Do you have EB students who can’t get the advanced high composite score they need to possibly exit? Or maybe your high school EBs have taken TELPAS so many times, that they sit down and click, click, click, trying to get out of the testing room as soon as possible. I get it.
As a Texas EB teacher for over a decade, let me share what my team and I have seen move the needle from a proficiency level of advanced to advanced high on the TELPAS for high school students.
Academic Vocabulary-TELPAS for High School
Why is this important? It is explicitly written in the Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs) under advanced high for speaking, and it doesn’t hurt when students include it in their writing as well. Since students can have scrap paper at their desks for TELPAS, I encourage them to find ways to incorporate math, ELAR, science, and social studies. For example, we know that students will need to write or speak about a chart or graph on TELPAS. Using terms like title, x-axis, y-intercept, percentage, and variables will help push that advanced score to an advanced high.
Write and Practice Before You Speak
Not only do the speaking PLDs ask for academic vocabulary, but it also requires students to, “participate in extended discussions.” You need to know that students will have two types of speaking responses: one that allows 45 seconds to respond, and the other that allows 90 seconds to respond. We have been told that for students to get advanced high, they need to speak at least 30 of the 45 seconds, and they need to speak 60 of the 90 seconds. I would tell students to speak as long as they can without repeating themselves.
Again, students have scrap paper at their desks, so encourage them to write down their ideas before they speak. Then, tell them that they need to practice what they will say at least two times before hitting the record button. It’s important to note that students do get 2 opportunities to record; however, I highly encourage my students to not record a second time unless they know they made a mistake the first time. I don’t know how many times we have seen students record a second time in an attempt to be better, only to accidentally stop too soon or make a mistake.
Answer All Questions on the TELPAS for High School Test
Another common mistake I see during the writing part of the exam is when students read the prompt, write a short reply, and then move on. Similarly to the speaking part of the exam, students need to address all the bullet points on the writing page with details. Without fully developed details, the writing level will remain at an advanced level. A good rule of thumb is 3 to 4 sentences per bullet point with students including a couple of compound and complex sentence structures.
Listen Again & Take Notes
For most long-term EB students, this should be an easy domain to hit advanced high in as long as students don’t get lazy. Students can listen to the audio as many times as they need. Have them listen at least two times, and write down what they hear. Getting an advanced high in this domain can help lift them to the composite score of advanced high.
Reading
Students often don’t take the time to read through the longer reading passages, but I have a suspicion: those passages are what determine whether they are intermediate or advanced. If you look at released TELPAS exams, the longer stories or pieces of nonfiction are often not that difficult in content or vocabulary. To me, this seems to be a test of reading endurance more than anything. If students can answer these questions right, they move into the advanced ranks.
But what about advanced high? Those are the small paragraphs about very specific academic content, and they often ask students to input academic vocabulary into the paragraph. Students tend to breeze past these because they look easy when they need to get these questions correct to get an advanced high score. So how do they do this? I encourage students to read the entire paragraph to understand the context. Are we talking about something positive or negative here? Then, go back to the sentence that they need to fill in the blank for. Which words support the positive or negative context? Can we understand if the word needs to be a noun or verb? Plug each word in. Which one sounds correct? By taking the time to analyze these questions, students can bump themselves up to the advanced high level.
It’s About Time
At the end of the day, giving students the time needed to do well on this exam is key. This is why, in my district, we are not allowed to give both the reading and writing and listening and speaking exams in one singular day. While losing two days of instruction to TELPAS isn’t fun, I truly believe students should know that they have the time to be successful- choosing to use it is completely up to them.
Want this information as an easy checklist for students? I’ve got it here for only $2. You can print this out for EB students to use while they practice, email it to parents who want their students to exit the EB program, or share it with mainstream teachers. The best part? I give you an editable template link in Canva, so you can translate the document into your students’ and their families’ native languages.
Want students to practice the TELPAS for 8th-9th and 10th-12th?
TEA has online TELPAS practice here. Let’s continue to push our students to do their best. Taking TELPAS isn’t fun, so taking the time to do it well is a worthwhile investment.
Best of luck this spring!
Paige | Everything for ELL
