Skip to main content
Common Core ELA1st GradeSpeaking & Listening

SL.1.6: Speak in Complete Sentences

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.6 · Cluster: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 41 1st Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation. (See grade 1 Language standards 1 and 3 here for specific expectations.)

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

What SL.1.6 Means in Plain English

First graders answer in complete sentences when the moment calls for it: reporting to the class, answering the teacher, telling a visitor something. In a quick partner game a one-word answer is fine, so the skill is noticing which moment they are in and switching.

The sentences draw on L.1.1, so a full answer has a subject, a matching verb and often a joining word. Kindergarten (SL.K.6) asked children to speak audibly and clearly, and 2nd grade (SL.2.6) uses full sentences to add the detail or explanation a listener asked for.

SL.1.6 I Can Statements

  • I can answer my teacher with a whole sentence.
  • I can tell what it was and what happened.
  • I can tell when a short answer is okay.

SL.1.6 Worked Example

One sink-or-float tub, three objects, and two reports to the class about what happened.

Prompt

Science share: Your group tested a rock, a cork and a metal spoon in the water tub. Tell the class what you found out.

Not Yet“Rock.” (Teacher: “What about the rock?”) “Down.”Two right words that only make sense to someone who was at the tub. The class cannot tell what went down, or what happened to the cork and the spoon.
Meets the Standard“The rock and the spoon sank to the bottom, but the cork floated on top. We pushed the cork under, and it popped right back up!”Each sentence says what and what it did: the rock and the spoon sank, the cork floated, it popped up. But and and join ideas into compound sentences, and listeners who never touched the tub know exactly what happened.
Moves to Use
Say what it was, and what it did.Use a whole sentence when you talk to the class.Join two ideas with and, but or so.A quick yes or no is fine in a partner game.

Common Mistakes with SL.1.6

One-word reports

“Rock.” “Down.” “Cork, up.”

Try this: Repeat the question as a sentence frame, “The rock…”, and have the child finish it out loud as a whole sentence.

Full sentences everywhere

Insisting on a full sentence during a fast thumbs-up game until the game dies

Try this: Name the moment before it starts, “partner game, short answers” or “class report, whole sentences,” so children learn to switch.

And then, and then, and then

“The rock went down and then and then the spoon and then the cork didn’t and then…”

Try this: Have the child stop at each “and then,” take a breath, and start the next part as a new sentence.

Where SL.1.6 Fits

Comes BeforeSL.K.6Speak loudly and clearly enough to be heard, and say thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
AlongsideL.1.1Produce and expand complete simple and compound sentences, the grammar behind a full spoken answer.SL.1.4Describe people, places, things and events clearly, which full sentences make possible.
Comes NextSL.2.6Use complete sentences to give the detail or explanation a listener asks for.

Practice SL.1.6

Quick Check

  1. Turn this one-word answer into a complete sentence: “Cork.” (The question was: What floated?)
  2. In the strong report, which word joins two ideas that go different ways?
  3. When is a one-word answer fine under SL.1.6?

SL.1.6: Other Names

SL.1.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.6

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.