English Language Arts

One topic at a time, grades 1–3, in the order it builds.

15 topics · 142 skills across grades 1–3 · 19 TAC chapter 110 the rule text (PDF)

Grouped by what you would call the thing, rather than by where Texas files it. A skill can sit under more than one topic, because most of them do.

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characters and plot

15

Who is in a story, what happens to them, where it happens, and what the whole thing turns out to be about.

also called stories

comprehension

16

Following what a text is doing — predicting, inferring, retelling it back, and going back when it stops making sense.

also called understanding what they read

grammar and punctuation

3

The parts a sentence is built from and the marks that tell a reader how to take it — filed here inside editing a draft.

also called capital letters, full stops

  • Grade 1 1.11.D Edit drafts for standard English conventions
  • Grade 2 2.11.D Edit drafts for standard English conventions
  • Grade 3 3.11.D Edit drafts for standard English conventions

handwriting

3

Forming letters legibly — printing at first, then all of it in cursive from the second year on.

informational text

12

Reading to find something out, using the features and graphics put there to help — and writing the same kind of thing yourself.

also called nonfiction

main idea

4

What a piece is mostly about, and the parts of the text that show it — in what you read and in what you write.

persuasive writing

4

Spotting what a writer is trying to talk you into — and later, saying what you think and backing it.

phonics and sounds

11

Hearing the sounds inside a word and matching them to letters, in both directions.

also called sounding out

  • Grade 1 1.2.A Demonstrate phonological awareness
  • Grade 1 1.2.B Show and apply phonetic knowledge
  • Grade 1 1.2.C Apply and show spelling knowledge
  • Grade 2 2.2.A Demonstrate phonological awareness
  • Grade 2 2.2.B Phonetic knowledge, demonstrated and applied
  • Grade 2 2.2.C Spelling knowledge, demonstrated and applied
  • Grade 3 3.2.A Apply and demonstrate phonetic knowledge
  • Grade 3 3.2.B Apply and demonstrate spelling knowledge
  • Grade 3 3.3.A Look up meaning, syllabication, pronunciation
  • Grade 3 3.9.B Explain sound devices, rhyme scheme, stanzas
  • Grade 3 3.10.D Describe imagery, language, and sound devices

poetry

7

How a poem is put together — rhyme, stanzas, the sound it makes read aloud — and writing one yourself.

reading fluency

3

Reading smoothly enough that the sense arrives with the words rather than after them.

research

23

Asking a question that sends you looking it up, finding the sources, and later saying where the answer came from.

speaking and listening

8

Talking so you are understood, and listening closely enough to answer what was actually said.

spelling

7

Writing a word the way everyone else writes it — partly by pattern, partly by the words you come to know on sight.

vocabulary

11

Working out what a new word means — from the sentence around it, or from its endings and prefixes — and then actually using it.

also called word meanings

writing a draft

15

Planning it, getting it down, changing it, and putting it in front of somebody — all of it counts as writing.

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Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills · CC BY 3.0 US · D2L Corporation · verified 2026-08-05

What that means, and what this is not

The standards text is adopted by the Texas State Board of Education and published as rules in Title 19 of the Texas Administrative Code. We retrieved it through the Common Standards Project. The licence above covers that project's compiled dataset, not the rule text itself, which is Texas law.

Coverage requirements from New York 8 NYCRR §100.10: what the law requires. Nothing here is legal advice, and Texas standards do not apply in your state. Check your own state's department of education.