How to Prepare Your High School Child for the TCAP Writing Exam

The TCAP (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program) Writing Exam is a standardized writing test given to all Tennessee junior high school students to assess their writing and logic skills. Students have 35 minutes to write a persuasive essay on a given topic. They may choose to argue for either side of the topic, and will be graded on their writing abilities, not the stance of the topic they chose. Students are graded on a scale of zero to six, with six being the highest. Four is the lowest your child can make and pass the assessment.

As an English III teacher in West Tennessee, this is my biggest concern through most of the year. My students are also concerned about the TCAP Writing Exam, although, as of yet, their grade does not count toward their English III grade. Scoring high on the TCAP is an indicator of your child's success in college and on the job market, however, so parents should be proactive about preparing their students for this important assessment.

First, do not wait until their junior year. The TCAP Writing Exam is supposed to judge a student's writing and communication skills as a culmination of their academic achievements. Begin as early as possible encouraging your child to build her vocabulary, write longer complex sentences and practice proper punctuation. If you practice and enforce good habits at home, your child will be light years ahead of his peers once he hits his junior year of high school.

If the TCAP has snuck up on you and your child, there are still many ways to practice good writing skills and raise your child's potential score from a four to a six.

Encourage your high school student to keep a journal each day or at least a few times a week. This ma be an on-line blog on websites like Facebook or Myspace, or a traditional hand-written diary. Keep your child excited about this activity by letting them pick out a trendy diary with characters or a theme they like, colored pages, or fun gel pens. Talk to your child about the importance of learning how to express herself. Say, "When you come home from school, take a few minutes to reflect on your day. Even if you just write a couple of sentences describing how you are feeling or telling a story about your day it will help you practice your writing skills."

Buy a good thesaurus and work with your child to use it frequently. Talk to your child about "dead words" - word that weaken writing like very and good. Once a week, give your child a weak word, like mad, and ask him to use the thesaurus to find at least five stronger words, like outraged and furious. Then, as a family, try to work these stronger words into your speech every day. You will be stunned at how quickly your child's vocabulary improves simply by learning five synonyms for a word they already know once a week. They do not have to memorize big definitions so their brain will catch onto the new words easier. A big vocabulary is one of the top research based criteria in showing a child's future success.

Get your child to read anything and everything you can. This is the number one, best way to improve your child's writing in a short amount of time. Many modern students have problems reading and assume all books are boring. Work hard to find things your student will enjoy reading. Don't assume they must read big, college level books to improve. If your child is a sports fan, invest in a subscription to Sports Illustrated. Got a musician on your hands, order Rolling Stone. Each day, have your child sit in a quiet place near you, like the kitchen table while you make dinner, and read for five or ten minutes. Then have them tell you what the article was about in their own words. Eventually, they will get used to reading and naturally start reading longer.

Look for biographies about their heroes, like their favorite sports athletes, actors, musicians or skaters. Pick up short, teen-geared novels based on their favorite shows, like Degrassi.

Ban "text-speak" in your home. Discuss with your child how certain slang words and spellings are ok when texting or writing notes to friends, but they are unacceptable in the school or work place. Tell them they need to practice proper speech around you as the parent and in all their classes until they have mastered it well enough to use it the right situations.