CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.6
The Standard
Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Informational Text
What This Standard Means
Students need to identify who wrote an informational book and who made the pictures. They also need to say what each person does. The author writes the words and gives information. The illustrator makes pictures that help show or explain the information.
Mastery sounds like, “The author tells facts about frogs. The illustrator shows what frogs look like.” Students often mix up author and illustrator, especially when one person does both jobs. They may also say pictures are only for decoration. Push them to connect a picture to a fact or idea in the text.
Ways to Teach It
- Hands-on activity: Give pairs an informational book and sticky notes labeled author and illustrator to place on the cover and title page.
- Discussion prompt: Ask, “What did the author teach us, and what did the illustrator help us see?” after reading one page.
- Quick assessment: Show a nonfiction cover and ask students to point to the author, illustrator, and explain one job each.
- Real-world connection: Compare a classroom poster with words and pictures, then ask who acted like the author and who acted like the illustrator.
Plan a Lesson for CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.6
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What This Unlocks
Mastery here sets students up for these next.
Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the t...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.6
With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.7
Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a charact...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.7
Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.