Skip to main content
Texas Standards

English I ELA TEKS

All 62 Texas English language arts standards for English I, each explained in plain English. The official wording is one click away under each one.

62 standards

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, discussion, and thinking--oral language

4 standards
The student develops oral language through listening, speaking, and discussion.
E1.1(A)
Join respectful discussions, listening closely, replying on topic and changing tone and word choice to suit the listener and the goal.
Official wording
engage in meaningful and respectful discourse by listening actively, responding appropriately, and adjusting communication to audiences and purposes;
E1.1(B)
Carry out and give detailed spoken directions for multistep tasks, questions or problems, like walking a classmate through setting up a lab.
Official wording
follow and give complex oral instructions to perform specific tasks, answer questions, or solve problems and complex processes;
E1.1(C)
Give a talk that shifts between casual, formal and technical language to fit the audience and occasion, with steady eye contact, clear pacing, volume and gestures.
Official wording
give a presentation using informal, formal, and technical language effectively to meet the needs of audience, purpose, and occasion, employing eye contact, speaking rate such as pauses for effect, volume, enunciation, purposeful gestures, and conventions of language to communicate ideas effectively; and
E1.1(D)
Work well in a group by adding useful information, extending classmates' ideas, agreeing on ground rules and planning how the group will reach agreement.
Official wording
participate collaboratively, building on the ideas of others, contributing relevant information, developing a plan for consensus building, and setting ground rules for decision making.

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--vocabulary

3 standards
The student uses newly acquired vocabulary expressively.
E1.2(A)
Check the exact meaning of subject-specific terms in a glossary, technical dictionary or online reference, like photosynthesis in a biology reading.
Official wording
use print or digital resources such as glossaries or technical dictionaries to clarify and validate understanding of the precise and appropriate meaning of technical or discipline-based vocabulary;
E1.2(B)
Use context to tell a word's dictionary meaning from the feelings it carries, like how thrifty and cheap mean much the same thing but feel different.
Official wording
analyze context to distinguish between the denotative and connotative meanings of words; and
E1.2(C)
Figure out what common borrowed foreign expressions mean in English, like bona fide, carte blanche and quid pro quo.
Official wording
determine the meaning of foreign words or phrases used frequently in English such as bona fide, caveat, carte blanche, tête-à-tête, bon appétit, and quid pro quo.

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--self-sustained reading

1 standard
The student reads grade-appropriate texts independently.
E1.3
Choose a book or other text without being assigned one and read it alone for an extended stretch of time.
Official wording
self-select text and read independently for a sustained period of time.

Comprehension skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts

9 standards
The student uses metacognitive skills to both develop and deepen comprehension of increasingly complex texts.
E1.4(A)
Set a clear reason for reading each text, assigned or self-chosen, like learning a process, enjoying a story or gathering evidence.
Official wording
establish purpose for reading assigned and self-selected texts;
E1.4(B)
Question a text at every stage, from the preview to the last page and beyond, to understand it deeply, like asking why a narrator keeps a secret.
Official wording
generate questions about text before, during, and after reading to deepen understanding and gain information;
E1.4(C)
Make educated guesses about a text from its headings, genre and layout, like expecting a twist in a mystery, and adjust them as the reading unfolds.
Official wording
make and correct or confirm predictions using text features, characteristics of genre, and structures;
E1.4(D)
Imagine the sights, sounds and people a text describes, like a crowded Verona street, to strengthen understanding.
Official wording
create mental images to deepen understanding;
E1.4(E)
Link what is read to personal experience, to other texts and to the wider world, like relating a story of exclusion to school life.
Official wording
make connections to personal experiences, ideas in other texts, and society;
E1.4(F)
Read between the lines to figure out what a text suggests, backing each conclusion with details from the text.
Official wording
make inferences and use evidence to support understanding;
E1.4(G)
Evaluate which details in a text are essential and which are minor to determine its key ideas, like the facts a news report depends on.
Official wording
evaluate details read to determine key ideas;
E1.4(H)
Combine information from two texts into a new insight, like pairing a poem and a news article about the same event.
Official wording
synthesize information from two texts to create new understanding; and
E1.4(I)
Stay alert to lapses in understanding and recover with fix-up strategies like rereading, annotating, asking questions or applying background knowledge.
Official wording
monitor comprehension and make adjustments such as re-reading, using background knowledge, asking questions, and annotating when understanding breaks down.

