Texas Region 4 Education Service Center’s STAAR™ Techniques to Engage Learners in Literacy and Academic Rigor (STELLAR) is a test preparation product that supports teachers in preparing students for English language arts and reading STAAR tests in grades 4-8 and high school end-of-course exams in English I-III. Learning List recently reviewed resources for English I and English II.
Content is available in print format. Instruction incorporates thematic reading selections that reflect a variety of genres, application activities, and practice tests formatted to reflect the STAAR end-of-course exam. [Read more…]
For each course, core content is organized in four thematic units (e.g., Family Values). Units contain multi-genre reading selections presented as thematically “Paired Passages.” The pairing of selections is designed to facilitate discussion and written student responses. Paragraphs are numbered, and many selections are formatted with space for student note taking. Reading selections are followed by “Big Ideas and Key Questions” that help teachers facilitate discussions, model reading processes, and guide student thinking.
Each STELLAR unit ends with a practice test designed to prepare students for the STAAR end-of-course exam. Practice tests contain multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions, and include items that address revising and editing.
About Region 4 Education Service Center*
Region 4 Education Service Center (Region 4) is one of 20 regional education service centers established by the Texas Legislature in 1967 to assist school districts and charter schools in improving efficiencies and student performance. Regional education service centers are non-regulatory, intermediate education units. Texas Education Code, Chapter 8, gives each school district the opportunity to voluntarily be served by and participate with a regional education service center.
Region 4 serves a seven-county area comprised of 48 public school districts and 34 open-enrollment charter schools, representing more than 1.2 million students, 95,000 educators, and 1,500 campuses.
*Information in this section is provided by or adapted from Region 4.
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