CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.7
The Standard
Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Literature
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students examine how images, color, layout, sound, music, narration, and movement affect a literary work. They explain how those choices shape meaning, tone, or artistic impact.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students point to a specific choice, such as color, framing, music, narration, or layout. They connect that choice to a text detail and clearly explain its effect.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may only describe what they see or hear instead of explaining its effect. They may confuse tone with their own mood or assume visuals simply repeat the words.
How to Assess It
- Show a short illustrated passage or one-minute fiction clip. Ask: “Name one visual or sound choice, then explain how it shapes meaning or tone.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups a poem, markers, and paper to create one illustrated page, then label two choices and their intended effects.
Compare two illustrations of the same folktale scene and write which better matches the text’s tone, using two details.
Play Feature and Effect Match with cards showing choices like dark colors, close-ups, silence, or fast music, then require oral justifications.
Compare a printed scene with its audiobook version, then recommend one for the school library based on how narration changes the experience.
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Printable RL.5.7 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.7, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetLearning progression
Where This Standard Sits
See the whole path on the Reading: Literature progression map.
Before This Standard
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What This Unlocks
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Related Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.7
Compare and contrast a text to an audio, video, or multimedia version of the text, analyzing each medium's portrayal of the subject (e.g., how the delivery of a...
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.5
Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.2
Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify ...
- 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...
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