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Common Core ELA5th GradeReading: Informational

RI.5.2: Find Two or More Main Ideas and Summarize

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.2 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

All 43 5th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 5, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.5.2 Means in Plain English

Fifth graders learn that one nonfiction text can carry more than one main idea, find each one, and sort the key details under the idea they support. A coral reef article might explain how reefs are built and why warm water threatens them. The summary covers both.

In fourth grade (RI.4.2) students found a single main idea and summarized. Fifth grade expects them to notice when an article shifts to a second idea. Sixth grade (RI.6.2) moves to a central idea traced through particular details, and a summary kept free of personal opinion.

RI.5.2 I Can Statements

  • I can find two or more main ideas in one nonfiction text.
  • I can sort key details under the main idea each one supports.
  • I can write a summary that includes every main idea.

RI.5.2 Worked Example

This passage changes direction halfway through, and the weak answer notices only one of its halves.

Read the Story
A coral reef looks like rock, but animals built it. A reef is made by colonies of tiny, soft animals called coral polyps, many no bigger than a pencil eraser.Each polyp builds a hard cup of limestone around its body. When a polyp dies, its cup stays behind, and new polyps grow on top. Over thousands of years, the cups pile up into a reef.Tiny algae live inside the polyps. The algae use sunlight to make food and share it with the coral, and they give the reef its colors.When the ocean stays too warm for too long, the corals push the algae out and turn white. Scientists call this bleaching. If the water cools in time, the algae can return, but if it stays warm, the coral can starve.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: This passage has two main ideas. What are they, and which details support each one?
Not Yet“The main idea is that warm water is killing coral reefs.”It takes one idea from the last paragraph and overstates it, since the text says bleached coral can recover. The first half, how polyps build a reef, is left out entirely.
Meets the Standard“One main idea is that tiny animals build reefs slowly: each polyp makes a limestone cup, and over thousands of years the cups pile up. The other is that corals depend on algae, and warm water can break that partnership: the algae share their food, but when the water stays warm the corals push them out and can starve.”Two ideas, each in a sentence of its own, and every detail sits under the idea it supports. Together they make a summary of the whole passage.
Question Stems to Use
Does the passage change topics partway through? Where?What is the first main idea? What is the second?Which details go with which idea?Does your summary include every main idea?Which detail could you cut without losing a main idea?

Common Mistakes with RI.5.2

Stopping at the first main idea

“Coral reefs are made by tiny animals.” and nothing about the algae or bleaching

Try this: Have students write a one-line gist after each paragraph, then group the gists that match. Two groups mean two main ideas.

Details under the wrong idea

“The algae give the reef its colors” listed as support for how reefs are built

Try this: Give each main idea its own box and ask, for every detail, which box it explains before anyone writes it down.

A summary that covers only one half

A summary that retells the bleaching paragraph and skips how reefs are built

Try this: Require one sentence per main idea in the summary, then let students add a detail to each sentence if room allows.

Where RI.5.2 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.4.2Find one main idea, explain how key details support it, and summarize the text.
AlongsideRL.5.2Find a story’s theme from its details and summarize it, the literature side of the same skill.W.5.2Group related information when writing to inform, the same sorting done in reverse.
Comes NextRI.6.2Find a central idea, show how particular details convey it, and summarize without personal opinions.

Practice RI.5.2

Quick Check

  1. What are the two main ideas of the coral reef passage?
  2. Which detail supports the idea that reefs take a very long time to build?
  3. According to the passage, can a bleached coral recover? Explain.

RI.5.2: Other Names

RI.5.2CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.2

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.