Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

This is another standard that is smack dab between the "let's introduce the idea of theme" standard of fifth and sixth grades and the "now you should be able to analyze basic themes like a pro" standard of eighth grade. Basically, students should be able to talk about how a theme shows up throughout a story instead of from a couple scattered scenes (which is what the sixth grade equivalent of this standard asks for). An example of this standard would be asking a seventh grader how the theme of courage is present throughout Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.