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Texas Standards

English II ELA TEKS

All 62 Texas English language arts standards for English II, 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.
E2.1(A)
Hold courteous, purposeful conversations, really listening, answering to the point and adapting speech for a panel, a peer group or a teacher.
Official wording
engage in meaningful and respectful discourse by listening actively, responding appropriately, and adjusting communication to audiences and purposes;
E2.1(B)
Follow detailed spoken directions and give clear ones for multistep jobs or problems, like explaining how to format and submit a research paper.
Official wording
follow and give complex oral instructions to perform specific tasks, answer questions, or solve problems and complex processes;
E2.1(C)
Give a formal presentation with a clear thesis and well-ordered evidence from reliable sources, delivered with eye contact, good pacing, volume and gestures.
Official wording
give a formal presentation that incorporates a clear thesis and a logical progression of valid evidence from reliable sources and that employs eye contact, speaking rate such as pauses for effect, volume, enunciation, purposeful gestures, and conventions of language to communicate ideas effectively; and
E2.1(D)
Collaborate in teams, building on what others say, sharing relevant facts, setting rules for decisions and mapping out how to reach a shared choice.
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.
E2.2(A)
Confirm what specialized words mean in a field by looking them up in print or online glossaries and technical dictionaries, like the legal term plaintiff.
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;
E2.2(B)
Use surrounding text to separate a word's literal meaning, the feelings it suggests and any figurative sense, like a heart of stone.
Official wording
analyze context to distinguish among denotative, connotative, and figurative meanings of words; and
E2.2(C)
Work out the meaning of foreign phrases English speakers use often, like status quo, déjà vu and coup d'état.
Official wording
determine the meaning of foreign words or phrases used frequently in English such as pas de deux, status quo, déjà vu, avant-garde, and coup d'état.

