English Language Arts Standards » Anchor Standards » College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening

The grades 6–12 standards on the following pages define what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade. They correspond to the College and Career Readiness (CCR) anchor standards below by number. The CCR and grade-specific standards are necessary complements—the former providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity—that together define the skills and understandings that all students must demonstrate.

Comprehension and Collaboration

• 1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

  Suggested tag: cc-6-12e-sl-ccr-1

• 2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

  Suggested tag: cc-6-12e-sl-ccr-2

• 3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.

  Suggested tag: cc-6-12e-sl-ccr-3

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

• 4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

  Suggested tag: cc-6-12e-sl-ccr-4

• 5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.

  Suggested tag: cc-6-12e-sl-ccr-5

• 6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

  Suggested tag: cc-6-12e-sl-ccr-6

Note on range and content of student speaking and listening

To become college and career ready, students must have ample opportunities to take part in a variety of rich, structured conversations—as part of a whole class, in small groups, and with a partner—built around important content in various domains. They must be able to contribute appropriately to these conversations, to make comparisons and contrasts, and to analyze and synthesize a multitude of ideas in accordance with the standards of evidence appropriate to a particular discipline. Whatever their intended major or profession, high school graduates will depend heavily on their ability to listen attentively to others so that they are able to build on others’ meritorious ideas while expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

New technologies have broadened and expanded the role that speaking and listening play in acquiring and sharing knowledge and have tightened their link to other forms of communication. The Internet has accelerated the speed at which connections between speaking, listening, reading, and writing can be made, requiring that students be ready to use these modalities nearly simultaneously. Technology itself is changing quickly, creating a new urgency for students to be adaptable in response to change.