Reading informational texts on LEAP English I and II: complete overview - Louisiana

Reading informational texts is one of the core skills tested on the LEAP English I and II assessment. The reading portions present unseen literary nonfiction, argumentative pieces, and data-bearing texts and ask you to analyze them and support your answers with evidence. Several informational sources are also grouped for the Research Simulation Task, where you read across them and write an evidence-based essay. This site breaks the skill into six dot points. This overview maps the six skills, how they connect, and how to study them.

The six informational-reading skills

Each skill is a way of reading an unseen informational passage closely.

• Central ideas in informational texts. Stating the main point as a full sentence, distinguishing it from details, and summarizing objectively. See central ideas in informational texts.
• Analyzing argument and claims. Identifying the claim, separating reasons from evidence, and evaluating the reasoning. See analyzing argument and claims.
• Author's purpose and craft. Naming the purpose and point of view and explaining how word choice and rhetorical appeals serve them. See author's purpose and craft.
• Text structure and organization. Recognizing organizational patterns and explaining why a structure suits the content. See text structure and organization.
• Text evidence and inference. Citing strong evidence and drawing inferences anchored to the text, the skill the evidence-based items test. See text evidence and inference.
• Comparing and synthesizing paired texts. Reading across sources and combining them, the heart of the Research Simulation Task. See comparing and synthesizing paired texts.

The thread through every skill: evidence, evaluation, and synthesis

Three habits run through the module. The first is evidence: every claim about an informational text must be backed by a specific line, which the evidence-based items make explicit. The second is evaluation: LEAP asks you to judge an argument's reasoning and an author's craft, not just to summarize, because Louisiana standards RI.9-10.6 and RI.9-10.8 reward analysis. The third is synthesis: reading across sources and combining them, which the Research Simulation Task requires. Central idea feeds synthesis, argument analysis feeds evaluation, and evidence feeds everything. Reading nonfiction critically and across sources ties the module together.

How the informational skills are tested

• Multiple choice and multiple select: the best central idea, the weakness in an argument, the purpose of a word choice, the text structure.
• Hot text: click the sentence that states the central idea, the claim, or the strongest evidence.
• Evidence-based selected response: Part A asks for the reading (central idea, inference, claim), Part B asks for the supporting line; worth two points with partial credit.
• Research Simulation Task: read several informational sources and write an evidence-based essay that synthesizes them.

How to study reading informational texts

1. Read nonfiction widely (essays, speeches, argument, news analysis) on unseen passages.
2. State the point, not the topic. Practice writing a central idea as a full sentence.
3. Take arguments apart and judge them. Separate claim, reasons, and evidence, and evaluate the reasoning, as RI.9-10.8 asks.
4. Connect craft to purpose. Explain how a word choice or appeal advances the author's goal.
5. Read across sources. Practice synthesizing two or more texts, because the Research Simulation Task is built on it.

For the official exam materials

LDOE publishes the LEAP 2025 Assessment Guide for English I and English II, practice tests, and the Louisiana Student Standards. See the LEAP 2025 Assessment Guide for English I and English II and the Louisiana Student Standards page. Always study from the current released materials, because the item types and standards are set by LDOE.