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

1 standard
The student reads grade-appropriate texts independently.
E2.3
Pick a novel, memoir or other text out of personal interest and keep reading it independently in long, focused sessions.
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.
E2.4(A)
Know the goal before opening an assigned or chosen text, like tracking a theme in a novel or preparing for a class debate.
Official wording
establish purpose for reading assigned and self-selected texts;
E2.4(B)
Raise questions at each stage of reading, from the first page to after the last, to dig into a text and gather information.
Official wording
generate questions about text before, during, and after reading to deepen understanding and gain information;
E2.4(C)
Guess where a text is going from its features, genre and organization, like expecting a downfall in a tragedy, and test that guess while reading.
Official wording
make and correct or confirm predictions using text features, characteristics of genre, and structures;
E2.4(D)
Form vivid mental pictures of what a text describes, like a battlefield or a crowded market, to understand it more fully.
Official wording
create mental images to deepen understanding;
E2.4(E)
Connect a text to life experience, to other books and to society, like comparing a novel's family conflict with a news story.
Official wording
make connections to personal experiences, ideas in other texts, and society;
E2.4(F)
Infer meaning that a text does not state outright and point to the evidence that supports each inference.
Official wording
make inferences and use evidence to support understanding;
E2.4(G)
Sort the details of a text by importance to identify the key ideas it is built around.
Official wording
evaluate details read to determine key ideas;
E2.4(H)
Pull together ideas from several texts to form a fresh understanding, like blending three sources on migration.
Official wording
synthesize information from multiple texts to create new understanding; and
E2.4(I)
Keep an eye on comprehension and, at the first sign of confusion, reread, annotate, ask questions or call on prior 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.
E2.5(A)
Describe how a variety of texts, films or speeches, including personally chosen ones, relate to one's own life and experiences.
Official wording
describe personal connections to a variety of sources, including self-selected texts;
E2.5(B)
Demonstrate understanding of texts through written responses, including comparisons of two plays or of a novel and its film version.
Official wording
write responses that demonstrate understanding of texts, including comparing texts within and across genres;
E2.5(C)
Defend an interpretation of a text with quotes and details from it, plus original commentary explaining what they reveal.
Official wording
use text evidence and original commentary to support an interpretive response;
E2.5(D)
Paraphrase and condense texts accurately, so the author's meaning survives and ideas still follow in a logical order.
Official wording
paraphrase and summarize texts in ways that maintain meaning and logical order;
E2.5(E)
Work with texts in hands-on ways, like annotating, jotting notes, quick freewrites or drawing a concept map.
Official wording
interact with sources in meaningful ways such as notetaking, annotating, freewriting, or illustrating;
E2.5(F)
Answer and discuss using academic and content vocabulary learned in class, like archetype or rhetorical appeal.
Official wording
respond using acquired content and academic vocabulary as appropriate;
E2.5(G)
Discuss and write about both the stated and the unstated meanings in a text, like a character's hidden motive.
Official wording
discuss and write about the explicit or implicit meanings of text;
E2.5(H)
Match formality, vocabulary, tone and voice to the setting when responding aloud or on paper, like a formal essay versus a class blog.
Official wording
respond orally or in writing with appropriate register, vocabulary, tone, and voice;
E2.5(I)
Reconsider an answer and change it when valid evidence points another way.
Official wording
reflect on and adjust responses when valid evidence warrants; and
E2.5(J)
Back up or dispute what authors claim, citing relevant evidence from their texts.
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.
E2.6(A)
Analyze how characters and plot develop themes and compare similar themes in literature from different cultures, like coming-of-age stories.
Official wording
analyze how themes are developed through characterization and plot, including comparing similar themes in a variety of literary texts representing different cultures;
E2.6(B)
Analyze how authors use historical and cultural settings and events to build complex, believable characters, including archetypes like the trickster.
Official wording
analyze how authors develop complex yet believable characters, including archetypes, through historical and cultural settings and events;
E2.6(C)
Analyze how individual scenes, like a brief confrontation or a turning point, help the plot as a whole succeed.
Official wording
analyze isolated scenes and their contribution to the success of the plot as a whole; and
E2.6(D)
Analyze how the history and culture of a story's setting shape its characters, plot and theme across several texts.
Official wording
analyze how historical and cultural settings influence characterization, plot, and theme across texts.

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.
E2.7(A)
Read and analyze literature from around the world and from many eras, like ancient Greek drama and modern African novels.
Official wording
read and analyze world literature across literary periods;
E2.7(B)
Analyze how meter, rhyme schemes and kinds of rhyme, like internal, slant and eye rhyme, shape poems in many forms.
Official wording
analyze the effects of metrics; rhyme schemes; types of rhymes such as end, internal, slant, and eye; and other conventions in poems across a variety of poetic forms;
E2.7(C)
Analyze how playwrights use dramatic irony, asides, soliloquies and satire, like the audience knowing a truth that Oedipus does not.
Official wording
analyze the function of dramatic conventions such as asides, soliloquies, dramatic irony, and satire;
E2.7(D)
Analyze how informational texts present a thesis, evidence, examples and conclusion, and how their organization supports that thesis.
Official wording
analyze characteristics and structural elements of informational texts such as:iclear thesis, relevant supporting evidence, pertinent examples, and conclusion; andiithe relationship between organizational design and thesis;
E2.7(E)
Analyze argumentative texts for their claim, appeals, evidence types, concessions and rebuttals to counterarguments, ending and intended audience.
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
E2.7(F)
Analyze the traits of multimodal and digital texts, like how a graphic novel or a social media campaign uses images and words together.
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.
E2.8(A)
Analyze a text to identify the author's goal, the intended readers and the central message, like in a public service ad.
Official wording
analyze the author's purpose, audience, and message within a text;
E2.8(B)
Analyze how authors choose a structure, like chronological order or comparison, to accomplish their purpose.
Official wording
analyze use of text structure to achieve the author's purpose;
E2.8(C)
Evaluate how print and visual features, like captions, sidebars and diagrams, help an author accomplish specific goals.
Official wording
evaluate the author's use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes;
E2.8(D)
Analyze how an author's language shapes how readers see a subject, like loaded words that make a policy sound dangerous.
Official wording
analyze how the author's use of language informs and shapes the perception of readers;
E2.8(E)
Analyze how literary devices like irony, sarcasm and motif help an author achieve a purpose, like a recurring image of light.
Official wording
analyze the use of literary devices such as irony, sarcasm, and motif to achieve specific purposes;
E2.8(F)
Analyze how diction and syntax set mood, voice and tone, like formal, winding sentences giving a narrator a cold distance.
Official wording
analyze how the author's diction and syntax contribute to the mood, voice, and tone of a text; and
E2.8(G)
Analyze why authors use appeals, antithesis, parallelism and shifts, and how logical fallacies change an argument's effect.
Official wording
analyze the purpose of rhetorical devices such as appeals, antithesis, parallelism, and shifts and the effects of logical fallacies.

