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

The K–5 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-k-5e-sl-ccr-1

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

  Suggested tag: cc-k-5e-sl-ccr-2

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

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

Note on range and content of student speaking and listening

To build a foundation for college and career readiness, 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. Being productive members of these conversations requires that students contribute accurate, relevant information; respond to and develop what others have said; make comparisons and contrasts; and analyze and synthesize a multitude of ideas in various domains.

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. Digital texts confront students with the potential for continually updated content and dynamically changing combinations of words, graphics, images, hyperlinks, and embedded video and audio.