The math and reading portions of the TAKS are fast approaching, and Gardens Elementary School has taken extra measures to ensure student success.

The school offered two Saturday TAKS Camp sessions to its students to help motivate them as well as review testing strategies, and more than 60 students attended each session.

“The purpose of these camps is to provide an intensive, targeted math and reading instruction for third and fourth grade taking the TAKS test,” said the school’s assistant principal Vicki Lenio. “Our goal was to review all the strategies in different formats and in extremely small groups.”

Teacher and instructional aide volunteers tutored students in small group instruction using hands-on activities that were TEKS based and targeted to passing the TAKS test.

The school’s principal Celia Layton said the camps helped the students be more prepared for the exams because the instruction differentiated to meet the needs of all students.

“Our students come to get more instruction and assistance to help them become better test takers,” Layton said. “We help raise their self-esteem so they are confident they will do great on any test. Instruction is made fun and exciting.”

Lenio said one of the most challenging tasks for students on the test is reading and understanding the vocabulary.

“The reading is always difficult for students on both tests,” she said. “If they struggle to read, they will struggle on the reading and math sections of this test. Analyzing the text is key to passing both tests.”

Layton said it’s important to provide opportunities for students to receive extra help for TAKS such as these camps because it shows students their success is important to their teachers.

“These opportunities show our students that as employees of our school, all of us are very much interested that they succeed and do their very best,” she said. “All of our teachers and aides volunteered their time to help them because we care that they do well. We want all our students to know we value them and want to continue to nurture them and build good relationships.”