Objectives Card
Post one content objective and one language objective for the whole class, then show what meeting it looks like at each of the five 2026 proficiency levels. The five lines are the differentiation; the objective stays the same for everyone. Edit any line directly on the card, then print it or copy the text.
No student names or levels go on the wall. The lines describe what students do.
One minute: the question that started this card, and how to use it.
Language objective formula: I can [language function: describe, compare, retell, explain] [the content] using [the support]. Example: I can describe what an object feels like using the stem “This ___ is ___.”
Signed in? The AI version drafts the whole card from a TEKS you pick: Draft it with AI (free account).
This is the Grade 1 ELAR example. Change anything on the card.
TEKS 1.8B: Describe the main character(s) and the reason(s) for their actions.
| Pre-Production | |
|---|---|
| Beginning | |
| Intermediate | |
| High Intermediate | |
| Advanced |
Where these five lines come from
Each line on this example is a plain-language version of the 2026 ELPS Writing proficiency level descriptors for K-3 (19 TAC §120.20(e)), ELAR strand plus the general strand. TEKS source: 19 TAC 110.3(b)(8)(B). The descriptor phrases behind the lines, from Pre-Production to Advanced:
- label or draw nouns, adjectives, or verbs
- illustrate or copy text to show understanding of academic content
- write nouns and adjectives
- write descriptive words to add details to written texts or pictures
- write using a combination of primary language and English high-frequency words to show understanding of content-area vocabulary
- write phrases with familiar parts of speech
- write an idea with specific and relevant details using descriptive phrases
- write phrases that may include invented spelling
- write simple sentences using common parts of speech with increasing accuracy
- write to explain an idea with specific and relevant details using simple sentences with increasing accuracy
- write a variety of sentences using combining words with increasing accuracy
- write to explain an idea with specific and relevant details using a variety of sentence types
- write using precise content-area language to narrate, describe, explain, or persuade using acquired information or personal experiences
See the full grid: K-3 reference.
Our suggestion: one language domain per lesson, all four domains across a week of one subject
One language objective per lesson gives you one behavior to model, one frame to post, and one thing to listen for while you circulate, which keeps the 'across the room' strip usable in a real 45-minute block. When four objectives go up at once, in our experience none gets modeled well and students cannot tell what success looks like. This is a design choice for the card, not a TEA requirement; the ELPS do not prescribe how many objectives to post.
In a self-contained K-2 room, run the rotation inside one subject (for example, the science unit), not across the whole day.
| Day | Domain | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Listening | New content starts with input: read-aloud, demonstration, or visuals, and a listening objective lets every level participate, since pointing and matching count as meeting it. |
| Tuesday | Speaking | Partner talk with one frame turns Monday's input into output while the vocabulary is still fresh and the word bank is still on the wall. |
| Wednesday | Reading | Shared or choral reading of a short text on the same concept lets students meet the words in print after they have heard and said them. |
| Thursday | Writing | Writing comes last in this sequence so that, after three days of oral and print exposure, drawing, labeling, and sentence writing are realistic at every level. |
| Friday | Speaking | A retell or share-out closes the week and gives speaking a second day, because emergent bilinguals typically get very little structured speaking time. |
In kindergarten and grade 1, TELPAS is holistically rated in all four domains (listening, speaking, reading, writing) by trained raters, usually the classroom teacher, who base the rating on observations across social and academic settings over time, so the behaviors on this strip are the same kind of evidence raters draw on all year. From grade 2 up, students take the online TELPAS assessments, and holistic rating continues only for students who qualify for a special administration, so use the strip for instruction, not as a rating tool. The strip's five levels are the 2026 ELPS levels (adopted in 2024), not TELPAS rating categories.
Want the theory behind it? Module 6, Writing Language Objectives.
What the free account adds
The assistant drafts the whole card from a TEKS you pick, an automated second pass checks every line against the descriptors, and your cards save to your dashboard.