TELPAS speaking prompts and practice for 6th and 7th grade
Speaking prompts with the rubric and a sample answer. Record yourself and play it back, with optional AI practice feedback from the live transcript. Not scored here: on the real test, speaking is scored with a rubric.
Record your answer and play it back—no typing needed. Where supported, turn on automatic transcription to get AI practice feedback on what you said. The feedback reads only the transcript, so it does not judge pronunciation or pace, and it is not an official TELPAS score — on the real test, speaking is scored against a rubric.
Prompt 1 of 6 — Provide and Summarize Information — suggested time about 2 minutes
Listen to the story. On the real test, you would watch a short video.
The Tamale Table
Press play to listen. You can pause, rewind, and replay as often as you like.
Show transcript
Every December, Leo's whole family met at his grandmother's house in San Antonio to make tamales. This year, Leo got there late because of a basketball game, and when he walked in, every job was already taken. His aunts were soaking the corn husks, his cousins were filling them with meat, and his grandmother was folding them faster than anyone could count.
"You can spread the masa," his grandmother said, and she handed him a spoon and a bowl of corn dough.
Leo thought it would be easy. He put a big spoonful of masa on the first husk and spread it all the way to the edges. His cousin Ana laughed. "That's not a tamale," she said. "That's a brick."
His grandmother came over and stood next to him. She took a husk, put on a thin layer of masa, and left a space at the top and bottom so it could be folded. "Thin," she said. "Like you're painting a wall, not building one."
Leo tried again. His first few were still too thick, but slowly they got better. By the end of the afternoon, he was spreading masa so quickly that his cousins had to hurry to keep up with him.
That night, when the family sat down to eat, his grandmother picked up a tamale, opened it, and looked at it carefully. Then she smiled at Leo and said, "Next year, you're in charge of the masa."
When you are ready to speak, tell as much as you can.
Listen to the story about Leo. Tell the story in your own words. Tell what happened at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end.
Answer the prompt aloud. After recording, listen back or try another take.
View the practice scoring rubric
| Level | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| 4 — Addresses the task completely |
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| 3 — Addresses the task somewhat successfully |
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| 2 — Addresses the task in a limited way |
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| 1 — Does not yet address the task |
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Show a strong sample response
Okay, so this story is about a boy named Leo. Every December his family goes to his grandma's house in San Antonio to make tamales. But this time he got there late because he had a basketball game, so all the jobs were already taken. His grandma gave him the job of spreading the masa. At first he thought it was going to be really easy, but he put way too much masa, like all the way to the edges, and his cousin Ana made fun of him and said it looked like a brick. Then his grandma came and showed him how to do it. She put it really thin and left space at the top and the bottom so you can fold it, and she said it's like painting a wall, not building one. So he kept practicing, and at first they were still too thick, but then he got better and better, and by the end he was so fast that his cousins couldn't keep up. And at dinner his grandma checked one of the tamales and she smiled and told him that next year he's going to be in charge of the masa.
The student retells the whole story in order: the late arrival, the mistake, the grandmother's lesson, the improvement, and the ending. Time words (at first, then, by the end, at dinner) make the order clear, and details such as the brick joke and the painting comparison show close listening. The language is natural spoken English, with some run-on sentences joined by "and," which is normal when speaking and does not affect meaning.
What to look for
- Check that the retelling has a beginning, middle and end. Students often stop after the mistake and leave out the grandmother's comment at the end.
- Listen for time-order words (at first, then, after that, at the end). These are the clearest sign the student is organizing the story.
- The student should use their own words. Repeating a few memorable lines is fine, but the retell should not just be quoted sentences.
- Past tense should be used for most of the story. Some switching to present tense when speaking is common; note it, but focus on whether the meaning is clear.
- A strong retell includes why things happened (he was late, so the jobs were taken), not just what happened.
Read next
- TELPAS Speaking Test: Rubric, Prompts and Examples: On the TELPAS speaking test, students in grades 2–12 record spoken answers on a computer, and each answer is scored against the TELPAS speaking rubric. Here is what the speaking prompts ask for, what the scoring looks at, some examples, and how to practice.
- TELPAS Listening and Speaking Test: What to Expect and How to Practice: The TELPAS listening and speaking test is one of the two online TELPAS tests for grades 2–12. Students watch and listen to short videos and answer questions, and record spoken answers, with the two kinds of item mixed through the test. Here is how the test is built, how it is scored, and how to practice for it.
- How to Prepare for TELPAS: Practice and Tips by Domain: TELPAS measures English that a student builds over months and years, so there is no shortcut to a higher rating. What preparation can do is make sure the test itself is familiar, so a student's real English shows. Here is what is worth doing, domain by domain.
This is an independent study resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Texas Education Agency or the official TELPAS program. All questions here are original practice material written to match the published test design.