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Common Core ELA3rd GradeReading: Informational

RI.3.7: Use Maps and Photos with the Words

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.7 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 42 3rd Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

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, and how key events occur).

Common Core State Standards, Grade 3, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.3.7 Means in Plain English

Third graders read the pictures in nonfiction as closely as the words and join the two to explain where, why and how events happened. In a text on Lewis and Clark, the map shows where the river trip ended, and a photo shows why horses were needed.

Second graders (RI.2.7) explained how a diagram or picture helps clarify a text. Third grade asks students to combine the image and the words into one answer. Fourth grade (RI.4.7) adds charts, graphs, timelines and interactive web features.

RI.3.7 I Can Statements

  • I can find facts in a map or photo, not just the words.
  • I can use a map key to explain where something happened.
  • I can join a picture and the words to explain why.

RI.3.7 Worked Example

The words say the explorers got horses but never say why they needed them, and the map and photo hold the rest of the answer.

Read the Story
Words: In 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out from St. Louis to explore the West and find a way to the Pacific Ocean. They traveled up the Missouri River in a keelboat and canoes.Words: A young Shoshone woman named Sacagawea joined them, carrying her baby son. In August 1805, the group met a band of Shoshone people, and their chief turned out to be Sacagawea’s brother. The Shoshone traded the explorers horses.Map: A red line follows the Missouri River west from St. Louis into the Rocky Mountains, where a star marks Shoshone land. Past the star the line turns dotted, then goes solid again along rivers that lead to the Columbia River and the Pacific. Key: solid line, by water. Dotted line, on foot or horseback.Photo: The mountains the explorers crossed, steep and rocky, covered with snow and thick pine forest, with no flat ground in sight.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: Why did the explorers need horses from the Shoshone? Use the words, the map and the photo.
Not Yet“Sacagawea’s brother was the chief, so the Shoshone gave them horses.”It explains how the explorers got horses, not why they needed them, and everything in it comes from the words. The map key and the photo are never used.
Meets the Standard“The words say they traveled up the Missouri River in a keelboat and canoes. The map shows the river runs into the Rocky Mountains, and right after the star for Shoshone land, the line turns dotted, which the key says means on foot or horseback. The photo shows land no keelboat could cross: steep, rocky mountains covered with snow and forest. So they needed horses to carry their supplies over the mountains.”Each part of the answer names where it came from, and the map key and photo supply what the words leave out: where the river trip ended and what the land ahead looked like.
Question Stems to Use
What does the map show that the words do not?What does the key tell you about the dotted line?Where did this happen? Point to it on the map.What do you notice in the photo? How does it help explain why?Which part of your answer came from the picture, and which from the words?

Common Mistakes with RI.3.7

Skipping the pictures

An answer built only from the paragraphs, with nothing about where the river trip ended

Try this: Ask “What does the map show that the words don’t?” before any writing, and list those facts on the board.

Ignoring the map key

“The red line is where they went,” with no word about solid and dotted

Try this: Teach the map’s parts first: title, key, labels and symbols. Then have students trace the route with a finger while reading the key.

Describing the photo without using it

“There are mountains and snow in the picture.”

Try this: Follow every “I see” with “so that tells me,” linking what is in the photo to a question the text raises.

Where RI.3.7 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.2.7Explain how a specific image, such as a diagram of a machine, helps clarify a text.
AlongsideRL.3.7Explain how a story’s illustrations add to what the words say, such as mood or setting.SL.3.2Find the main ideas and details of information shown visually, with numbers or read aloud.
Comes NextRI.4.7Interpret charts, graphs, diagrams, timelines and interactive web features, and explain what they add to the text.

Practice RI.3.7

Quick Check

  1. How did the explorers travel at the start of the trip?
  2. What does the dotted part of the red line on the map mean?
  3. Why was the Shoshone chief willing to help the explorers, according to the words?

RI.3.7: Other Names

RI.3.7CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.7

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.