Pre-K TEKS

• The Pre-K TEKS for Technology Application was developed to help children get a jump start on the use of technology. The Pre-K TEKS have set guidelines that fall into the categories of social and emotional development, language and communication, emergent literacy: reading, emergent literacy: writing, and mathematics. Each of these categories possess their own subcategories for how to follow the guidelines, as well as suggested strategies.
• These TEKS lay the foundation for student performance in future grades by ensuring that all students have the same opportunity and accessibility to technology as a learning tool. The TEKS suggests activities that will allow students to develop the basic skills needed to communicate and problem solve using technological methods. Ensuring this exposure technology to all Pre-K students is invaluable and will prepare students for what is to come as they progress towards higher levels of learning.
• I would describe a spiraling or scaffolding curriculum as a method of organization. In this organization the experiences that will be had by students are categorized and placed into a specific order of learning. It is used to ensure prior knowledge of a certain topic is in place before building off of it and moving on to something else. This type of curriculum is aligned in a way where a student develops basic skills first and then gradually progresses onto higher skills.
• One example of this in the TEKS is in the technology applications area of communication. This scaffolding takes place in the early stages where students begin simply by learning basic keyboarding skills and become proficient in typing. Building off of this skill students begin using word processing software to communicate. From here students can learn how to use differing multimedia outlets to communicate at a high level. All of this is scaffolded from the simple skills of learning to type all the way up to be able to use different types of media to express ideas, share information, and communicate data effectively.