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Common Core ELA3rd GradeSpeaking & Listening

SL.3.3: Ask and Answer Questions About a Speaker

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.3 · Cluster: Comprehension and Collaboration.

Get a Question of the DayAll 42 3rd Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 3, Speaking & Listening · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What SL.3.3 Means in Plain English

Third graders listen to a speaker, a guest, the teacher or a classmate, then answer questions about what was said with the speaker’s own details, in order. When they ask, they start from something the speaker actually said and add why they want to know.

Second graders (SL.2.3) asked and answered questions to clarify and to learn more. Third grade adds elaboration: an answer gives enough detail to be clear, and a question gives enough context to be useful. Fourth grade (SL.4.3) moves to naming the reasons and evidence behind a speaker’s points.

SL.3.3 I Can Statements

  • I can answer a question about a talk with the speaker’s details.
  • I can start my question with what the speaker said.
  • I can add why I’m asking, so the answer helps.

SL.3.3 Worked Example

A dentist’s short explanation, then one student’s answer and follow-up question, said two ways.

Prompt

Dr. Mendez, a dentist, tells the class: “Germs in your mouth eat the sugar left on your teeth and make acid. The acid wears tiny holes in the hard outer layer of your teeth, the enamel. Those holes are cavities.” Then she asks, “Who can tell me what I said about sugar? And what would you like to ask me?”

Not YetSugar is bad for your teeth. How many teeth does a shark have?The answer is true but thin: it skips the germs, the acid and the enamel, which were the whole explanation. The question has nothing to do with what Dr. Mendez said.
Meets the StandardYou said the germs in our mouths eat the sugar that stays on our teeth, and then they make acid. The acid wears little holes in the enamel, the hard outside part, and those holes are cavities. My question is about lunch: if I eat something sweet and can’t brush my teeth, does rinsing my mouth with water help?The answer retells her explanation step by step, in her order, with her word enamel and what it means. The question grows out of exactly that, and the lunch detail tells her what kind of answer would help.
Moves to Use
Answer with the speaker’s details, in the order the speaker gave them.Use the speaker’s key word and say what it means.Start a question with “You said…” so it connects to the talk.Add why you are asking, so the speaker knows what would help.

Common Mistakes with SL.3.3

One-word answers

“What did she say about sugar?” “It’s bad.”

Try this: Ask “How do you know? What did she say first, and then?” until the answer carries the speaker’s steps in order.

Questions that aren’t about the talk

“Do you have a dog?” to a visiting dentist

Try this: Have students jot one thing the speaker said during the talk and build their question from it, starting with “You said…”

A story instead of a question

“My cousin had a cavity once and he had to get a filling and it hurt…”

Try this: Teach the difference between a comment and a question, and save stories for after the speaker has answered the class’s questions.

Where SL.3.3 Fits

Comes BeforeSL.2.3Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says to clarify or learn more.
AlongsideSL.3.1Ask questions to check understanding in a discussion and link comments to others’.SL.3.2Find the main idea and supporting details of a read-aloud or a talk.
Comes NextSL.4.3Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker gives to support particular points.

Practice SL.3.3

Random Name PickerFree ToolAfter a guest speaker or a classmate’s share, spin for who asks the first question and who answers the teacher’s recap question.Ask a questionAnswer the recap
Spin a Name

Quick Check

  1. What three steps from the dentist’s explanation does the strong answer keep?
  2. How does the strong question connect to what Dr. Mendez said?
  3. Turn this into a stronger question for the dentist: “Do you like your job?”

SL.3.3: Other Names

SL.3.3CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.3

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.