Teaching social studies can be challenging. It’s difficult to cover all the required standards in enough depth while ensuring the material is accessible and engaging for every student. To help address these challenges, Exploros provides complete, standards-aligned courses. To further support teachers, we’ve created a Focus TEKS & Priority Experiences document for each course to help narrow the focus.
What Are Focus TEKS?
Focus TEKS are a curated list of key standards per course. The Focus TEKS & Priority Experiences documents highlight these standards and show exactly where they are taught within Exploros experiences.
Tested Grades: Focus TEKS are based on standards that frequently appear on the STAAR test or provide foundational knowledge for success on the exam.
Non-Tested Grades: Readiness standards are prioritized to help students build the skills they need by the end of the school year.
Each Focus TEKS & Priority Experiences document also uses dots to indicate which Exploros experiences align with each standard, making it easy to plan lessons and ensure all key standards are covered.
What Are Priority Experiences?
Priority Experiences focus on the most essential content your students need to learn. Each course document lists all the Exploros experiences, with priority experiences highlighted in bold to guide your planning. These experiences are selected based on:
Critical content knowledge.
How the experience supports effective teaching of the standards.
How to Use Exploros Effectively
We recommend teaching with Exploros two to three days per week. While the bolded priority experiences help narrow your focus, incorporating more Exploros experiences into your teaching schedule can provide additional data and support student growth.
Listed below are the links to the Focus TEKS & Priority Experiences documents for each grade level/course:
Elementary School
Middle School
High School
Please keep in mind that these suggestions are generalizations and may not fit all situations and the needs of your students. Feel free to adjust your pacing as you see fit and according to your district and campus expectations.