CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.7
The Standard
Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Literature
What This Standard Means
Students need to use both pictures and words to understand a story. They should notice what illustrations show about characters, setting, feelings, actions, and events. They also need to explain how the pictures and text work together, not just describe one or the other.
Mastery looks like a student saying, “The words say she walked slowly, and the picture shows her looking sad, so I think she feels lonely.” Students often get stuck by only naming what they see in the picture, or by ignoring the picture after reading the words.
Ways to Teach It
- Give pairs a picture book page with sticky notes, and have them label one detail from the words and one from the illustration.
- Ask students to write: What did the picture help you understand that the words did not say directly?
- Show one page and ask students to answer: What do we know about the character, setting, or plot from both sources?
- Have students compare a storybook page to a comic strip panel and name how pictures help readers follow the story.
Plan a Lesson for CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.7
Generate a complete lesson plan aligned to this standard, with objectives, activities, and materials. Free, no account needed.
Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7
Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, an...
- 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.