Common Core ELA7th GradeReading: Informational

RI.7.5: How the Sections of a Text Build the Whole

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.5 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

The Official Wording

Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.

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

What RI.7.5 Means in Plain English

Seventh graders map how a whole nonfiction article is built, section by section, and say what each major part adds. An article on chimney swifts might explain how they roost, why roosts are vanishing, what a local count shows and what students built, each section setting up the next.

Sixth graders (RI.6.5) explained how one sentence, paragraph or section fits the larger text. Seventh grade looks at the whole design: why these sections, in this order. Eighth grade (RI.8.5) zooms in on a single paragraph and the job each sentence does in sharpening a key idea.

RI.7.5 I Can Statements

I can name the structure an author uses to organize an article.
I can explain what each major section adds to the whole text.
I can explain why the author put the sections in this order.

RI.7.5 Worked Example

The article on chimney swifts has four headed sections, and the first reads like a fun fact until every later section turns out to depend on it.

Read the Story

A Bird That Cannot Perch. The chimney swift spends its days in the air, snapping up insects as it flies. Its feet cannot grip a branch, so at night it clings to the inside wall of a hollow tree or a chimney, braced by the stiff tips of its tail feathers.Chimneys Going Dark. Swifts once roosted mostly in hollow trees, and as forests were cut down, they moved into chimneys. Today many old chimneys are being capped with metal covers or torn down, and a swift cannot get past a cap.The Count Over Ridgeview. Every September, the Ridgeview Bird Club counts the swifts that pour into the old Fenwick School chimney at dusk. In 2015 the club counted about 1,800. Last fall it counted 640.A Tower on the Ballfield. This spring, eighth graders at Ridgeview Middle School built a wooden swift tower beside the ballfield, rough on the inside so the birds can cling. No swifts have moved in yet, and the bird club says a new tower can take a few seasons to be found.

A short passage written for this page.

Question: What does each of the four sections contribute, and why does the author open with how the swift roosts instead of with the falling count?

Not Yet“Section 1 is about how swifts sleep. Section 2 is about chimneys. Section 3 is about a bird count. Section 4 is about a tower.”It turns each heading into a topic and never says what job the section does or how the four connect. The question about the opening goes unanswered.

Meets the Standard“The first section is background, but everything after it depends on one fact: a swift cannot perch, so it has to cling inside a chimney or a hollow tree. That is why the second section, the cause, matters, because a capped chimney leaves the bird nowhere to cling. The third section shows the effect in Ridgeview itself, about 1,800 swifts in 2015 and 640 last fall. The last section offers a solution, a tower rough inside so the birds can cling, and admits that none have moved in yet, so the article ends on a fix that is still unproven. Opening with the count would show a loss with no explanation; opening with the bird’s feet lets each section build on the one before it.”Each section gets a job, not a topic, and together the jobs name the structure: background, cause, effect, solution. The answer explains why the opening comes first by showing that both the cause and the solution depend on the fact it sets up.

Question Stems to Use

What job does this section do: background, cause, effect or solution?What would the reader miss if this section were cut?Why does this section come before that one?Which fact from the first section do the later sections depend on?What overall structure do the headings reveal?

Common Mistakes with RI.7.5

Summarizing sections instead of explaining their jobs

“Section 2 is about chimneys.”

Try this: Give students a short list of jobs, such as background, cause, effect and solution, and have them assign one to every section with a reason.

Ignoring the order

Each section explained on its own, as if the four could be shuffled

Try this: Cut the article apart at the headings, have groups try another order, and ask what the new order does to the meaning.

Reading the headings instead of the sections

An analysis built from the four headings, with nothing from the text under them

Try this: Have students write their own heading for each section after reading it, then compare it with the author’s and explain any difference.

Where RI.7.5 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.6.5Explain how one sentence, paragraph or section fits into a text and moves its ideas forward.

AlongsideRST.6-8.5Analyze how the major sections of a science or technical text build an understanding of the topic.W.7.2Organize informative writing with a clear structure and headings, the same skill from the writer’s side.

Comes NextRI.8.5Analyze one paragraph closely and the role each sentence plays in refining a key idea.

Practice RI.7.5

Quick Check

What job does the section “Chimneys Going Dark” do in the article?
It gives the cause: swifts moved from hollow trees into chimneys, and now old chimneys are being capped or torn down, so the birds are losing places to roost.
What overall structure do the four sections follow?
Background, cause, effect and a solution: a cause-and-effect structure that ends as a problem with a fix not yet proven.
Why does the article begin by explaining that a swift cannot perch?
The later sections depend on it: because a swift must cling inside a chimney or hollow tree, a capped chimney leaves it nowhere to sleep, and the tower is built rough inside so it can cling.

RI.7.5: Other Names

RI.7.5CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.5