Oral language, vocabulary, reading habits and, in the early grades, phonics, spelling, fluency and handwriting: the building blocks of reading and writing.
E2.1 Oral language: build foundational spoken-language skills by listening, speaking, and joining discussions
E2.1A Take part in thoughtful, courteous discussion: listen attentively, respond fittingly, and tailor your communication to the audience and purpose
E2.1B Follow and give complex spoken directions to complete particular tasks, respond to questions, or work through problems and intricate processes
E2.1C Deliver a formal presentation built on a clear thesis and valid evidence from reliable sources arranged logically, using eye contact, pacing, volume, enunciation, gestures, and language conventions
E2.1D Collaborate with others by building on their ideas, offering relevant information, planning how to reach consensus, and setting ground rules for decisions
E2.2 Vocabulary: use newly learned words expressively in speaking and writing
E2.2A Use print or digital references such as technical dictionaries or glossaries to confirm exactly what technical or discipline-based terms mean
E2.2B Use context to tell figurative, connotative, and denotative word meanings apart
E2.2C Work out the meaning of foreign words and phrases common in English, for example pas de deux, status quo, coup d'état, and avant-garde
E2.3 Self-sustained reading: choose grade-appropriate text and read independently for sustained periods
E2.3A Choose a text yourself and read it independently for a sustained stretch of time
Comprehension Skills
Using reading strategies to understand, summarize and make sense of what students read and hear.
E2.4 Comprehension: use metacognitive skills to build and deepen understanding of increasingly complex texts
E2.4A Set a purpose for reading both assigned and self-selected texts
E2.4B Ask questions about a text before reading, while reading, and after finishing it, to build understanding and gain information
E2.4C Make predictions using text features, genre characteristics, and structures, then correct or confirm them
E2.4D Form mental images to deepen understanding
E2.4E Relate the text to your own experiences, to ideas in other texts, and to society
E2.4F Make inferences and cite evidence to support understanding
E2.4G Weigh the details you read to identify key ideas
E2.4H Combine information from several texts to build new understanding
E2.4I Monitor comprehension and adjust when it breaks down, such as annotating, asking questions, drawing on background knowledge, or re-reading
Response Skills
Responding to texts in speaking and writing, with evidence and personal connections.
E2.5 Response: react to ever more demanding, varied sources that students read, hear, or view
E2.5A Explain how you personally relate to many kinds of source material, including self-selected texts
E2.5B Write responses showing understanding of texts, including comparisons of texts within and across genres
E2.5C Back up an interpretive response with evidence from the text plus your own commentary
E2.5D Paraphrase and summarize texts while keeping the meaning and logical order
E2.5E Engage with sources in meaningful ways, for example notetaking, annotating, freewriting, or illustrating
E2.5F Use content and academic vocabulary you have learned in responses, where fitting
E2.5G Talk and write about what a text says directly and what it implies
E2.5H Answer in speech or writing using a fitting register, vocabulary, tone, and voice
E2.5I Reflect on responses and adjust them when valid evidence calls for it
E2.5J Defend or challenge authors' claims using relevant evidence from the text
Multiple Genres
Reading and analyzing fiction, poetry, drama, informational texts and media, and what makes each genre work.
E2.6 Literary elements: identify and analyze elements of literature in and between texts of growing complexity, whether traditional, contemporary, classical, or diverse
E2.6A Examine how characterization and plot build themes, comparing similar themes in literary texts from different cultures
E2.6B Analyze how authors craft complex but believable characters, including archetypes, using events and settings from particular histories and cultures
E2.6C Analyze how individual scenes, taken alone, help the plot succeed overall
E2.6D Examine how historical and cultural settings shape theme, plot, and characterization across multiple texts
E2.7 Genres: identify and analyze genre-specific traits, structures, and purposes in and across texts of growing complexity, traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse
E2.7A Read world literature from a range of literary periods and analyze it
E2.7B Analyze the effects that metrics, rhyme schemes, rhyme types such as eye, slant, internal, and end, and other conventions have in poems across poetic forms
E2.7C Analyze what dramatic conventions do, such as satire, asides, soliloquies, and dramatic irony
E2.7D Analyze informational texts' features and structure, such as a clear thesis, supporting evidence, pertinent examples, a conclusion, and how organizational design relates to the thesis
E2.7E Analyze features of argumentative texts such as an arguable claim, appeals, a convincing conclusion, evidence types, counterarguments, including rebuttals and concessions, and a clear audience
E2.7F Examine the features of multimodal and digital texts
Author's Purpose and Craft
How authors choose words, structure and techniques to inform, persuade and entertain.
