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Common Core ELAGrades 11–12Reading: Informational

RI.11-12.2: Two Central Ideas That Build on Each Other

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.2 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

All 41 Grades 11–12 ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 11-12, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.11-12.2 Means in Plain English

Juniors and seniors find two or more central ideas in one text and show how they shape each other, then summarize without opinion. A passage on the Green Revolution argues that new wheat staved off famine and that the same farming now drains the wells it needs.

Ninth and tenth grade (RI.9-10.2) followed one central idea as details shaped and refined it. Grades 11-12 track two or more and ask how each changes the meaning of the other. This is the last band of the line, the reading expected of students ready for college and careers.

RI.11-12.2 I Can Statements

  • I can name two central ideas of a text in my own words.
  • I can explain how one central idea changes or deepens another.
  • I can write an objective summary that keeps both ideas in view.

RI.11-12.2 Worked Example

The weak answer finds both central ideas but sets them side by side, and the strong one shows the second growing out of the first.

Read the Story
In the mid-1960s, after failed monsoons, India and Pakistan faced the threat of mass famine, and experts warned that their populations were outrunning the food supply.Both governments turned to short-stemmed wheat bred in Mexico by the American scientist Norman Borlaug. Fed with fertilizer and irrigation, its stiff stalks could carry heavy heads of grain without toppling, and harvests climbed fast enough that the predicted mass famines never came. In 1970, Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize.The same package changed the land. In Punjab, the state that became India’s breadbasket, farmers sank more than a million tube wells to water wheat in winter and rice in summer, and the water table has fallen year after year.Free electricity for farm pumps, meant to keep the harvests growing, also removed any reason to pump less.The success that fed millions is now what puts the next harvest at risk, and any answer will have to protect both the grain and the ground beneath it.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What are the two central ideas of this passage, how do they interact, and how would you summarize the passage objectively?
Not Yet“The passage has two main ideas. First, Borlaug’s wheat stopped famine in India and Pakistan. Second, farming in Punjab is using up its water. Borlaug’s wheat was a great achievement, but farmers should have been more careful.”It lists the ideas as if they were separate topics and misses the passage’s point: the second problem grew out of the first success. The last sentence adds the reader’s own judgment, so the summary is no longer objective.
Meets the Standard“One central idea is that short-stemmed wheat, fertilizer and irrigation lifted harvests enough to prevent the famines experts predicted. A second is that this farming is draining Punjab’s water. They build on each other: the wells and the free power that made the big harvests possible are what keep lowering the water table, so the success itself creates the risk. Summary: High-yield wheat averted famine in South Asia in the 1960s, but the irrigation it depends on has steadily lowered Punjab’s water table, and the passage concludes that future solutions must protect both harvests and water.”It names both ideas, explains the cause that links them, and gives a summary that keeps the author’s conclusion while adding no opinion of its own.
Question Stems to Use
What is the first central idea? What is the second?Does the second idea grow out of the first, push against it, or both?Which sentence connects the two ideas most directly?How would the passage change if one of the ideas were cut?Can you summarize it without words like great, sadly or should?

Common Mistakes with RI.11-12.2

Listing the ideas side by side

“First, wheat stopped famine. Second, Punjab is running out of water.”

Try this: Have students write one sentence joining the two ideas with because, so or but, then test it against the passage.

Reducing the text to one idea

“The passage is about how the Green Revolution hurt the environment.”

Try this: Ask what the passage would lose if either idea were cut, and keep both until students can say how they connect.

Slipping opinion into the summary

“Borlaug’s wheat was a great achievement, but farmers should have been smarter.”

Try this: Strike every word of praise, blame or advice from the summary, then check that the author’s conclusion is still there in neutral words.

Where RI.11-12.2 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.9-10.2Determine one central idea and trace how specific details shape and refine it.
AlongsideRST.11-12.2Determine the central ideas of a science text and restate complex concepts in simpler, accurate terms.RH.11-12.2Summarize a primary or secondary source so the relationships among its key ideas stay clear.
Comes NextW.11-12.2Write explanations of complex topics in which each new idea builds on the one before it.

Practice RI.11-12.2

Quick Check

  1. What are the passage’s two central ideas?
  2. How does the first idea lead to the second?
  3. Why does “Borlaug’s wheat was a great achievement” not belong in an objective summary?

RI.11-12.2: Other Names

RI.11-12.2CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.2

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.