Add audio recordings and visual displays to presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
Common Core State Standards, Grade 4, Speaking & Listening · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What SL.4.5 Means in Plain English
Fourth graders decide where a sound or a picture would help listeners grasp the main idea of a talk, then add it: a recording of the sound being explained, a labeled diagram, a map, a series of photos. A visual that only decorates the talk does not count.
Third graders (SL.3.5) recorded stories or poems read fluently and added visuals to emphasize facts or details. Fourth grade ties each addition to developing a main idea or theme, and leaves it out when it adds nothing. Fifth grade (SL.5.5) adds multimedia, like graphics and sound, on the same test.
SL.4.5 I Can Statements
I can choose a sound or picture that develops my main idea.
I can explain what my listeners should notice in a visual.
I can leave out pictures that only decorate my talk.
SL.4.5 Worked Example
Two plans for the same talk about spring peepers, and the difference is whether the sound and the picture do any teaching.
Prompt
Your presentation explains how a spring peeper, a frog about the size of a paper clip, makes such a loud call. Plan one recording and one visual, and say how you will use them.
Not YetI’ll start with a frog cartoon dancing across the screen and play some fun music in the background the whole time. At the end I’ll show a photo of a big green bullfrog.The cartoon and the music decorate the talk and compete with the speaker’s voice. The bullfrog photo shows the wrong frog, so the one picture that could have taught something sends the wrong message.
Meets the StandardI’ll start by playing ten seconds of a real peeper chorus I recorded at the pond behind school, then stop it and say, “Every one of those peeps came from a frog the size of a paper clip.” Later, when I explain how they call, I’ll show a labeled diagram of a male peeper with his throat sac puffed up like a bubble. I’ll point to the sac and say, “He fills it with air, and it makes the peep louder.”The recording lets listeners hear how loud the chorus is before the speaker explains it, and stopping it keeps the voice clear. The diagram shows the vocal sac, the part words alone can’t make clear, and the speaker talks about it while it is on screen.
Moves to Use
Ask what listeners need to hear or see to get the main idea.Use a recording when the sound is the topic, and keep it short.Pick a labeled diagram or photo that shows a part words can’t.Point to the visual and say what to notice while it is on screen.Cut anything that only decorates: clip art, background music.
Common Mistakes with SL.4.5
Decoration instead of information
A slide covered in clip art and a title in bubble letters, with nothing a listener could learn from it
Try this: Have students write one sentence for each visual, “This helps listeners understand…”, and drop any visual without one.
Sound that fights the speaker
Music playing under the whole talk, so the back row can’t hear the facts
Try this: Play audio only when it is the evidence, like an animal call, and stop it before the speaker goes on.
The visual nobody explains
A diagram appears for two seconds while the speaker reads from notes, then the slide changes
Try this: Teach the point-and-say move: point at the part that matters, name it, and say what it shows before moving on.