Skip to main content
Common Core ELAKindergartenSpeaking & Listening

SL.K.2: Ask and Answer Questions About a Read-Aloud

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.2 · Cluster: Comprehension and Collaboration.

Pick Who AnswersAll 41 Kindergarten ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

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

What SL.K.2 Means in Plain English

Kindergartners listen to a book, a short talk or a video, then show they followed it by answering and asking questions about the important details. After a read-aloud about seeds, a child says a seed needs rain and warm sun, then asks what sprouts means.

Asking for clarification is the half teachers skip, and five-year-olds rarely admit they are lost unless someone models it. In 1st grade (SL.1.2) questions about key details continue with longer read-alouds, and questions about a speaker’s words get a standard of their own (SL.1.3).

SL.K.2 I Can Statements

  • I can answer questions about a book my teacher reads.
  • I can ask a question about the important parts.
  • I can say when I do not understand a word.

SL.K.2 Worked Example

A four-sentence read-aloud, one question, and two answers, and only one of them shows the child was listening.

Prompt

The teacher reads: “A seed sleeps under the dirt. Rain soaks in, and the sun warms the ground. The seed wakes up and sprouts. A tiny green shoot pokes out.” Then asks: What does a seed need to start growing? Is there a word you did not understand?

Not Yet“A flower!”A guess from the pictures or from home, not a detail from the words the class just heard, and the child lets sprouts go by without asking what it means.
Meets the Standard“Rain and sun. The rain soaks in and the sun makes it warm. What does sprouts mean? Is it when the green part comes out?”Two key details, both from the read-aloud, then a question about the one word the child did not know. That second half, requesting clarification, is what the standard adds to plain answering.
Moves to Use
Listen for the important parts: who, what, where and why.Answer with something the book really said.Ask what a word means when you do not know it.Ask a who, what or why question about the book.

Common Mistakes with SL.K.2

Answering from the pictures or from home

“A flower!” after a read-aloud about what seeds need

Try this: Ask “What did the book say?” and reread the sentence, so the answer comes from words the class just heard.

Nodding through a word they don’t know

Nobody asks about sprouts, and the next question shows half the carpet never understood it

Try this: Model it yourself mid-read: stop, say “Hmm, sprouts, I’m not sure what that means,” and praise the first child who does the same.

Questions that are really stories

Hand up for a question: “My grandma has a garden and she grows tomatoes.”

Try this: Teach two hand signals, one for a question and one for a connection, and take the questions first.

Where SL.K.2 Fits

Comes BeforeSL.K.1Follow the talk rules, listening and taking turns, that make a question-and-answer time work.
AlongsideRL.K.1Ask and answer questions about key details in a story, with prompting and support.RI.K.1The same questions about an informational book, like one about frogs.
Comes NextSL.1.2Ask and answer questions about key details in a read-aloud or other media in 1st grade.

Practice SL.K.2

Random Name PickerFree ToolSpin for who answers after each page, so every child, not just the first hand up, has to follow the read-aloud.Read-aloudAfter each pageWhole class
Spin a Name

Quick Check

  1. In the read-aloud, what two things help the seed start to grow?
  2. Which part of the strong response asks for clarification?
  3. Why does “A flower!” not show understanding of the read-aloud?

SL.K.2: Other Names

SL.K.2CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.2

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.