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How to learn High school: English language arts

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills: English language arts, High school

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1. The student engages in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes for a variety of purposes.

  1. Research & Source Evaluation: Summarise and organise material from reading and research — gathering relevant information from multiple sources, assessing credibility, integrating evidence without plagiarising, and supporting ideas with factual detail

2. The student uses genre characteristics and craft to compose multiple texts that are meaningful.

  1. Writing Across Genres: Write for a range of purposes and audiences beyond narrative — including scripts, poetry, personal and formal letters, notes for talks, and other forms — selecting the appropriate form, register, and conventions for each
  2. Persuasive Writing: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence — including introducing claims, acknowledging counterclaims, organising reasons logically, maintaining a formal style, and providing a concluding statement
  3. Developed Informational and Explanatory Writing: Write informative and explanatory texts that examine a topic and convey ideas clearly — organising information logically with headings and formatting, developing the topic with relevant facts, definitions, details, and quotations, and using precise vocabulary

3. The student uses the writing process recursively to compose multiple texts that are legible and use appropriate conventions.

  1. Planning, Revising and Editing Writing: Plan, revise, and edit writing to improve coherence and effectiveness — considering how the writing reflects its intended audience and purpose, amending vocabulary, grammar, and structure, and proofreading for accurate spelling, punctuation, and grammar

4. 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

  1. Grammar for Effect: Analyse the effectiveness and impact of grammatical features in texts read — understanding how authors make deliberate grammatical choices (sentence length, passive voice, fronted adverbials, listing) to create specific effects on the reader
  2. Writing Techniques for Effect: Apply growing knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and text structure to writing — drawing on literary and rhetorical devices from reading (e.g., rhetorical questions, tricolon, anaphora, contrast) to enhance impact
  3. Academic Vocabulary: Acquire and use accurately a broad range of general academic vocabulary and domain-specific words — drawing new vocabulary from reading and listening and deploying it consciously in writing and speech to achieve particular effects
  4. Analysing Text Structure: Analyse how a text's structure — including its overall organisation, use of chapters, stanzas, scenes, paragraphs, or sections — contributes to its meaning, style, and development of ideas
  5. Purpose, audience, and context: Identify the purpose, audience, and context of a text and use this knowledge to support comprehension — recognising how writing aimed at different audiences (academic, popular, persuasive) uses different conventions, register, and tone

5. The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts.

  1. Poetic forms and conventions: Recognise and understand poetic conventions — including form (sonnet, ballad, free verse), metre, rhyme scheme, stanza structure, imagery, and sound devices (alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia) — and analyse how poets use them for effect
  2. Wide Independent Reading Across Genres: Read widely and independently across fiction and non-fiction — including whole novels, short stories, plays, poetry, and non-fiction from different genres, periods, and cultures — building stamina, breadth, and personal taste as a reader

6. The student recognizes and analyzes literary elements within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse literary texts.

  1. Critical comparison across texts: Make critical comparisons across texts — comparing themes, characters, settings, styles, or arguments in two or more works, including texts from different periods, genres, or cultures
  2. Plot Structure and Character Development: Analyse how plot structure unfolds through episodes or key events, and how characters develop, respond to challenges, and change over the course of a narrative — including the relationship between character, setting, and plot

7. The student responds to an increasingly challenging variety of sources that are read, heard, or viewed.

  1. Using and Evaluating Textual Evidence: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of what a text says explicitly and what can be inferred, distinguishing between strong and weak evidence and explaining how the evidence supports a point

8. The student develops oral language through listening, speaking, and discussion.

  1. Speaking Formally and Giving Presentations: Use Standard English confidently in formal and informal spoken contexts — give short speeches and presentations expressing own ideas clearly, keeping to the point, and adapting register and vocabulary to the audience
  2. Formal Debates: Participate in formal debates and structured discussions — presenting a position with supporting evidence, responding to others’ points, summarising and building on what has been said, and following rules of discussion

9. Knowledge and Skills · Evaluate stories and coverage for balance and readability.

  1. Evaluating Arguments in Non-Fiction: Evaluate arguments and claims in non-fiction texts — assess whether reasoning is sound, evidence is relevant and sufficient, distinguish between fact and opinion, and recognise bias, propaganda, and rhetorical techniques

10. The student reads critically to evaluate texts and the authority of sources. The student is expected to:

  1. Narrative Perspective and Unreliable Narrators: Analyse point of view and narrative perspective — including first person, third person limited and omniscient, and unreliable narrator — and how the author's or narrator's perspective shapes the reader's understanding and creates effects such as suspense, irony, or humour

11. The student analyzes fictional and poetic elements focusing on how they combine to contribute meaning in literary texts. The student is expected to:

  1. Figurative Language and Literary Devices: Determine the meaning of figurative and connotative language in context, analyse the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, and identify literary devices such as metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, and irony

12. Emergent Literacy: Language and Communication Domain · Sentences and Structure

  1. Types of Sentences: Choose among and construct simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences to signal different relationships among ideas, varying sentence patterns deliberately for meaning, interest, and style
  2. Literary and Language Terminology: Discuss reading, writing, and spoken language with precise and confident use of linguistic and literary terminology — including terms for word classes, sentence types, clause types, literary devices, and text-level features

13. The student applies the conventions of usage and the mechanics of written English to communicate clearly and effectively

  1. Applying Spelling Rules to Complex Words: Spell correctly and consistently, applying the spelling patterns and rules from KS1-2 to increasingly complex vocabulary encountered in KS3 reading and subject-specific study

14. The student selects and uses recursive writing processes for self-initiated and assigned writing

  1. Cohesion and Transitions Across Writing: Use varied transitions, cohesive devices, and paragraph-linking strategies to create coherence across a whole piece of writing — including temporal transitions, causal connectives, and techniques for signalling shifts in argument, time, or setting

15. Knowledge and skills. · Style. The student develops skills in using oral language in public speeches. The student is expected to:

  1. Standard English: Know and understand the differences between spoken and written language — including differences in formality, register, grammar, and vocabulary — and between Standard English and other varieties of English, using Standard English confidently in writing and speech