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.
E2.9(A)
Prepare to write for different readers and goals by generating ideas, like listing, journaling, reading up or discussing with peers.
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;
E2.9(B)
Shape drafts, in timed tests or longer projects, into coherent writing with a fitting structure and a thoughtful idea developed through examples 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;
E2.9(C)
Rework drafts for clarity, organization, style and diction, tightening sentences with parallel structure and careful placement of phrases and dependent 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;
E2.9(D)
Proofread drafts for varied complete sentences, consistent tense and voice, pronoun agreement, capitals, spelling and punctuation such as parentheses.
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, dashes, and parentheses to set off phrases and clauses as appropriate; andvicorrect spelling; and
E2.9(E)
Get polished work in front of an audience that suits it, like a review posted online or an article in the school newspaper.
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.
E2.10(A)
Create fiction and poetry that follow genre conventions and show careful craft, like a short story with a twist ending.
Official wording
compose literary texts such as fiction and poetry using genre characteristics and craft;
E2.10(B)
Compose explanatory essays, reports and personal essays that use the structure and craft of informational writing.
Official wording
compose informational texts such as explanatory essays, reports, and personal essays using genre characteristics and craft;
E2.10(C)
Compose argumentative essays with a clear claim and solid evidence, applying the structure and techniques the genre calls for.
Official wording
compose argumentative texts using genre characteristics and craft; and
E2.10(D)
Write correspondence with a formal or friendly structure, like an email requesting an interview or a note to a relative abroad.
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.
E2.11(A)
Write research questions for both casual investigations and formal projects.
Official wording
develop questions for formal and informal inquiry;
E2.11(B)
Evaluate each step of a research process and make changes as problems or gaps appear.
Official wording
critique the research process at each step to implement changes as needs occur and are identified;
E2.11(C)
Draw up a plan for the research and keep reshaping it when the project calls for changes.
Official wording
develop and revise a plan;
E2.11(D)
Adjust the central research question as necessary so the research plan stays focused.
Official wording
modify the major research question as necessary to refocus the research plan;
E2.11(E)
Track down sources that are relevant to the research question, in print and online.
Official wording
locate relevant sources;
E2.11(F)
Combine findings from varied sources into a unified picture of the topic.
Official wording
synthesize information from a variety of sources;
E2.11(G)
Examine sources for credibility, bias and omissions, and spot faulty reasoning like false premises, hasty generalizations and either-or thinking.
Official wording
examine sources for:icredibility and bias, including omission; andiifaulty reasoning such as incorrect premise, hasty generalizations, and either-or;
E2.11(H)
Give proper academic credit for quoted and paraphrased material and use sources ethically, never passing off others' work.
Official wording
display academic citations, including for paraphrased and quoted text, and use source materials ethically to avoid plagiarism; and
E2.11(I)
Present research results in a suitable form, like a paper, an oral presentation or a multimedia project.
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.