The 2017 TEKS revision, the 2023 STAAR redesign, and the 2024 TCTELA conference theme call on literacy professionals to "forge the future of literacy" in Texas. Specifically, the future demands that we more fully integrate reading and writing instruction and that we help students develop a deeper understanding of author's purpose and craft. In this paper, we argue that one way to meet the literacy demands of the future is to return to rhetoric, the dominant approach to literacy instruction for some 2000 years. First, we describe how rhetoric came to define language arts instruction in the Western world and why it was largely abandoned in the late 19th century. Next, we explain why a rhetorical approach to literacy is particularly well-suited to TEKS standards and new STAAR question types. Finally, we relate how one Texas school district adopted a literacy strategy drawn from the rhetorical tradition and applied it across elementary and secondary grade levels. We hope to equip curriculum coordinators, literacy specialists, and classroom teachers with a scalable, transferable literacy tool that can work as both an individual classroom lesson and a district-wide initiative.