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Common Core ELA1st GradeWriting

W.1.8: Answer a Question from a Trip or a Book

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.8 · Cluster: Research to Build and Present Knowledge.

All 41 1st Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 1, Writing · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What W.1.8 Means in Plain English

The question comes first. First graders answer it from something they lived through or from a book or page the teacher hands them, often both. Asked how a letter reaches Grandma, a child recalls the post office sorting machine and adds a fact from the class book.

Kindergarten (W.K.8) has identical wording, so the growth is in the writing: a 1st grader writes the answer in sentences, not just a labeled drawing. Adult support is still named here. In 2nd grade (W.2.8) it disappears from the standard, and children do more of the gathering themselves.

W.1.8 I Can Statements

  • I can say our question before I start writing.
  • I can use what I saw on our trip to answer it.
  • I can find a fact in a book my teacher gives me.

W.1.8 Worked Example

One class question after a field trip, two answers. Only one uses the trip and the book to answer it.

Prompt

Our question is: How does a letter get from our school to Grandma’s house? Use what you saw at the post office and our book about mail. Write your answer.

Not YetWe went on the bus to the post office. It was fun. I got a sticker.True memories from the trip, but none of them answers the question. The reader still doesn’t know how a letter travels, and nothing comes from the book.
Meets the StandardA letter needs a stamp and an address. At the post office we saw a giant machine sort the letters really fast. Our book says trucks and even planes carry them to the right town. Then a letter carrier puts the letter in Grandma’s mailbox!Every sentence moves the letter one step closer to Grandma, so the whole piece answers the question. The sorting machine comes from the trip, the trucks and planes come from the book, and the writer says which is which.
Moves to Use
Read the question out loud and circle the question word.Think of what you saw on the trip that answers it.Look in the book for one more fact.Tell where you learned each fact: we saw, or the book says.

Common Mistakes with W.1.8

Retelling the trip

“We went on the bus. It was fun. I got a sticker.”

Try this: Reread the question together, then ask “Which part of the trip helps answer that?” and have the child write only that part.

Copying a sentence that doesn’t answer

“The post office has many workers.” copied from the book, true but beside the point

Try this: Have children find one sentence in the book that answers the question, then say it in their own words before writing it down.

An answer nobody can trace

“Birds carry the letters to Grandma.”

Try this: Have children draw a tiny bus beside trip facts and a tiny book beside book facts, and check any fact with neither.

Where W.1.8 Fits

Comes BeforeW.K.8The same wording in kindergarten, where the answer is often a drawing with a sentence dictated or written.
AlongsideSL.1.2Ask and answer questions about key details in a read-aloud or a video, often the provided source here.W.1.2Name a topic, give some facts and close, which is what the answer becomes once it is written up.
Comes NextW.2.8Recall or gather information to answer a question, with adult support no longer named in the standard.

Practice W.1.8

Quick Check

  1. What question is the class answering?
  2. Which fact in the strong response comes from the field trip?
  3. Which fact comes from the book, and how can you tell?

W.1.8: Other Names

W.1.8CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.8

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.