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Common Core ELA4th GradeReading: Informational

RI.4.7: Interpret Charts, Diagrams and Timelines

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.7 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 43 4th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 4, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.4.7 Means in Plain English

Fourth graders read the charts, graphs, diagrams, timelines and interactive web features in a text as carefully as the words, then explain what each one adds. A diagram of ocean depths shows what the sentences only hint at: how thin the sunlit top layer really is.

Third grade (RI.3.7) used maps and photographs along with the words to show understanding. Fourth grade brings in charts, graphs and timelines and asks what each one contributes. Fifth grade (RI.5.7) draws on several print and digital sources to answer a question quickly.

RI.4.7 I Can Statements

  • I can explain what a chart, graph or diagram shows.
  • I can find information in a diagram that the words leave out.
  • I can explain how a diagram helps me understand the text.

RI.4.7 Worked Example

The diagram is described in words here, and the weak answer reads its labels back without saying what they add.

Read the Story
Sunlight can travel only so far into the ocean. The deeper you go, the darker the water gets, until there is no sunlight at all.Diagram: a tall column of ocean water, pale blue at the top and black at the bottom, with depths marked down the side. The top band, from the surface to 200 meters, is labeled Sunlight Zone. The band from 200 to 1,000 meters is labeled Twilight Zone: dim blue light, too faint for plants. The band from 1,000 to 4,000 meters is labeled Midnight Zone. A dotted line far down the column marks the ocean’s average depth, about 3,700 meters.Tiny ocean plants and algae need sunlight to make food, so they grow only near the surface. Many fish and other animals crowd in there to feed on them.Deeper down, animals must eat what sinks from above or hunt one another. Many make their own light, flashing in the dark to find food or to signal.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What does the diagram show that the words do not, and how does it help you understand the text?
Not Yet“The diagram shows the Sunlight Zone, the Twilight Zone and the Midnight Zone.”It copies the labels but never says what they add. The reader could have written it without reading a word of the text around the diagram.
Meets the Standard“The words say plants and algae grow only near the surface, but the diagram shows how thin that layer is: 200 meters out of an ocean that is about 3,700 meters deep on average. So most of the ocean is dark, and most deep-sea animals have no plants to eat. That is why the last paragraph says they eat what sinks from above or hunt one another.”The student pulls numbers from the diagram, says what they add to the words and uses them to explain a paragraph that would otherwise be harder to understand.
Question Stems to Use
What does this diagram, chart or timeline show?What do you learn from it that the words don’t say?Which numbers or labels matter most? Why?How does the diagram help you understand this paragraph?Why do you think the author included it?

Common Mistakes with RI.4.7

Reading the labels back

“It shows three zones.”

Try this: Ask “So what?” after every label students read, until they say what the label means for the topic of the text.

Skipping the visual

Students read every sentence and never look at the diagram or the numbers down its side

Try this: Cover the words and have students explain the diagram first, then uncover the text and connect the two.

Treating the diagram as a separate text

Two answers, one about the words and one about the diagram, that never meet

Try this: Give students the frame “The diagram shows…, which helps me understand…” and require it in every answer about a visual.

Where RI.4.7 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.3.7Use maps, photographs and the words of a text together to show understanding.
AlongsideSL.4.2Paraphrase information read aloud or shown in pictures, charts and numbers.W.4.2Write to inform, adding illustrations or diagrams when they help the reader understand.
Comes NextRI.5.7Draw on several print and digital sources to find an answer quickly or solve a problem.

Practice RI.4.7

Quick Check

  1. How deep is the Sunlight Zone, according to the diagram?
  2. Why do tiny ocean plants and algae grow only near the surface?
  3. What does the dotted line on the diagram show, and why does it matter?

RI.4.7: Other Names

RI.4.7CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.7

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.