Common Core ELA7th GradeReading: Informational

RI.7.2: Trace Two or More Central Ideas and Summarize Objectively

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.2 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

The Official Wording

Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 7, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.7.2 Means in Plain English

Seventh graders find two or more central ideas in a nonfiction text and trace how each one grows from the first paragraph to the last. A repair café article might cover the trash it saves and how visitors become fixers, and the summary keeps both, free of opinion.

Sixth graders (RI.6.2) traced one central idea through particular details. Seventh grade adds a second idea and asks how each develops over the whole text, not just where it appears. Eighth grade (RI.8.2) returns to one central idea and its relationship to the supporting ideas.

RI.7.2 I Can Statements

I can find two or more central ideas in one nonfiction text.
I can trace how each central idea develops from beginning to end.
I can write a summary that leaves out my own opinions.

RI.7.2 Worked Example

Both central ideas start in the first two paragraphs and pay off together in the last one; the weak answer keeps one idea and adds a verdict the author never gives.

Read the Story

Three retired neighbors in the town of Ashby set up folding tables in the library basement and called them the Repair Café. Their sign said only: Bring us something broken. On the first Saturday, eleven people came with toasters, lamps and a jacket with a stuck zipper.From that first day, the volunteers kept one rule: the owner sits beside the fixer and holds the screwdriver. Most visitors had never opened the back of a lamp, so they watched how the parts fit together and asked what each one did.The volunteers also weighed everything that left their tables working again. By the end of the first year, the scale had recorded 1,900 pounds of appliances, clothing and bicycles that would otherwise have gone to the landfill.Today, Ashby’s trash hauler hands out the café’s schedule with every bulky-item pickup. And of the twenty volunteers who fix things there now, fourteen first came through the door carrying something broken.

A short passage written for this page.

Question: Name two central ideas of the passage, trace how each one develops, and write an objective summary.

Not Yet“The central idea is that the Repair Café is the best thing that ever happened to Ashby, because it kept 1,900 pounds of junk out of the landfill.”One idea, carried by one number from the third paragraph, plus a judgment (“the best thing”) the author never makes. The idea about visitors learning to fix things is gone, and so is the last paragraph, where both ideas pay off.

Meets the Standard“One central idea is that repairing things keeps them out of the trash: the volunteers weighed everything they fixed, the total reached 1,900 pounds in a year, and now the town’s trash hauler hands out the café’s schedule. The other is that visitors learn to repair by doing it: owners hold the screwdriver from the first day, people who had never opened a lamp see how its parts fit, and fourteen of today’s twenty volunteers started out as visitors. Summary: Volunteers in Ashby started a repair café where owners help fix their own broken things. In its first year it kept 1,900 pounds of goods out of the landfill, and many visitors later became volunteers.”Each idea is followed from its first appearance to the last paragraph, where both pay off. The summary covers both ideas and never says whether the café is a good idea.

Question Stems to Use

What two ideas does the author keep coming back to?Where does each central idea first appear? Where does it end up?Which paragraph develops both ideas at once?Does your summary include every central idea?Is there any word in your summary that shows your opinion?

Common Mistakes with RI.7.2

Spotting one central idea and stopping

“The Repair Café keeps junk out of the landfill.” and nothing about how visitors learn

Try this: Have students jot one phrase per paragraph about what it adds, then sort the phrases into piles. Each pile is a central idea.

Naming ideas without tracing them

Two central ideas listed in a few words each, with no sense of how either grows

Try this: Ask “Where does this idea start, and where does it end up?” and require one detail from the beginning and one from the end.

Opinions sneaking into the summary

“The amazing café is the smartest idea any town ever had.”

Try this: Have partners circle every word in each other’s summary that judges, such as amazing or smartest, and rewrite those sentences neutrally.

Where RI.7.2 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.6.2Find one central idea, show how particular details convey it, and summarize without personal opinions.

AlongsideRL.7.2Trace a theme or central idea across a story or poem and summarize it objectively.RH.6-8.2Find the central ideas of a history source and summarize it apart from prior knowledge or opinions.

Comes NextRI.8.2Trace one central idea and its relationship to the supporting ideas, then summarize objectively.

Practice RI.7.2

Quick Check

What are two central ideas of the Repair Café passage?
Repairing things keeps them out of the landfill, and visitors learn to repair by working beside the volunteers, until many of them become volunteers themselves.
Which paragraph develops both central ideas, and how?
The last one. The trash hauler handing out the café’s schedule completes the landfill idea, and fourteen of the twenty volunteers having started as visitors completes the learning idea.
Why does “The Repair Café is a brilliant idea” not belong in an objective summary?
“Brilliant” is a judgment. An objective summary reports what the text says, such as the 1,900 pounds and the visitors who became volunteers, without the reader’s opinion.

RI.7.2: Other Names

RI.7.2CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.2