Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or issue under study.
Common Core State Standards, Grade 7, Speaking & Listening · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What SL.7.2 Means in Plain English
Seventh graders take in a news clip, a podcast, a chart or a speech, name its main ideas and the details that hold them up, then explain what each source makes clearer about the topic or text the class is studying. Listing the bars is not analysis.
Sixth graders (SL.6.2) interpret information from different media and explain what it contributes. Seventh grade asks for the main ideas and their supporting details, then what those ideas make clearer. Eighth grade (SL.8.2) asks why it was presented that way, and the motive behind it.
SL.7.2 I Can Statements
I can name the main idea of a video, chart or podcast.
I can point to the details that support each main idea.
I can explain how a source clarifies the topic we’re studying.
SL.7.2 Worked Example
One news clip and one chart from the class’s start-time unit, two responses, and only one finds the idea under the format.
Prompt
The class is studying whether our school should start later. Students watch a three-minute news clip in which a sleep doctor explains that teenagers’ body clocks shift later during puberty, and a principal says attendance rose after her district moved its start to 8:30. Then they look at a bar chart from the district’s sleep survey: school-night sleep falls from about 8.5 hours in 6th grade to about 7 in 10th. Explain the main ideas and how they help with the class’s question.
Not YetThe video had a doctor and a principal talking, and the chart had a bar for each grade. It was about sleep. I think school should start later, because I’m always tired in first period.It describes the formats instead of the ideas, names no supporting detail, and swaps the analysis for a personal opinion. Nothing connects the sources to the start-time question.
Meets the StandardThe clip’s main idea is that tired teenagers aren’t just lazy, because their body clocks really do shift later. The doctor supports that by explaining that the sleep hormone, melatonin, kicks in later at night during puberty. The principal adds real-world evidence: attendance went up when her district started at 8:30. The chart backs the clip with our own district’s numbers, since sleep drops from about eight and a half hours in sixth grade to about seven in tenth. Together they clarify our question: a later start would work with students’ biology, and the need grows as students get older.Each source gets a main idea in the speaker’s own words and the detail that supports it. The chart is read for its pattern, not bar by bar, and the last sentence ties both sources to the class’s question.
Moves to Use
State each source’s main idea in one sentence, in your own words.Name the detail that supports it: an expert’s explanation, a result, a number.Read a chart for its pattern first: what rises, what falls, and by how much.Finish by saying what the sources make clearer about the class’s question.
Common Mistakes with SL.7.2
Describing the format, not the idea
“The video had a doctor, and the chart had blue bars.”
Try this: Ask for one sentence per source that begins “The main idea is…”, followed by one supporting detail with a name or number.
Reading every number, missing the pattern
“Sixth grade is 8.5, seventh is 8.2, eighth is 7.6…” read aloud, bar by bar
Try this: Cover the numbers and ask what the shape of the bars shows, then have students pick the one number that proves it.
A summary that never comes back to the unit
An accurate retelling of the clip that never mentions the start-time question
Try this: Close every media response with the stem “This makes our question clearer because…” and have partners check that it names the question.
Jeopardy Game MakerFree ToolA review board with one category per source in the unit (the clip, the chart, the podcast), where every question asks for a main idea or the detail behind it.One category per sourceMain idea or detailBig screen
Classroom TimerFree ToolPause after each clip and run a 90-second countdown for partners to agree on its main idea and the detail that supports it.90-second pair talkAfter each clip
In the strong response, what is the clip’s main idea, and what detail supports it?
Teenagers’ body clocks really do shift later. The doctor supports it by explaining that melatonin kicks in later at night during puberty.
What does the chart add that the clip does not?
Numbers from the class’s own district: sleep drops from about eight and a half hours in sixth grade to about seven in tenth.
Why does the weak response fall short of SL.7.2?
It describes the formats and gives an opinion, but names no main idea, no supporting detail, and nothing about how the sources clarify the start-time question.