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Common Core ELA1st GradeReading: Informational

RI.1.1: Ask and Answer Questions About Key Details

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.1 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

All 41 1st Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 1, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.1.1 Means in Plain English

First graders ask their own questions about a nonfiction text and answer them from what it says, without the teacher starting them off. After a page on spiders they ask “How many legs?” and find the answer: eight, which is why a spider is not an insect.

In kindergarten (RI.K.1) the teacher prompts the questions and helps with the answers. Now the child does both and checks each answer against the page. In 2nd grade (RI.2.1) children ask and answer the full set of who, what, where, when, why and how questions.

RI.1.1 I Can Statements

  • I can ask a question about a nonfiction book.
  • I can find the answer in the words or pictures.
  • I can check that my answer fits my question.

RI.1.1 Worked Example

A five-line text about spiders, one how question about a key detail, and two answers: a true fact that answers something else, and one that answers this.

Read the Story
A spider is not an insect. Insects have six legs, but a spider has eight.A spider makes silk inside its body. The silk comes out of tiny tubes near the back end.Many spiders spin the silk into a web, and some of the threads are sticky.When a fly hits the web, it gets stuck. The spider feels the web shake and hurries out to grab it.Not every spider makes a web. A jumping spider sneaks up on a bug and pounces.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: How does a spider catch a fly in its web?
Not Yet“Spiders have eight legs!”A key detail, and the child remembered it right. But it answers a different question, how many legs a spider has, and says nothing about the web or the fly.
Meets the Standard“Some threads are sticky, so the fly gets stuck. The spider feels the web shake and comes out to grab it.”Every part comes from the text, and it answers how: the sticky threads hold the fly, and the shaking tells the spider it is there.
Question Stems to Use
What do you wonder about spiders?Who, what, where, when or how? Pick one and ask it.Where in the text did you find that?Does your answer match the question you were asked?What question do you still have?

Common Mistakes with RI.1.1

Answering a different question

“Spiders have eight legs!” when the question asked how a spider catches a fly

Try this: Reread the question word aloud, how or why or where, and ask “Does your answer tell how?” before accepting it.

Answering from what they already know

“Spiders eat their old webs,” which may be true but is nowhere in this text

Try this: Ask “Where does it say that?” and have the child point to the line, or park the fact on a “We wonder” chart.

Asking only yes-or-no questions

“Do spiders have legs?” “Is a web sticky?”

Try this: Hand out question-word cards, who, what, where, when, why and how, and have each child ask one question that starts with their card.

Where RI.1.1 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.K.1Ask and answer questions about key details with the teacher’s prompting and support.
AlongsideRL.1.1Ask and answer questions about key details in a story.SL.1.2Ask and answer questions about key details in a read-aloud or a video.
Comes NextRI.2.1Ask and answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions to show understanding of key details.

Practice RI.1.1

Quick Check

  1. How many legs does a spider have?
  2. Why does a fly get stuck in a web?
  3. How does a jumping spider catch a bug?

RI.1.1: Other Names

RI.1.1CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.1

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.