Maryland ELA RI.2.2

ELA2nd GradeReading Informational Text

The Standard

Identify the main topic of a multi paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs or sections within the text.

Maryland College and Career Ready Standards for English Language Arts (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students read a nonfiction text with several paragraphs and name what the whole text is about. They also tell what each paragraph or section is mostly about.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can say a whole passage is about bees, while one paragraph focuses on what bees eat. They point to details that support each answer.
Common Misconceptions: Students may name one fact, such as “bees make honey,” as the topic of the whole text. They may give every paragraph the same label, even when the paragraphs cover different things.
How to Assess It: Hand out a three-paragraph bee passage with paragraphs on homes, food, and jobs. Ask students to write the whole-text topic, paragraph 2’s focus, and one clue for each answer.

Lesson moves

Give pairs three paragraph cards about bee homes, food, and jobs; have them label each card, then name the shared topic.
After reading a short frog article, ask: How is the whole text’s topic different from the habitat paragraph’s focus?
Play Topic Match with cards labeled whales, whale food, whale calves, and whale movement; students sort the narrower cards under the whole-text topic.
Read a three-paragraph school newsletter about the garden, covering planting, watering, and harvesting; label the whole topic and each paragraph’s focus.

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