Common Core LiteracyGrades 6–8History & Social Studies

RH.6-8.7: Reading Maps and Charts with the Text

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

The Official Wording

Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 6-8, Reading: History & Social Studies · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RH.6-8.7 Means in Plain English

Students combine what a chart, graph, photograph, video or map shows with what the written text says, so each fills a gap in the other. A textbook paragraph on the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act makes full sense only once the map shows where those territories lay.

Fifth grade (RI.5.7) drew on several sources to find an answer or solve a problem quickly. Grades 6 to 8 put a visual and a text side by side and build one explanation from both. Ninth and tenth grade (RH.9-10.7) combine charts and research data with written analysis.

RH.6-8.7 I Can Statements

I can read a map’s title, key and labels before using it.
I can explain what a visual adds that the text leaves out.
I can combine a visual and a text into one explanation.

RH.6-8.7 Worked Example

The text gives the law and the map gives its location, and the weak answer never looks at the map.

Read the Story

From a textbook page written for this example: In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It created two new territories and let the settlers there vote on whether to allow slavery, an idea called popular sovereignty.Northern newspapers called the law a betrayal, and within months antislavery voters had begun forming a new political party.The map beside the text, titled “The United States in 1854,” shades free states blue, slave states orange and territories white. A dashed line labelled “Missouri Compromise line, 1820: west of Missouri, no slavery north of 36°30′” runs west from Missouri’s southern border.Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory are outlined in heavy black. Both lie entirely above the dashed line.

A short passage written for this page.

Question: The text says the Act let settlers vote on slavery. Using the map as well, explain why Northerners called the law a betrayal.

Not Yet“Northerners were angry because the law let people vote on slavery, and they did not like slavery.”It uses the text alone. The map shows that both new territories sit above the 1820 line where slavery had been banned, and that is the betrayal: the vote reopened land that was already closed to slavery.

Meets the Standard“The text says settlers could vote to allow slavery, but the map shows where: Kansas and Nebraska both lie entirely north of the dashed 36°30′ line, where the Missouri Compromise had banned slavery since 1820. So the Act let slavery back into land that had been closed to it for 34 years. That is why Northern papers called it a betrayal, something the text never explains on its own.”It names what each source contributes, the vote from the text and the location from the map, and combines them into an explanation neither gives alone.

Question Stems to Use

What does the text tell you that the map does not?What does the map show that the text leaves out?Read the title, key and labels first. What is this map about?Where on the map does the event in the text take place?Put the two together: what do you understand now that you did not before?

Common Mistakes with RH.6-8.7

Treating the visual as decoration

An answer built only from the paragraph, with the map never mentioned

Try this: Require every answer to name one thing learned from the text and one thing learned only from the map or chart.

Skipping the key and labels

“The white parts are free states.”

Try this: Have students read the title, key and every label aloud before saying anything about what the map or chart shows.

Describing both sources without connecting them

“The text is about a law. The map shows states and territories.”

Try this: Ask for one sentence that begins “The text says” and continues “but the map shows,” so students must join the two.

Where RH.6-8.7 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.5.7Draw on several print or digital sources to find an answer or solve a problem.

AlongsideRI.8.7Weigh the pros and cons of presenting a topic in print, video or multimedia.RST.6-8.7Match information stated in words with the same information in a diagram, graph or table.

Comes NextRH.9-10.7Combine charts and research data with written analysis of history.

Practice RH.6-8.7

Quick Check

What does the text say the Kansas-Nebraska Act did?
It created two territories and let the settlers vote on whether to allow slavery, an idea called popular sovereignty.
What does the map show that the text does not?
That both territories lay entirely north of the 36°30′ line, where the Missouri Compromise had banned slavery in 1820.
Using both sources, why did Northerners call the law a betrayal?
It let slavery back into land that had been closed to it since 1820.

RH.6-8.7: Other Names

RH.6-8.7CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7