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Common Core ELAGrades 9–10Speaking & Listening

SL.9-10.3: Evaluate a Speaker’s Reasoning and Rhetoric

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.3 · Cluster: Comprehension and Collaboration.

Spin for a Fallacy SpotterAll 41 Grades 9–10 ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 9-10, Speaking & Listening · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What SL.9-10.3 Means in Plain English

Ninth and tenth graders name where a speaker stands and what that stake might color, test whether the reasons reach the claim, check the evidence, and notice the rhetoric: loaded words, fear, a show of numbers. Then they name the fallacy or the stretched statistic.

Eighth graders (SL.8.3) mapped a speaker’s claims and caught evidence that was beside the point. Grades 9 and 10 add the speaker’s point of view and rhetoric, plus evidence that is exaggerated or distorted. In grades 11 and 12 (SL.11-12.3), students also judge premises, word choice, emphasis and tone.

SL.9-10.3 I Can Statements

  • I can name a speaker’s point of view and what shapes it.
  • I can test whether a speaker’s evidence is accurate or stretched.
  • I can name a fallacy like a false choice or a straw man.

SL.9-10.3 Worked Example

A school board member’s speech and two evaluations of it, one that judges the cause and one that judges the argument.

Prompt

Evaluate this speech to the school board. Ms. Varga, who founded the county’s youth volunteer network, says: “Every graduate should complete 40 hours of community service. Students who volunteer are twice as likely to go to college. I have never met a successful adult who didn’t volunteer as a teenager. The people against this just want kids on the couch. Either we require service, or we raise a generation that cares about no one but itself.” Her handout cites a survey of students who chose to volunteer; it did not study required service.

Not YetMs. Varga is right that volunteering is good, and she obviously cares a lot about kids, so her speech is convincing. The college statistic is really strong. I think the board should pass it.It judges the cause, not the argument. Passion stands in for proof, the statistic is accepted as stated, and the false choice and the jab at opponents go unnoticed.
Meets the StandardMs. Varga’s point of view matters: she runs the volunteer network, so required hours would grow her program. That doesn’t make her wrong, but it’s worth knowing. Her strongest evidence is distorted. The survey compared students who chose to volunteer with students who didn’t, so it can’t show that required hours would send anyone to college. “Every successful adult I’ve met volunteered” is one person’s circle, a hasty generalization. Saying opponents want kids on the couch is a straw man, and “either we require it or we raise a selfish generation” is a false choice. The rhetoric runs on fear more than on reasons.It names her stake without dismissing her for it, shows how the statistic is stretched beyond what the survey studied, and names three fallacies: a hasty generalization, a straw man and a false choice.
Moves to Use
Name the speaker’s point of view and what they stand to gain.Restate the claim, then test each reason and piece of evidence.Ask what a statistic actually measured, and whether the claim goes beyond it.Name each fallacy precisely, and say where the reasoning breaks.

Common Mistakes with SL.9-10.3

Dismissing the speaker instead of the argument

“She runs a volunteer group, so ignore everything she says,” which is its own fallacy

Try this: Have students state the speaker’s stake in one sentence, then evaluate the argument as if a stranger had made it.

Fallacy name-dropping

“That’s a slippery slope” tagged onto any prediction, with no word on which step fails

Try this: Require every fallacy label to come with one sentence showing exactly where the reasoning breaks in this speech.

Taking a number on trust

A statistic quoted in a speech is copied into notes as fact, with no question about where it came from

Try this: Teach three questions for every number: who measured it, what exactly was measured, and does the claim go further?

Where SL.9-10.3 Fits

Comes BeforeSL.8.3Map a speaker’s argument, judge the reasoning and evidence, and catch evidence that is beside the point.
AlongsideRI.9-10.8Evaluate a written argument’s reasoning and evidence, and flag false statements and fallacies.RI.9-10.6Analyze how an author’s rhetoric advances their point of view or purpose.
Comes NextSL.11-12.3Assess a speaker’s stance, premises, word choice, points of emphasis and tone.

Practice SL.9-10.3

Random Name PickerFree ToolSpin for a speaker to give a one-minute argument with one planted fallacy, then spin for the listener who has to name it and say where it breaks.SpeakerFallacy spotter
Spin a Name

Quick Check

  1. What is Ms. Varga’s point of view, and why does it matter?
  2. Why is the college statistic distorted evidence?
  3. Which fallacy is “Either we require service, or we raise a generation that cares about no one but itself”?

SL.9-10.3: Other Names

SL.9-10.3CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.3

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.