LAFS.6.RI.1.2Archived Standard

Determine a 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.
General Information
Subject Area: English Language Arts
Grade: 6
Strand: Reading Standards for Informational Text
Idea: Level 2: Basic Application of Skills & Concepts
Date Adopted or Revised: 12/10
Date of Last Rating: 02/14
Status: State Board Approved - Archived
Assessed: Yes
Test Item Specifications
  • Item Type(s): This benchmark may be assessed using: TM , MS , ST , MC item(s)

  • Assessment Limits :
    Items may ask the student to determine a central idea and how it is conveyed through key details. Central ideas may be explicitly or implicitly stated in the text. Items should focus on specific details used to convey the central idea and not the manner in which the author handles them. Items may ask the student to summarize the text.
  • Text Types :
    Items assessing this standard may be used with one ormore grade-appropriate informational texts. Texts may vary in complexity.
  • Response Mechanisms :
    The Enhanced Item Descriptions section on page 3 provides a list of Response Mechanisms that may be used to assess thisstandard (excluding the Editing Task Choice item type). The Sample Response Mechanisms may include, but are not limited to, the examples below.
  • Task Demand and Sample Response Mechanisms :

    Task Demand

    Determine a central idea that is explicitly or implicitly stated in the text and determine how specific details from the text contribute to how it is conveyed.

    Sample Response Mechanisms

    Selectable Text

    • Requires the student to select a central idea and then to select words or phrases from the text to support the central idea. 
    Table Match
    • Requires the student to complete a table by showing how a central idea is developed through particular details.
    Task Demand

    Provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

    Sample Response Mechanisms

    Multiple Choice

    • Requires the student to select the best objective summary of the text.
    • Requires the student to select a statement that should be included in an objective summary of thetext. 
    Multiselect
    • Requires the student to select multiple statements that should be included in an objective summary of the text. 
    Table Match
    • Requires the student to complete a table that reflects an accurate summary of the text.

Related Courses

This benchmark is part of these courses.
1000000: M/J Intensive Language Arts (MC) (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2018, 2018 - 2022 (course terminated))
1000010: M/J Intensive Reading 1 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2021, 2021 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current))
1000020: M/J Intensive Reading and Career Planning (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2019, 2019 - 2021, 2021 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current))
1001010: M/J Language Arts 1 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current))
1001020: M/J Language Arts 1 Advanced (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current))
1002000: M/J Language Arts 1 Through ESOL (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
1002180: M/J English Language Development (MC) (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2018, 2018 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
1008010: M/J Reading 1 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2021 (course terminated))
1008020: M/J Reading 1, Advanced (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2021 (course terminated))
1009030: M/J Writing 1 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current))
1100000: M/J Library Skills/Information Literacy (MC) (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current))
1700060: M/J Career Research and Decision Making (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2019, 2019 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current))
7810011: Access M/J Language Arts 1  (Specifically in versions: 2013 - 2015, 2015 - 2018, 2018 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
1002181: M/J Developmental Language Arts Through ESOL (Reading) (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))

Related Access Points

Alternate version of this benchmark for students with significant cognitive disabilities.

Related Resources

Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this benchmark.

Lesson Plans

Climate and Careers!:

Students will explore chosen outdoor careers and how the careers connect to certain climates based on temperature and precipitation. The guiding question states "How might you use evidence from weather data and dot plot displays to allow you to identify which location's climate would be best for your career and why?" Students will collect data online and display the data using dot plots on posters with analysis using the mean. Students will engage in collaboration throughout. A power point is included with all necessary resources.

Type: Lesson Plan

Understanding the DNA Replication Process using Reading Strategies:

Students will use reading strategies to help them understand how the DNA replication process works.

Type: Lesson Plan

"Breaking the Code" to Central Idea:

This lesson challenges students to use strategies of "chunking" and "text coding" to identify the central or main idea of passages, both informational and literary. The end result is a written summary that explains the processes they used.

Type: Lesson Plan

Analyzing Central Ideas and Details to Answer a Research Question:

In this lesson, students will formulate a research question, practice analyzing the central ideas and relevant details of informational texts they locate during a partner research activity, and then synthesize this information into an expository paragraph.

