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Common Core ELA5th GradeReading: Literature

RL.5.7: How Visuals and Multimedia Add Meaning

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 43 5th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

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, Grade 5, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RL.5.7 Means in Plain English

Fifth graders explain what pictures, color, sound and layout add to a story that the words alone don’t, whether it changes the meaning, the mood or the beauty. A caption may say a girl missed her bus while warm colors in the last panel show she is safe.

In 4th grade (RL.4.7) students matched a story’s text to a visual or spoken version of it. Fifth grade asks what those elements add, in graphic novels, filmed myths and recorded poems. In 6th grade (RL.6.7) students compare reading a story with watching or hearing it performed.

RL.5.7 I Can Statements

  • I can explain what a picture shows that the words do not.
  • I can describe how color, size or sound changes a story’s mood.
  • I can tell how the visuals add to a story’s meaning.

RL.5.7 Worked Example

A graphic novel page written out panel by panel. The words alone tell one story, and the pictures tell a warmer one.

Read the Story
Panel 1 (wide, all in cold blues): A girl in a raincoat waits alone at a bus stop. Caption: “The last bus had gone.”Panel 2 (close-up): Her face under the streetlight. She is not crying. She is checking her watch.Panel 3 (wide): Yellow headlights flood the street. A speech bubble from the car: “Sorry I’m late, kiddo!”Panel 4 (small, no words, all in warm oranges): Two hands, one large and one small, held up to the car’s heater.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: The only caption says “The last bus had gone.” What do the pictures add to the meaning and mood?
Not Yet“The pictures show a girl at a bus stop, and then a car picks her up.”It retells what the panels show but never says what they add. The colors, the close-up and the silent last panel go unmentioned.
Meets the Standard“The caption sounds lonely, but the pictures change the mood. Panel 1 is ‘all in cold blues,’ yet the close-up shows ‘She is checking her watch,’ so she expects someone. The last panel has no words: the color turns to ‘warm oranges’ and a large hand and a small hand share the heater. The pictures say she is safe and cared for.”It names specific visual choices (color, a close-up, a wordless panel) and says what each adds that the caption never states.
Question Stems to Use
What does this picture show that the words don’t say?How do the colors change from the first panel to the last?Why might the artist make this panel bigger, smaller or wordless?How would the story feel without the pictures?What do the music, sound or narration add in the video version?

Common Mistakes with RL.5.7

Describing instead of explaining

“There is a car and two hands.”

Try this: Ask “What does this picture make you feel or understand that the words don’t?” after every description a student gives.

Reading only the words

Reads the caption and the speech bubble, then calls the story “sad”

Try this: Cover the words and have students tell the story from the panels alone, then compare that version with the captions.

“It makes it more interesting”

“The pictures make the story more interesting.”

Try this: Ban the word interesting for this task and require a named element, such as color, size, angle or sound, plus its effect.

Where RL.5.7 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.4.7Connect a story’s text to a visual or spoken version, finding where each follows the text.
AlongsideSL.5.5Add graphics and sound to their own presentations when they help.SL.5.2Summarize information shown in a video, a chart or a talk.
Comes NextRL.6.7Compare reading a story, play or poem with hearing or watching a version of it.

Practice RL.5.7

Quick Check

  1. What do the words in Panel 1 tell you?
  2. How do the colors change from Panel 1 to Panel 4?
  3. Why might the artist leave Panel 4 without words?

RL.5.7: Other Names

RL.5.7CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7

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.