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Common Core ELA2nd GradeReading: Informational

RI.2.7: Explain How Images Help a Text

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.2.7 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 40 2nd Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 2, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.2.7 Means in Plain English

Second graders explain what a diagram, photo or map adds to the words of a nonfiction text. A sentence says sitting far from the fulcrum gives more lifting power. The diagram shows a small girl at the very end lifting a big boy, and suddenly the sentence makes sense.

In 1st grade (RI.1.7) children used pictures and details together to describe a text’s key ideas. Second grade asks how one image makes the words clearer. In 3rd grade (RI.3.7) students use maps and photos with the words to explain where, when, why and how.

RI.2.7 I Can Statements

  • I can tell what a diagram shows that the words do not.
  • I can use a picture to understand a hard sentence.
  • I can point to the part of a diagram that matches the words.

RI.2.7 Worked Example

A short text about levers with a labeled diagram, described in the last line, and two answers about what the diagram adds.

Read the Story
A lever is a stiff bar that rests on a point called the fulcrum. Push one end of the bar down, and the other end goes up.A seesaw is a lever. The long board is the bar, and the support in the middle is the fulcrum.The farther you sit from the fulcrum, the more lifting power you have. That is how a small child can lift a bigger one.Diagram: a seesaw with a triangle under the middle labeled fulcrum. A big boy sits close to the triangle on the left. A small girl sits at the far right end. Her end of the board is down and his end is up, with arrows showing which way each end moved.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: How does the diagram help you understand the sentence “The farther you sit from the fulcrum, the more lifting power you have”?
Not Yet“It shows two kids on a seesaw.”That describes the picture, and it is true, but it never connects the picture to the sentence it is there to explain. Any seesaw photo would earn the same answer.
Meets the Standard“The sentence was hard, but in the diagram the big boy sits close to the fulcrum and the small girl sits all the way at the end, and her end is down. So I can see that sitting far out is how she lifts him.”The child matches parts of the diagram to words in the sentence, the fulcrum, near and far, and explains what the picture made clear that the words alone did not.
Question Stems to Use
What does the diagram show that the words do not?Point to the fulcrum in the diagram. Where do the words mention it?Which sentence does this picture help explain?What would be confusing without the diagram?What do the labels and arrows tell you?

Common Mistakes with RI.2.7

Describing the picture instead of explaining it

“It shows two kids on a seesaw.”

Try this: Ask “Which sentence does this picture help?” and have the child read that sentence aloud before talking about the picture.

Ignoring labels and arrows

Looking at the seesaw but never reading the word fulcrum on the triangle

Try this: Have students touch each label and arrow and say what it names or shows before answering any question about the diagram.

Skipping images to finish faster

A child reads every word and turns the page without a glance at the diagram

Try this: Cover the diagram, read the hard sentence, then uncover it and ask what is clearer now than a minute ago.

Where RI.2.7 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.1.7Use a text’s pictures and details together to describe its key ideas.
AlongsideRI.2.5Read captions and other text features that sit beside images.SL.2.5Add drawings or other visuals to a story or recount when they make the ideas clearer.
Comes NextRI.3.7Use maps, photos and the words together to explain where, when, why and how events happen.

Practice RI.2.7

Quick Check

  1. What is the fulcrum on a seesaw?
  2. According to the text, how can a small child lift a bigger one?
  3. In the diagram, where does the big boy sit?

RI.2.7: Other Names

RI.2.7CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.2.7

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.