Response skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts

10 standards
The student responds to an increasingly challenging variety of sources that are read, heard, or viewed.
E1.5(A)
Describe how different sources, from class readings to books picked for fun, connect to personal life, like a memoir that echoes a family move.
Official wording
describe personal connections to a variety of sources, including self-selected texts;
E1.5(B)
Respond to texts in writing that proves understanding, like comparing a ballad with a short story or two poems on one theme.
Official wording
write responses that demonstrate understanding of texts, including comparing texts within and across genres;
E1.5(C)
Support a thorough response to a text with quoted evidence plus original explanation of what that evidence shows.
Official wording
use text evidence and original commentary to support a comprehensive response;
E1.5(D)
Restate a passage in new words and sum up a whole text, keeping the original meaning and the order of ideas intact.
Official wording
paraphrase and summarize texts in ways that maintain meaning and logical order;
E1.5(E)
Engage actively with sources by taking notes, annotating in the margins, freewriting or sketching ideas.
Official wording
interact with sources in meaningful ways such as notetaking, annotating, freewriting, or illustrating;
E1.5(F)
Use newly learned subject and academic words in responses when they fit, like theme, motif or characterization.
Official wording
respond using acquired content and academic vocabulary as appropriate;
E1.5(G)
Talk through and write about ideas a text spells out and ideas it leaves for readers to infer, like a character's unspoken fear.
Official wording
discuss and write about the explicit or implicit meanings of text;
E1.5(H)
Respond in speech or writing with a level of formality, word choice, tone and voice suited to the situation.
Official wording
respond orally or in writing with appropriate register, vocabulary, tone, and voice;
E1.5(I)
Rethink and revise a response when solid evidence shows it should change.
Official wording
reflect on and adjust responses when valid evidence warrants; and
E1.5(J)
Agree or disagree with an author's claims and prove the position with relevant details from the text, like a statistic in a speech.
Official wording
defend or challenge the authors' claims using relevant text evidence.; and

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--literary elements

4 standards
The student recognizes and analyzes literary elements within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse literary texts.
E1.6(A)
Analyze how a story's characters and events work together to build its theme across many kinds of literature.
Official wording
analyze how themes are developed through characterization and plot in a variety of literary texts;
E1.6(B)
Analyze the literary devices authors use to make fictional characters complex and believable, including foils, like Mercutio beside Romeo.
Official wording
analyze how authors develop complex yet believable characters in works of fiction through a range of literary devices, including character foils;
E1.6(C)
Analyze stories that break time order with flashbacks, foreshadowing, subplots or parallel plots, and compare them with stories told start to finish.
Official wording
analyze non-linear plot development such as flashbacks, foreshadowing, subplots, and parallel plot structures and compare it to linear plot development; and
E1.6(D)
Analyze the way a story's setting drives its theme, like a deserted island exposing human nature in a survival story.
Official wording
analyze how the setting influences the theme.

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--genres

6 standards
The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts.
E1.7(A)
Read literature from the United States, Britain and other parts of the world and respond to it in discussion and writing.
Official wording
read and respond to American, British, and world literature;
E1.7(B)
Analyze how a poem's structure, rhythm and look on the page, like line length and where words sit, work across forms like sonnets and free verse.
Official wording
analyze the structure, prosody, and graphic elements such as line length and word position in poems across a variety of poetic forms;
E1.7(C)
Analyze the purpose of stage conventions like asides, soliloquies, dramatic irony and satire, like a character revealing secret plans alone on stage.
Official wording
analyze the function of dramatic conventions such as asides, soliloquies, dramatic irony, and satire;
E1.7(D)
Analyze informational texts for a clear thesis, relevant evidence, examples and a conclusion, and for how mixed organizational patterns build the thesis.
Official wording
analyze characteristics and structural elements of informational texts such as:iclear thesis, relevant supporting evidence, pertinent examples, and conclusion; andiimultiple organizational patterns within a text to develop the thesis;
E1.7(E)
Analyze arguments for a debatable claim, appeals, a strong conclusion, varied evidence, how they handle opposing views and who they target.
Official wording
analyze characteristics and structural elements of argumentative texts such as:iclear arguable claim, appeals, and convincing conclusion;iivarious types of evidence and treatment of counterarguments, including concessions and rebuttals; andiiiidentifiable audience or reader; and
E1.7(F)
Analyze how multimodal and digital texts are built, like a video essay or a website that pairs writing with images, audio and links.
Official wording
analyze characteristics of multimodal and digital texts.

Author's purpose and craft: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts

7 standards
The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the authors' choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author's craft purposefully in order to develop his or her own products and performances.
E1.8(A)
Analyze why an author wrote a text, who it is written for and what message it sends.
Official wording
analyze the author's purpose, audience, and message within a text;
E1.8(B)
Analyze how an author's chosen organization, like cause and effect or compare and contrast, serves the purpose of a text.
Official wording
analyze use of text structure to achieve the author's purpose;
E1.8(C)
Evaluate whether headings, bold type, charts and other print or graphic features actually help an author achieve a purpose.
Official wording
evaluate the author's use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes;
E1.8(D)
Analyze how an author's word choice and phrasing accomplish specific goals, like vivid verbs building suspense.
Official wording
analyze how the author's use of language achieves specific purposes;
E1.8(E)
Analyze how authors use literary devices like irony and oxymoron for specific effects, like a deafening silence.
Official wording
analyze the use of literary devices such as irony and oxymoron to achieve specific purposes;
E1.8(F)
Analyze how diction and syntax, like short choppy sentences or formal vocabulary, create the mood, voice and tone of a piece.
Official wording
analyze how the author's diction and syntax contribute to the mood, voice, and tone of a text; and
E1.8(G)
Explain why writers use understatement and overstatement and how fallacies like straw man and red herring affect an argument.
Official wording
explain the purpose of rhetorical devices such as understatement and overstatement and the effect of logical fallacies such as straw man and red herring arguments.; and

