One of the goals of the Russian language course in the primary school is the formation of the communicative literacy. The content of the course should be aimed at understanding the wealth of linguistic means by primary school children; the formation of the ability to detect a violation of linguistic norms and the inadequacy of the linguistic means used in the speech situation; the accumulation of the experience in choosing of linguistic means in accordance with the peculiarities of the speech situation; the creation of oral and written texts that meet the criteria of content, connectivity, compliance with the norms of the Russian literary language. The article considers the classification of exercises that contribute to the formation of communicative literacy. The author gives the examples of exercises where the student acts in different roles: the student is an observer of the speech situation and analyzes the adequacy of the choice of linguistic means; the student is a direct participant in the given speech situation and makes a choice of language facilities; the student is offered to create the speech situation himself, to independently construct an oral and written text.