrying out a fair, safe investigation.
- Analyzing data. Recording observations and measurements, and finding patterns in charts and graphs.
- Explaining. Using evidence to explain what happened and sharing results with others.
Ideas for home
- Wonder out loud together: “Why do you think that happened? How could we test it?”
- Keep a simple weather or plant-growth log for a week and look for patterns.
- Build something from recycled materials, then talk about how to improve it.
Inquiry, response and research in reading
Asking questions about texts, responding with evidence and researching a topic.
- Asking questions. Generating questions before, during and after reading to deepen understanding.
- Responding. Talking and writing about texts, using evidence from the text to support ideas.
- Researching. Gathering information from several sources and sharing what was learned.
Ideas for home
- After reading together, ask what your child wondered and what surprised them.
- Ask “What in the book makes you think that?” to practice using evidence.
- Pick a question your child is curious about and look it up together in two different sources.
Social studies skills
Reading maps, charts and sources, and telling fact from opinion.
- Sources. Gathering information from primary and secondary sources, such as letters, photos and books.
- Maps and data. Reading and making maps, timelines, charts and graphs.
- Thinking critically. Telling fact from opinion, finding cause and effect and comparing points of view.
Ideas for home
- Look at a map before a trip and let your child find the route.
- Make a family timeline with photos and dates.
- When you see a news headline together, ask which parts are facts and which are opinions.
Common questions
They're part of the TEKS, so teachers teach them and state tests include them, but they're usually graded inside each subject rather than on their own line. How they appear on a report card depends on your district.
TEA places them first on purpose: they connect the content of every grade. A child doesn't only learn fractions or the water cycle, but also how to solve problems and investigate questions with them.
Texas doesn't have statewide social and emotional learning standards for kindergarten to grade 9 like some states do. Many districts choose their own programs, so ask your child's school what it uses.
Partly. Gradelings practices subject skills in math, reading and writing, science and social studies, and many questions ask children to read data, put events in order or reason through a problem. Investigating, researching and discussing grow best in class and at home, so we suggest home activities rather than scores.
Ask your child's teacher how the process skills show up in class. TEA publishes the full TEKS for every grade and subject.
Next: understand the Texas report card levels or browse all Texas parent guides. Gradelings practices subject skills; these thinking skills grow every time your child explains, tests an idea or asks a good question.
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