Composition: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--writing process

5 standards
The student uses the writing process recursively to compose multiple texts that are legible and use appropriate conventions.
E1.9(A)
Plan writing for a purpose and audience by gathering ideas through brainstorming, journaling, reading or talking it over.
Official wording
plan a piece of writing appropriate for various purposes and audiences by generating ideas through a range of strategies such as brainstorming, journaling, reading, or discussing;
E1.9(B)
Turn drafts into focused, well-organized writing, timed or untimed, with a structure that fits the task and an engaging idea backed by details and commentary.
Official wording
develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing in timed and open-ended situations by:iusing an organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, topic, and context; andiideveloping an engaging idea reflecting depth of thought with specific details, examples, and commentary;
E1.9(C)
Revise drafts to make them clearer, better developed and organized, with stronger word choice, parallel structure and well-placed phrases and clauses.
Official wording
revise drafts to improve clarity, development, organization, style, diction, and sentence effectiveness, including use of parallel constructions and placement of phrases and dependent clauses;
E1.9(D)
Edit drafts for standard English, fixing run-ons and fragments, verb tense and voice, pronoun agreement, capitals, punctuation like colons and dashes, and spelling.
Official wording
edit drafts using standard English conventions, including:ia variety of complete, controlled sentences and avoidance of unintentional splices, run-ons, and fragments;iiconsistent, appropriate use of verb tense and active and passive voice;iiipronoun-antecedent agreement;ivcorrect capitalization;vpunctuation, including commas, semicolons, colons, and dashes to set off phrases and clauses as appropriate; andvicorrect spelling; and
E1.9(E)
Publish finished essays, stories or poems where the right readers will see them, like a class website or a school anthology.
Official wording
publish written work for appropriate audiences.

Composition: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--genres

4 standards
The student uses genre characteristics and craft to compose multiple texts that are meaningful.
E1.10(A)
Write stories and poems that use the features and techniques of their genre, like dialogue and imagery.
Official wording
compose literary texts such as fiction and poetry using genre characteristics and craft;
E1.10(B)
Write informational pieces like explanatory essays, reports and personal essays using the features and craft of each form.
Official wording
compose informational texts such as explanatory essays, reports, and personal essays using genre characteristics and craft;
E1.10(C)
Write argumentative pieces, like a persuasive essay, that take a clear stand and use the genre's typical features and craft.
Official wording
compose argumentative texts using genre characteristics and craft; and
E1.10(D)
Write letters or emails in a professional or friendly format, like a thank-you note or a request to a coach.
Official wording
compose correspondence in a professional or friendly structure.

Inquiry and research: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts

9 standards
The student engages in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes for a variety of purposes.
E1.11(A)
Come up with questions to explore through quick informal research or a formal research project.
Official wording
develop questions for formal and informal inquiry;
E1.11(B)
Review how research is going at every stage and change course when new needs come up.
Official wording
critique the research process at each step to implement changes as needs occur and are identified;
E1.11(C)
Create a research plan and update it as the work moves forward.
Official wording
develop and revise a plan;
E1.11(D)
Change the main research question when needed to bring the research plan back into focus.
Official wording
modify the major research question as necessary to refocus the research plan;
E1.11(E)
Find sources that fit the research topic, like books, databases and websites.
Official wording
locate relevant sources;
E1.11(F)
Pull together information from many different sources into one clear understanding.
Official wording
synthesize information from a variety of sources;
E1.11(G)
Decide whether sources are credible or biased, noticing what they omit, and catch faulty reasoning like personal attacks, loaded language and slippery slopes.
Official wording
examine sources for:icredibility and bias, including omission; andiifaulty reasoning such as ad hominem, loaded language, and slippery slope;
E1.11(H)
Cite sources correctly for both quotes and paraphrases and use others' work honestly to avoid plagiarism.
Official wording
display academic citations, including for paraphrased and quoted text, and use source materials ethically to avoid plagiarism; and
E1.11(I)
Present research in the form that suits it best, like a written report, a short speech or a narrated slideshow.
Official wording
use an appropriate mode of delivery, whether written, oral, or multimodal, to present results.

The official Texas documents

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading, 19 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 110, adopted by the Texas State Board of Education.

The plain-English lines are EMStudio's own explanations, shown beside the official wording. They are not part of the standards.