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Common Core ELA1st GradeSpeaking & Listening

SL.1.4: Describe with Details That Matter

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.4 · Cluster: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 41 1st Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.

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

What SL.1.4 Means in Plain English

First graders describe a person, a place, an object or something that happened, choosing details that help listeners picture it and leaving out the ones that don’t. They also say how they felt about it, in words clear enough that the class understands the first time.

Relevant is the word that separates this from kindergarten (SL.K.4), where any extra detail was progress and adults prompted for it. In 2nd grade (SL.2.4) children tell a whole story or experience aloud, with facts, vivid details and sentences that hang together.

SL.1.4 I Can Statements

  • I can tell about a place so friends can picture it.
  • I can pick details that go with my topic.
  • I can say how something made me feel.

SL.1.4 Worked Example

One Saturday trip through the car wash, described twice, and the difference is which details made the cut.

Prompt

Weekend share: Tell us about something you did this weekend so we can picture it. Say how it made you feel.

Not Yet“We went to the car wash. It was fun. Our car is blue. My brother had a juice box. Then we went home and I watched TV.”The car wash gets one sentence and then the details wander: the car’s color, a juice box, TV. Fun is the only feeling word, and it could describe anything.
Meets the Standard“We went through the car wash in our car. Giant blue brushes spun and slapped on the windows, and pink soap covered everything so it got dark inside. I was scared at first, but then the big wind dryer pushed the water up the glass and I laughed so hard.”Every detail belongs to the car wash: the brushes, the pink soap, the dark, the dryer. Scared, then laughing, tells how the feeling changed, which is the clear ideas and feelings half of SL.1.4.
Moves to Use
Stay on one thing: only details about your topic.Use your senses: what did you see, hear or feel?Name your feeling with a real word: scared, proud, silly.Tell it in order so friends can follow.

Common Mistakes with SL.1.4

Details that wander

The car wash, then the car’s color, then a juice box, then TV

Try this: Ask “Was that part of the car wash?” after each detail, and have the child keep only the yes answers.

Fun, good, nice

“It was fun. It was really fun. It was so fun.”

Try this: Post a feelings chart with a face for scared, proud, silly and surprised, and have the speaker point before they say the word.

A list, not a description

“There was soap and brushes and water and a dryer.”

Try this: Pick one item from the list and ask “What did it look like, sound like or do?” to turn a noun into a detail.

Where SL.1.4 Fits

Comes BeforeSL.K.4Describe familiar people, places, things and events, adding detail when an adult prompts.
AlongsideSL.1.5Add a drawing or other visual when it makes the description clearer.W.1.3Write about two or more events in order with some details, the written cousin of a spoken description.
Comes NextSL.2.4Tell a story or recount an experience with facts and descriptive details, in clear, audible sentences.

Practice SL.1.4

Quick Check

  1. Which detail in the weak description is not about the car wash?
  2. How does the strong description show a feeling changing?
  3. Turn “There was soap” into a detail a listener can picture.

SL.1.4: Other Names

SL.1.4CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.4

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.