Reading informational texts: complete overview - STAAR English I informational reading

Reading informational and argumentative texts is the second major skill area on the STAAR English I assessment. You meet unseen informational passages, frequently cross-curricular, and analyze them through multiple-choice, technology-enhanced, and short-constructed-response questions. This site breaks informational reading into six skills that together prepare you for any informational or argumentative passage. This overview maps the six skills, how STAAR tests them, and how to study them.

The six informational-reading skills

Each skill is a way of analyzing an informational or argumentative text.

• Central ideas. Determining the main point a passage develops, distinct from topic and detail. See central ideas in informational texts.
• Analyzing argument and claims. Separating claim, reasons, and evidence, and weighing the rhetorical appeals. See analyzing argument and claims.
• Author's purpose and craft. Determining why a text was written and how its craft choices serve that purpose. See author's purpose and craft.
• Cross-curricular passages. Reading science, history, or arts topics for skill, not subject knowledge. See reading cross-curricular passages.
• Synthesizing paired texts. Comparing two related texts to see where they agree, differ, or build. See synthesizing paired texts.
• Text evidence and inference. Drawing supported inferences and selecting the evidence that proves them. See text evidence and inference.

The thread through every skill: ground every answer in the text

The habit that runs through informational reading on STAAR is grounding every answer in the passage. A central idea must cover the whole text; an inference must trace to a trigger; an argument's support must be evaluated, not just located; a cross-curricular term's meaning comes from context, not memory; a comparison of paired texts must cite both. The signature low-scoring answer imports outside knowledge or over-reaches; the high-scoring answer is anchored to the words on the page, which is exactly what the multipart and short-response formats demand.

How STAAR tests informational reading

• Multiple choice asks for central idea, purpose, inference, and how a statement functions in an argument.
• Multiselect asks you to choose every detail that supports an idea (track each carefully).
• Hot text asks you to click the sentence that states the central idea or supports a claim.
• Graphic-based and hot spot items ask you to read and answer from diagrams, timelines, and charts.
• Multipart items pair an inference (Part A) with its supporting evidence (Part B); both must be right.
• Short constructed response asks you to state and support a central idea, comparison, or analysis, scored 0 to 2.

How to study informational reading

1. State central ideas as full sentences that cover the whole passage, then check the details support them.
2. Take arguments apart: claim, reasons, evidence, appeal, and judge whether the support is relevant and sufficient.
3. Connect craft to purpose, explaining how each choice serves the author's goal.
4. Trust the cross-curricular design: read for skill, define terms from context, and read every graphic.
5. Anchor every inference to a trigger and demand evidence that directly proves a conclusion, especially in multipart items.

For the official exam materials

TEA publishes released STAAR tests, scoring guides, the constructed-response rubrics, and information on the new item types on the STAAR Reading Language Arts resources page and the STAAR redesign page. Always practice from released informational passages and study the official rubrics, because the item types and scoring are set by TEA.