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Common Core ELA3rd GradeReading: Literature

RL.3.7: What the Pictures Add to the Words

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

All 42 3rd Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

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 character or setting)

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

What RL.3.7 Means in Plain English

Third graders explain what a story’s pictures add that the words don’t. A page may say only that a school has a big door, while the picture draws the girl tiny beside it, gripping her bag, so readers feel how nervous she is.

In 2nd grade (RL.2.7) students used pictures and words to understand characters, setting and plot. Third grade asks how specific picture choices set a mood or point at a character. In 4th grade (RL.4.7) students connect a story’s text to a visual or spoken version of it.

RL.3.7 I Can Statements

  • I can tell what a picture shows that the words do not.
  • I can explain how a picture makes a story feel a certain way.
  • I can explain how a picture shows what a character is like.

RL.3.7 Worked Example

One picture-book spread written out: the words on the page, then what the picture shows.

Read the Story
Words on the page: Amira’s new school had a blue front door and a long, long hall.Picture: The blue door is drawn three times taller than Amira. She stands at the bottom of the page, small, holding both straps of her bag tight.Picture, continued: Behind the door the hall stretches back and back, crowded with kids drawn as fast, blurry streaks of color. Only Amira is drawn still and sharp.Words on the next page: Amira went inside.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: The words only say the school had a blue door and a long hall. What do the pictures add?
Not Yet“The picture shows a school with a blue door and lots of kids.”It lists what is in the picture, and the words already said most of it. It never says what the picture adds about Amira or how the page feels.
Meets the Standard“The pictures show that Amira feels small and nervous, which the words never say. The door is ‘three times taller than Amira,’ and she is ‘holding both straps of her bag tight.’ The other kids are ‘fast, blurry streaks of color,’ but ‘Only Amira is drawn still and sharp,’ so the school feels huge and rushed and she feels alone. That makes ‘Amira went inside’ sound brave.”It names specific picture choices (size, a tight grip, blur) and says what each one adds to the character and the mood.
Question Stems to Use
What does this picture show that the words don’t say?How does the picture make this page feel?Why might the artist draw the character this big or this small?What do the colors or lines tell you about the setting?How would this page feel with no picture?

Common Mistakes with RL.3.7

Listing what is in the picture

“There’s a door, a hall and some kids.”

Try this: Follow every picture description with “So what does that add?” until the answer names a feeling, a mood or a trait.

Skipping the pictures in chapter books

Reads the words and turns the page without looking

Try this: Pause on one illustration per read-aloud and ask students what they would lose if that picture were torn out.

Missing size, color and placement

Notices the kids but not that Amira is the only one drawn sharp

Try this: Have students check every illustration through three lenses: size, color and placement. Ask what each choice tells about the character.

Where RL.3.7 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.2.7Use pictures and words together to understand characters, setting or plot.
AlongsideRI.3.7Use maps, photos and diagrams together with the words of a nonfiction text.RL.3.3Describe a character’s traits and feelings.
Comes NextRL.4.7Connect a story’s text to a visual or spoken version of it.

Practice RL.3.7

Quick Check

  1. How tall is the door compared with Amira?
  2. How does the artist draw the other kids in the hall?
  3. Which picture detail shows that Amira is nervous?

RL.3.7: Other Names

RL.3.7CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.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.