The beginning reading and writing sub-strand is a key part of developing and sustaining
foundational language skills. This sub-strand appears only in kindergarten through grade 5 and
focuses on the skills students need to become proficient readers, spellers, and writers. As with other strands, the student
expectations are progressive in nature,
meaning that students build their knowledge and skills as they proceed from one grade to the next. In the beginning reading and writing strand,
students learn the relationship between letters and sounds and between print and spoken words.
Younger students develop phonological awareness—the ability to recognize and work with sounds in spoken language.
They learn to identify and produce rhyming words;
identify and blend syllables; and blend to manipulate phonemes, or units of sound.
Students also learn decoding and encoding skills.
Decoding, or making meaning from written symbols, is what students do when they read.
Encoding, or using symbols to create messages, is what students do when they spell.
The TEKS stress the reciprocal relationship between
decoding and encoding.
Students strengthen their decoding skills as they practice encoding. In
this sub-strand, students explore the relationship between print and
spoken words when they apply phonetic knowledge to decode and spell words.
Students first learn to match sounds to letters and create new words by changing, adding, or deleting letters.
They gradually decode and spell increasingly more complex words, such as words with digraphs and silent letters as well as
compound words,
contractions, and multisyllabic words that include the six syllable types.
Students also alphabetize words and read words from research-based high-frequency word lists.
Finally, in this sub-strand, younger students develop print awareness by identifying upper- and lowercase letters,
understanding the structure of words and sentences, and learning the parts of books and how to read and hold books.
Students also develop handwriting skills and write in cursive.
Explore the TEKS Guide resources below to learn more about the different skills in the beginning reading and writing sub-strand.