Type: Lesson Plan

An Exploration of Text Sets: Supporting all Readers:

In this lesson, students create text sets and use them to practice three strategies for reading for information. Students select a topic they want to explore and work in small groups to compile a set of texts related to their topic. Each group discusses their topic, jotting notes and images on a large piece of paper as they talk. They then explore the texts they have gathered, adding more information to the paper to create a "graffiti board" focusing on their topic. Next, students generate a list of key words they think that they'll find if a text contains specific information that they're looking for. After the teacher models skimming text for key words, students use the strategy on their own text sets. Finally, students are given sustained reading time, followed by writing time without the text, allowing them to put the information they have learned into their own words.

Type: Lesson Plan

I've Got It Covered! Creating Magazine Covers to Summarize Text:

Students can improve their comprehension of content area textbooks by summarizing chapters in the form of magazine covers. The lesson begins by asking students to examine a magazine and discuss the ways in which the magazine cover's headlines and graphics express the main ideas of its articles. They then review a chapter in a content area textbook and use an interactive tool to create a magazine cover that summarizes the textbook information. This process enables students to form connections and create visual representations to share information. Although the focus is on informational texts, this assignment could potentially be expanded to include other types of text as well.

Type: Lesson Plan

Setting A Purpose For Reading Using Informational Text:

Students learn to set a purpose for reading informational text before reading by turning the title and subtitles into questions.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using a Before-Reading Organizer with Informational Text:

Before reading, create a graphic organizer that uses the titles and subtitles of an informational text.

Type: Lesson Plan

Views on Freedom: Part 2 of 3:

In this second part of a three-part unit, students will read and analyze the folktale "The People Could Fly" for its use of figurative language and literary elements using a chart similar to the poetry chart from Lesson #1 (resource ID 43909). Short answer questions have also been included. In the closure activity students will compare and contrast the folktale with a poem they read in the first lesson in the unit as to how each text approaches the topic of freedom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Original Student Tutorial

Robots Come to Life:

Learn to identify the central idea of an informational text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read an article about cutting-edge robots. Using this text, you'll practice identifying important details in the article to help determine the central idea.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Unit/Lesson Sequences

Unit Plan for Tru Confessions: Two Wishes to Accomplish:

Tru Confessions is the story of Tru, a teenager whose brother Eddie has special needs. Tru writes in her journal about her wish to find a cure for Eddie and to have her own television show. In this unit, students will examine factors that influence how families, classmates, and people in the community perceive and interact with children with developmental disabilities as they work to summarize key details and events from the text, analyze ways in which the author unfolds the plot, and explain how the author develops the point of view of the narrator and discuss how the text’s characters change.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

Using "The Bully" by Paul Langan to Teach Tolerance:

This unit plan uses the book "The Bully" by Paul Langan, which is from the Bluford series, to teach tolerance. There are a plethora of resources and activities including graphic organizers, reflective journals, and reader's theater. Students work together to gain an understanding of the effects of bullying and an awareness of this important issue.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

Examining an Autobiography: "The Lost Garden" by Laurence Yep:

This is a sixth grade unit on Laurence Yep's autobiography, The Lost Garden. Students analyze author's purpose and the key characteristics of an autobiography. This unit contains a student packet, pacing guide, and an assessment with answer key and sample student responses. In addition, this unit includes instructional techniques such as a PIES chart, a T chart, and more!

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

Analyzing an Autobiography through "Rosa Parks: My Story":

This sixth grade unit on Rosa Parks is a thorough examination of an autobiographical novel and includes the study of author's purpose, main idea, and fact and opinion. It includes a student packet, graphic organizers, a pacing guide, and a unit assessment with sample responses.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

Biography Project Which Involves Research and Class Presentation:

Set the stage for high-interest reading with a purpose through a biography project. In this lesson, students work together to generate questions they would like to answer about several well-known people, then each student chooses one of these and finds information by reading a biography from the library and doing Internet research. Students create a graphic organizer (a web) to organize the facts they have found and share what they have learned about their subjects through oral presentations. Students evaluate themselves and their classmates by using a rubric during the research and graphic organizer-creation process and by giving written feedback on one another's presentations. Teachers also evaluate the students' presentations with a rubric that is included in the lesson.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

Original Student Tutorials for Language Arts - Grades 6-12

Robots Come to Life:

Learn to identify the central idea of an informational text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read an article about cutting-edge robots. Using this text, you'll practice identifying important details in the article to help determine the central idea.

Student Resources

Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this benchmark.

Original Student Tutorial

Robots Come to Life:

Learn to identify the central idea of an informational text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read an article about cutting-edge robots. Using this text, you'll practice identifying important details in the article to help determine the central idea.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Parent Resources

Vetted resources caregivers can use to help students learn the concepts and skills in this benchmark.