South Dakota ELA 3.RL.7

ELA3rd GradeReading Literature

The Standard

Explain how the text’s illustrations contribute to the meaning, tone or mood of a text.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students read the words and study the pictures in a story. They explain how a detail in an illustration helps them understand what is happening or how a scene feels.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student points to a detail in the picture and connects it to a detail in the words. They can explain, for example, how dark clouds make a quiet walk feel uneasy.
Common Misconceptions: Students may describe the picture without explaining what it adds to the story. They may say a scene feels scary because it is dark, even when the words and other picture details suggest a peaceful night.
How to Assess It: Show the sentence “Mia waited alone for the bus” beside a drawing of Mia under a dark sky. Ask: “How does the drawing change how this scene feels? Use one detail from the sentence and one from the drawing.”

Lesson moves

Give pairs the line “Leo opened the door” and have them draw a welcoming scene and a spooky scene, labeling the visual clues.
Read “Nia held the crumpled invitation” beside a drawing of Nia smiling; ask how the smile changes what readers think she feels.
Play mood match: post “The door creaked open” beside a sunny doorway and a shadowy doorway; pairs explain which picture feels more threatening.
Let students choose a library book by its cover; after reading page one, they explain whether the cover’s colors match the words’ mood.

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A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 3.RL.7, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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