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Common Core ELA6th GradeSpeaking & Listening

SL.6.6: Adapt Your Speech and Use Formal English

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.6 · Cluster: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas.

Get a QuestionAll 41 6th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grade 6 Language standards 1 and 3 for specific expectations.)

Common Core State Standards, Grade 6, Speaking & Listening · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What SL.6.6 Means in Plain English

Sixth graders shift how they speak for a science fair judge, a class debate, a lab partner or a younger reading buddy. When the task calls for formal English, they use complete sentences, correct pronouns (“Jayden and I tested,” not “me and Jayden”) and a steady, serious tone.

Fifth graders (SL.5.6) used formal English when the task and situation called for it. Sixth grade expects command of it, tying spoken English to the pronoun rules of L.6.1 and the consistent style and tone of L.6.3. Seventh grade (SL.7.6) adds grade 7 rules like fixing dangling modifiers.

SL.6.6 I Can Statements

  • I can tell when a setting calls for formal English.
  • I can use correct pronouns and complete sentences when I present.
  • I can keep a serious tone from my first sentence to my last.

SL.6.6 Worked Example

A judge’s question at the science fair, answered twice. Both answers describe the same experiment, but only one fits the room.

Prompt

You’re presenting your science fair project to a panel of judges. One judge asks, “How did you test your idea?” Answer her.

Not YetOkay so me and Jayden basically got like six plants and stuff, and we gave some of them coffee instead of water? And the coffee ones were lowkey dying by day five, which was honestly kind of sad, lol.That’s how friends trade news at lunch, and it works there. To a judge, “me and Jayden” breaks pronoun case, the fillers bury the method, and the “lol” undercuts a serious answer.
Meets the StandardJayden and I set up six bean plants under the same lamp. We watered three with plain water and three with cooled coffee, the same amount each day, and measured every plant each morning for ten days. By day five the coffee plants had started to droop, and by day ten all three had stopped growing.“Jayden and I” puts the pronoun in the subject case. Each sentence gives one step of the method in order, and the tone stays even from the first word to the last, which is what a judge expects.
Moves to Use
Size up the setting first: who is listening, and how formal do they expect you to be?Use subject pronouns as subjects: Jayden and I, she and I.Swap fillers like basically, like and and stuff for the actual detail.Keep one tone to the end, with no joke tacked on.Switch back to casual talk with your lab partner, where it fits.

Common Mistakes with SL.6.6

Formal start, casual finish

“Good morning, judges. Our project tested… and yeah, it got kind of wild.”

Try this: Record a practice run, then have the student mark the exact sentence where the tone slipped and rehearse from that point.

Pronoun case that slips in speech

“Me and her collected the data.”

Try this: Teach the drop test: remove the other person, and if “me collected the data” sounds wrong, switch to “she and I.”

Formal for every listener

A student answers a second grader’s question about the plants as if the judges were listening

Try this: Role-play one answer for a judge, a classmate and a second grader, then list which word choices changed and why.

Where SL.6.6 Fits

Comes BeforeSL.5.6Use formal English when the task and situation call for it, and casual talk when they don’t.
AlongsideL.6.1Put pronouns in the right case and fix shifts and vague pronouns, in speech as in writing.L.6.3Vary sentence patterns and keep style and tone consistent.
Comes NextSL.7.6Adapt speech to more contexts, held to the grade 7 language standards.

Practice SL.6.6

Random Name PickerFree ToolFill the wheel with listeners (a science fair judge, a reading buddy, a debate opponent, a lab partner) and have each student answer the same question for whoever comes up.ListenersSame questionWhole class
Spin the Wheel

Quick Check

  1. Which pronoun error appears in the weak answer, and how is it fixed?
  2. Name two words or phrases that make the weak answer casual.
  3. Where would the casual answer be the right way to talk?

SL.6.6: Other Names

SL.6.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.6

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.