How ThinkCERCA can help Texas students grow their composition skills

ThinkCERCA provides high-quality reading and composition instruction for students Grades 4-12. Our curriculum will help students gain the knowledge and skills required by TEKS and help students meet expectations on STAAR, particularly with ThinkCERCA’s focus on composition skills. ThinkCERCA provides students with varied opportunities to practice their literary, informational, and argumentative composition skills through our Applied Reading and Writing lessons.

ThinkCERCA’s Applied Reading and Writing lessons across content areas give students opportunities to improve their learning, not just prove learning. Our scaffolded lessons walk students through the process of composing argumentative, informational, and literary writing in response to open-ended questions.

• Interactive Argument Builder; prewriting tools for literary and informational writing
• Rigorous composition prompts focused on debatable issues and great literary models
• Standards-aligned sentence frames and supports for developing English language proficiency

In addition, ThinkCERCA provides Direct Instruction lessons to support students in learning the key concepts and skills of good composition, including grammar, vocabulary, and other TEKS-required skills and knowledge.

ThinkCERCA’s standards-aligned rubrics encourage students to organize their writing clearly, develop their ideas effectively, and use conventions of standard English. They also support teachers in giving students feedback on these elements of composition. When teachers have given their feedback, students have opportunities to revise their compositions accordingly, giving them practice on another key skill they’ll encounter in STAAR.

ThinkCERCA does not yet display TEKS in our product. However, we encourage Texas educational leaders to examine our lessons with an eye toward our effective writing curriculum. ThinkCERCA has been shown to increase student writing abilities. TEKS coming soon!

Through their practice in ThinkCERCA, students grow their composition skills, increase the quality of organization, the effective development of ideas, and the accuracy of use of language. These are the kinds of results that Texas education leaders want for their students. Learn how ThinkCERCA can partner with your school to achieve these results today!