South Dakota ELA 5.RI.2

ELA5th GradeReading Informational Text

The Standard

Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text using supporting details.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students find at least two big points in an informational text, not just its general topic. They match key facts to each point and write a short summary that covers both.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student names two distinct main ideas and explains how a detail supports each one. Their summary covers both ideas with key facts, without adding opinions or minor details.
Common Misconceptions: Students may name a topic, such as beavers, instead of saying what the text tells them about beavers. They may mistake an interesting fact for a main idea or copy sentences into a summary.
How to Assess It: After reading a short article about how beavers build dams and how dams change streams, give this exit ticket: Name two main ideas, give one supporting detail for each, and summarize the article in three sentences.

Lesson moves

Give pairs a printed beaver article, two sticky notes for main ideas, and four detail strips to sort beneath the matching idea.
Ask students which facts explain dam building and which show changes to streams, then have them defend one choice using the article.
Run a summary relay: teams write a three-sentence summary, swap papers, and cross out minor facts or opinions.
Bring a city recycling flyer; students find the accepted materials and pickup instructions, then summarize both using one detail about each.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 5.RI.2, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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