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Common Core ELA6th GradeReading: Literature

RL.6.2: Theme, Key Details and an Objective Summary

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.2 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

All 41 6th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 6, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RL.6.2 Means in Plain English

Sixth graders name a story’s theme and trace it to the particular details that carry it: a repeated image, a choice, one line of advice. Their summary sticks to what happens. “Ilse was foolish” is a judgment and stays out, while “Ilse’s first canoe leaked” stays in.

In 5th grade (RL.5.2) students found a theme in how characters meet challenges and summarized the story. Sixth grade adds the how: which details convey the theme, and a summary free of opinion. In 7th grade (RL.7.2) students trace how a theme develops across a whole text.

RL.6.2 I Can Statements

  • I can state a story’s theme as a sentence about life.
  • I can show which particular details carry the theme.
  • I can summarize a story without adding my opinions or judgments.

RL.6.2 Worked Example

A folktale whose lesson nobody states outright, so the question asks for the four details that carry it.

Read the Story
On the island where the cedars grew taller than the cliffs, a girl named Ilse asked the old boatwright to teach her. He handed her a block of sandstone and pointed at the first rib.Ilse rubbed it for the time it takes to boil an egg and called it done. She did the same with every board, and her canoe stood finished in four days.On the fifth day she pushed it into the bay. The water found every place she had hurried, and she swam home towing a boat full of sea.The second canoe took her a month. She ran her palm along each board until it felt like the inside of a shell. It floated on the first try, and the boatwright said only, “Now you are fast.”
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What is a theme of this folktale, and which particular details convey it?
Not Yet“The theme is patience. Ilse was lazy and careless at first, but she learned her lesson, which was a good ending.”“Patience” is a topic, no detail is named, and “lazy” and “a good ending” are the reader’s judgments, not the story’s.
Meets the Standard“Rushing a job is the slowest way to finish it. Ilse sands each board briefly and ‘called it done,’ and in the bay ‘the water found every place she had hurried.’ The second canoe takes a month, with each board smoothed ‘until it felt like the inside of a shell,’ and it floats on the first try. The boatwright’s ‘Now you are fast’ turns the lesson around: the careful way was the quick way.”The theme is a full sentence about life, and each detail is chosen for how it carries that idea, ending with the line that states the reversal.
Question Stems to Use
What does the main character want, and what does it cost her?Which detail changes between the beginning and the end?What does this line of dialogue suggest about the theme?Say the theme as advice to someone outside the story.Which sentence in your summary is an opinion? Cut it.

Common Mistakes with RL.6.2

A theme with no details attached

“The theme is to be patient.” with nothing after it

Try this: Require three details after every theme statement, each with a phrase explaining what that detail adds to the lesson.

Judging in the summary

“Ilse was lazy and rushed, which was dumb.”

Try this: Have students underline every adjective in their summary and keep only those the story itself uses about the character.

A detail that doesn’t carry the theme

“The cedars were taller than the cliffs, which shows patience.”

Try this: Ask whether the theme would change if the detail were deleted. If it would not, choose a different detail.

Where RL.6.2 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.5.2Find a theme from how characters respond to challenges, and summarize the text.
AlongsideRL.6.1Cite the lines that carry the theme, stated or implied.RI.6.2Find the central idea of a nonfiction text and summarize it without judgments.
Comes NextRL.7.2Trace how a theme develops over a whole text, and write an objective summary.

Practice RL.6.2

Quick Check

  1. How long does Ilse spend sanding each board of her first canoe?
  2. What happens when Ilse launches the first canoe?
  3. Summarize the folktale in two sentences without opinions.

RL.6.2: Other Names

RL.6.2CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.2

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.