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Common Core ELA1st GradeSpeaking & Listening

SL.1.2: Ask and Answer Questions About What You Hear

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.2 · Cluster: Comprehension and Collaboration.

Spin for a QuestionAll 41 1st Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 1, Speaking & Listening · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What SL.1.2 Means in Plain English

First graders listen to a book read aloud, a classmate’s report, a song or a short video, then answer questions about its important details and ask their own. The test of a good answer: it could only come from what they just heard, not from what they already knew.

A video counts as much as a read-aloud here, so pause a clip the way you would pause a book. Kindergarten (SL.K.2) asked children to confirm they understood and to ask when lost, and 2nd grade (SL.2.2) moves from answering questions to recounting the key ideas themselves.

SL.1.2 I Can Statements

  • I can answer questions about a story I heard.
  • I can ask a question about a video we watched.
  • I can tell the important parts, not just the funny ones.

SL.1.2 Worked Example

A two-minute video about pufferfish, one question, and two answers, and only one of them could have come from the video.

Prompt

After a short video about pufferfish: Why does a pufferfish puff up? Then ask one question about something the video showed.

Not Yet“Because it’s silly. I have a fish at home named Bubbles.”A guess and a fact about the child, and neither came from the video. No question follows, so there is nothing to show what the child took in.
Meets the Standard“It gulps a lot of water and blows up like a ball, and its spikes stick out. Then the big fish can’t swallow it. How does it get small again?”Two key details from the narrator, gulping water and the spikes, plus the reason they matter, and a question that grows straight out of the video rather than out of the child’s own fish tank.
Moves to Use
Answer with something you heard or saw, not a guess.Name the important part: who, what or why.Ask a question that starts from the video: “Why did…?” “How does…?”Lost a part? Ask to hear or watch it again.

Common Mistakes with SL.1.2

Answers from home, not from the video

“My cousin went fishing!” in answer to a question the video already answered

Try this: Ask “Where did the video tell us that?” after every answer, and replay the moment when nobody can point to it.

Remembering only the funny part

Retells the pufferfish looking like a balloon and nothing about why it puffs up

Try this: Tell the class the one question you will ask before pressing play, so they watch for that detail and not just the jokes.

Questions that aren’t questions

Asked for a question, says “I like fish” or “It was funny”

Try this: Give question starters on cards, why, how and what if, and have the child pick one before speaking.

Where SL.1.2 Fits

Comes BeforeSL.K.2Ask and answer questions about a read-aloud, and ask for help when something is not understood.
AlongsideRI.1.1Ask and answer questions about key details in an informational book the child reads.SL.1.3Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says, to learn more or clear something up.
Comes NextSL.2.2Recount or describe the key ideas and details of a read-aloud or other media.

Practice SL.1.2

Random Name PickerFree ToolPause the clip and spin for who asks the next question, so every child watches as if they might be called.Video pauseAsk a questionWhole class
Spin a Name
Classroom TimerFree ToolPause a longer video every two minutes for one question and one answer before you press play again.2 minutesPause and askVideo
Start a Timer

Quick Check

  1. In the strong answer, which two key details came from the video?
  2. Why is “I have a fish at home named Bubbles” not an answer to the question?
  3. Besides a book read aloud, name two kinds of source SL.1.2 covers.

SL.1.2: Other Names

SL.1.2CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.2

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.