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Common Core ELA1st GradeReading: Informational

RI.1.7: Use Pictures and Details to Describe Key Ideas

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.7 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 41 1st Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 1, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.1.7 Means in Plain English

First graders put a nonfiction book’s pictures and its words together to explain what it teaches. A diagram of a cactus shows a fat stem and roots spread wide, and the words say the stem holds water, so children can describe how a cactus lives with little rain.

In kindergarten (RI.K.7) children matched a picture to the words it goes with, and RI.1.6 has them sort facts by where they came from. Here they combine both sources into one description. In 2nd grade (RI.2.7) they explain what a diagram or photo adds.

RI.1.7 I Can Statements

  • I can look at a picture to learn about a big idea.
  • I can use the words and the picture together.
  • I can explain a big idea with facts from both.

RI.1.7 Worked Example

A five-line text about how a cactus lives in the desert, its labeled diagram described in place, one key-idea question, and two answers.

Read the Story
A cactus can live in the desert, where it hardly ever rains.Diagram: a cactus cut in half. Labels point to the sharp spines, the thick green stem full of water, and the roots spreading out wide just under the sand.When rain comes, the wide roots soak up water fast, before the sun dries it up.The thick stem stores the water, so the cactus can drink from it for weeks.The sharp spines keep thirsty animals from biting into the stem.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: Use the diagram and the words. How can a cactus live where it hardly ever rains?
Not Yet“It has spikes.”The spines are the first thing anyone notices in the diagram, so the child names them. But naming a part is not describing an idea, and the answer says nothing about water, which is what the question is about.
Meets the Standard“Its roots spread out wide to catch the rain fast. Then its fat stem holds the water for a long time, and the spines keep animals from eating it.”Where the roots sit and how fat the stem is come from the diagram, and what each part does comes from the words. Together they describe the key idea: a cactus is built to catch and save water.
Question Stems to Use
What does the picture show?Which words go with this part of the picture?What does this part do? How do you know?What big idea do the picture and the words teach together?Point to the part of the picture that proves it.

Common Mistakes with RI.1.7

Listing labels without the idea

“Spines, stem, roots.”

Try this: After each label, ask “What does this part do?” and find the sentence that tells, until the parts add up to one idea.

Using only the words

An answer that never mentions the diagram, though only the diagram shows the roots sit just under the sand

Try this: Ask “What does the diagram show that the words do not?” and have children point before they answer.

Describing the picture instead of the idea

“It’s green and it’s cut in half.”

Try this: Reread the question’s focus, how a cactus gets by without rain, then ask which parts of the picture help answer it.

Where RI.1.7 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.K.7Describe how a picture and the text it sits beside go together, with the teacher’s prompting.
AlongsideRI.1.6Tell which facts come from the pictures and which come from the words.SL.1.5Add drawings or other visuals to a description to make ideas clearer.
Comes NextRI.2.7Explain how images such as a diagram show how something works and add to the text.

Practice RI.1.7

Quick Check

  1. Why does a cactus need to save water?
  2. What does the diagram show about the roots?
  3. What do the spines do?

RI.1.7: Other Names

RI.1.7CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.7

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.