E2.8 Author's craft: use critical inquiry to analyze how authors' choices shape meaning, and apply author's craft purposefully in one's own products and performances
E2.8A Examine what a text's author intends, who it addresses, and its message
E2.8B Examine how an author uses text structure to serve their purpose
E2.8C Judge how well print and graphic features serve the author's specific purposes
E2.8D Analyze how an author's language shapes and informs readers' perceptions
E2.8E Examine literary devices, such as motif, sarcasm, and irony, used to accomplish specific purposes
E2.8F Examine how an author's diction and syntax help create a text's mood, voice, and tone
E2.8G Analyze why rhetorical devices such as shifts, parallelism, antithesis, and appeals are used, plus the effects of logical fallacies
Composition and Writing
Writing process, genres of writing, and the conventions of grammar, usage, punctuation and spelling.
E2.9 Writing process: loop back repeatedly through the process to produce several legible texts that follow appropriate conventions
E2.9A Plan writing for varied purposes and audiences, generating ideas through strategies such as discussing, reading, journaling, or brainstorming
E2.9B Draft focused, coherent, organized pieces in timed and open-ended settings with a structure suited to context, topic, audience, and purpose and a deep, engaging idea with details, examples, commentary
E2.9C Revise drafts for sentence effectiveness, diction, style, organization, development, and clarity, including parallel structure and where phrases and dependent clauses sit
E2.9D Edit drafts for standard English conventions: varied, complete, controlled sentences with no unintended comma splices, run-ons or fragments; consistent, fitting verb tense; active and passive voice; agreement between pronouns and antecedents; correct capitalization; commas, colons, semicolons, dashes and parentheses that set off phrases and clauses where needed; and correct spelling
E2.9E Publish finished writing for audiences that suit it
E2.10 Composing genres: write several meaningful texts using the characteristics and craft of their genres
E2.10A Write literary texts, such as poetry and fiction, applying genre characteristics and craft
E2.10B Write informational texts, such as personal essays, reports, and explanatory essays, applying genre characteristics and craft
E2.10C Write argumentative texts applying genre characteristics and craft
E2.10D Write correspondence with either a professional or a friendly structure
Inquiry and Research
Asking questions, finding and evaluating sources, and presenting what was learned.
E2.11 Research: take part in recursive inquiry, whether short-term or sustained, for many purposes
E2.11A Come up with questions to guide both formal and informal inquiry
E2.11B Evaluate every step of the research process and make changes when needs are identified
E2.11C Build and revise a plan
E2.11D Adjust the main research question as needed so the plan stays focused
E2.11E Find relevant sources
E2.11F Synthesize information drawn from varied sources
E2.11G Check sources for bias, including omission, and credibility, and for faulty reasoning such as hasty generalizations, either-or, and incorrect premise
E2.11H Show academic citations, including those for paraphrased and quoted material, and use sources ethically to avoid plagiarism
E2.11I Present results using a fitting delivery mode: written, oral, or multimodal
There are 62 TEKS English II Standards on this page, in 7 strands: Foundational Language Skills, Comprehension Skills, Response Skills, Multiple Genres, Author's Purpose and Craft, Composition and Writing, and Inquiry and Research.
How do I write an assessment for an English II TEKS ELAR standard?
Pick a standard on this page and choose Make a quiz or Make an exit ticket. AssessmentWiz opens the generator with the standard's code and text filled in, so every question targets that standard.
What does a code like E2.1A mean?
TEKS ELAR course codes read course, knowledge and skills statement, student expectation. In E2.1A, E1 is English I and E2 is English II, the number is the knowledge and skills statement, and the letter is the student expectation under it.