Unit Plan 7 (Grade 7 ELA): Central Idea and Objective Summary
Grade 7 ELA unit: students determine central ideas, select key supporting details, and craft objective summaries without opinions. They analyze visuals and media to clarify meaning, integrate evidence accurately, and explain how multimodal elements reinforce informational text understanding.
Focus: Determining central idea; summarizing without opinion
Grade Level: 7
Subject Area: English Language Arts (Reading Informational; Speaking & Listening—Media)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
Informational texts often bury the central idea under examples, anecdotes, and statistics. This week, students learn to separate topic vs. central idea, select key details that genuinely support that idea, and craft an objective summary—neutral, concise, and complete. They’ll also analyze media/visuals (charts, short video clips) to see how multimodal information clarifies central ideas.
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…
- Determine the central idea of an informational text and analyze its development across sections; produce an objective summary (RI.7.2).
- Cite several pieces of evidence (textual and visual) to support identification of central idea and key details (RI.7.1).
- Analyze main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media (visuals, quantitative displays, short audio/video) and explain how they clarify the topic (SL.7.2).
Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 7
- Reading Informational 7.2 (RI.7.2): Determine central idea; analyze development; provide an objective summary.
- Reading Informational 7.1 (RI.7.1): Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis and inferences.
- Speaking & Listening 7.2 (SL.7.2): Analyze main ideas/supporting details in diverse media and explain how they clarify a topic.
Success Criteria — student language
- I can state the central idea in one precise sentence (not a topic).
- I can select key details that directly support that central idea.
- I can write an objective summary (no opinions/evaluations; whole-text coverage).
- I can explain how a visual or clip helps clarify the central idea.