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TexasEnglish Language

Reading Informational Texts

6 dot points across 6 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you identify the claim of an argument and evaluate whether its reasons and evidence actually support it?

Analyzing argument and claims: identifying the central claim of an argumentative text, separating reasons and evidence from the claim, recognizing rhetorical appeals (logos, ethos, pathos), and evaluating whether the support is relevant and sufficient in a STAAR argumentative passage.
How to analyze argument on a STAAR English I argumentative passage: identifying the central claim, separating reasons and evidence, recognizing rhetorical appeals (logos, ethos, pathos), and evaluating whether support is relevant and sufficient. STAAR tests this with multiple choice, multiselect, and short constructed responses.
9 min answer →

How do you determine why a writer wrote a text and analyze the craft choices (structure, word choice, text features) they used to achieve it?

Author's purpose and craft: determining an author's purpose (to inform, persuade, or entertain) and point of view, and analyzing the craft choices, text structure, word choice, tone, and text features, that an author uses to achieve that purpose in a STAAR informational text.
How to analyze author's purpose and craft on STAAR English I: determining purpose (inform, persuade, entertain) and point of view, and analyzing the craft choices (structure, word choice, tone, text features) used to achieve it. STAAR tests this with multiple choice, hot text, and short constructed responses.
9 min answer →

How do you find the central idea of an informational text and tell it apart from a supporting detail or the topic?

Central ideas in informational texts: determining the central idea of an informational passage, distinguishing it from the topic and from supporting details, and tracing how details and text structure develop the central idea across a STAAR informational text.
How to determine the central idea of a STAAR English I informational passage: telling the central idea apart from the topic and from supporting details, and tracing how details and text structure develop it. STAAR tests central idea with multiple choice, multiselect, hot text, and short constructed responses.
9 min answer →

How do you handle a STAAR passage on a science or history topic, reading for ELA skill without needing prior knowledge of the subject?

Reading cross-curricular passages: approaching informational passages with topics drawn from science, social studies, or the arts, understanding that the questions assess reading skill rather than subject knowledge, and handling unfamiliar terminology, data, and graphics in a STAAR passage.
How to read cross-curricular informational passages on STAAR English I: science, history, or arts topics where questions assess reading skill, not subject knowledge. Handling unfamiliar terms, data, and graphics. STAAR tests this with multiple choice, hot text, and graphic-based items.
9 min answer →

How do you read two related texts together, comparing their ideas and noticing where they agree, differ, or build on each other?

Synthesizing paired texts: reading two related texts as a set, comparing their central ideas, purposes, and perspectives, identifying where they agree, disagree, or add to one another, and answering cross-text questions on a STAAR paired passage.
How to synthesize paired texts on STAAR English I: reading two related texts as a set, comparing their central ideas, purposes, and perspectives, and identifying agreement, disagreement, or development. STAAR tests this with cross-text multiple choice, multiselect, and short constructed responses.
9 min answer →

How do you make an inference an informational text supports, and choose the textual evidence that actually proves a conclusion?

Text evidence and inference: drawing inferences that an informational text supports, anchoring each inference to its textual trigger, selecting the evidence that best supports a given conclusion, and rejecting the over-reaching and unsupported inferences that STAAR distractors are built from.
How to make inferences and select evidence on STAAR English I informational passages: drawing conclusions the text supports, anchoring each to its trigger, choosing the evidence that proves a conclusion, and rejecting over-reach. STAAR tests this with multiple choice, multiselect, hot text, and multipart items.
9 min answer →