English · Foundation · Making Meaning in Print · Term 2

Using Pictures to Understand Stories

Students will use illustrations and pictures to help them understand the plot and characters in a story.

• ACARA Content Descriptions
• AC9EFLA07

About This Topic

In Foundation English, using pictures to understand stories aligns with AC9EFLA07 and the Making Meaning in Print unit. Students analyze illustrations for plot clues, such as actions showing sequence or settings. They examine facial expressions to identify character feelings like joy or worry, and use these visuals to predict story events. This builds comprehension by linking images directly to narrative elements.

Visual literacy from this topic supports broader reading skills, including inference and empathy. Students explain how a character's slumped shoulders signal sadness, connecting pictures to emotions and plot progression. Practice with diverse picture books fosters discussions on how illustrations complement text, preparing for independent reading.

Active learning excels with this topic through shared picture walks and role-play. When students point to images, predict in pairs, or act out expressions, they actively construct meaning. These approaches make comprehension interactive, strengthen retention, and encourage verbal explanations of visual cues.

Key Questions

1. Analyze how pictures provide clues about what is happening in a story.
2. Predict what might happen next based on the illustrations.
3. Explain how a character's feelings are shown through their facial expressions in pictures.

Learning Objectives

• Identify specific visual cues in illustrations that indicate a character's emotions.
• Explain how the setting depicted in a picture contributes to the story's mood.
• Analyze the sequence of events presented in a series of illustrations.
• Predict the next event in a story by examining the details in the current illustration.

Before You Start

Recognizing Basic Emotions

Why: Students need to be able to identify fundamental emotions like happy, sad, and angry to connect them to character facial expressions.

Identifying Objects and People in Pictures

Why: Students must first be able to recognize the elements within an illustration before they can analyze them for story meaning.

Key Vocabulary

Illustration	A picture or drawing in a book that helps to tell the story or explain the text.
Facial Expression	The way a character's face looks, showing feelings like happiness, sadness, or surprise.
Setting	The place or time where a story happens, often shown through pictures in books.
Sequence	The order in which things happen in a story, which can be understood by looking at the pictures.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Pictures are only decorations and do not affect the story.

What to Teach Instead

Illustrations provide essential clues to plot and characters that words alone may omit. Group picture hunts where students reconstruct stories from images alone reveal this partnership. Active sharing corrects the view by showing predictions match outcomes.

Common Misconception

Character feelings are always named directly in the text.

What to Teach Instead

Feelings often show through facial expressions and body language in pictures. Pair mirroring activities let students experience and discuss these cues firsthand. This hands-on practice builds accurate inference over reliance on explicit words.

Common Misconception

All pictures show exactly what happens in the story words.

What to Teach Instead

Illustrations interpret events and suggest emotions beyond literal text. Comparing predictions from visuals first, then text, in whole-class walks highlights inferences. Student-led discussions clarify how pictures add layers to understanding.

Active Learning Ideas

Picture Walk: Plot Predictions

Select a picture book and pause at key illustrations. Guide students to describe what they see, note plot clues like character positions, and predict the next event. Chart predictions and confirm after full viewing.

30 min·Whole Class

Pairs Emotion Mirror: Facial Expressions

Provide cards with character faces from stories. Pairs identify the feeling shown, then one mimics the expression while the other guesses and explains the clues. Switch roles and share with the class.

20 min·Pairs

Small Groups Story Clues Hunt

Distribute story picture sets to groups. Students find and discuss images showing plot events or feelings, then sequence them and present one prediction. Use sticky notes for labeling clues.

40 min·Small Groups

Individual Picture Journal: Character Feelings

Students choose a story illustration, draw a similar face, label the emotion, and write or dictate one sentence explaining the visual clue. Share entries in a class gallery walk.

25 min·Individual

Real-World Connections

• Graphic novelists and comic book artists carefully choose illustrations to convey character emotions and advance the plot, similar to how students analyze story pictures.
• Children's book illustrators create detailed settings that help young readers understand the story's environment, much like students identify the story's location from pictures.

Assessment Ideas

Quick Check

Show students a page with a character displaying a strong emotion. Ask: 'What feeling is this character showing? How can you tell from their face?' Record student responses.

Exit Ticket

Provide students with a picture from a story. Ask them to draw one thing that might happen next and write one sentence explaining why they think that, based on the picture.

Discussion Prompt

Display two consecutive illustrations from a book. Ask: 'What happened between the first picture and the second picture? What clues in the pictures tell you this?' Facilitate a brief class discussion.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do pictures help Foundation students predict story events?

Illustrations offer visual sequences and character actions as clues for what comes next. Students practice by pausing at images to discuss patterns, like a character running toward danger signaling conflict. This builds inference skills aligned with AC9EFLA07, with charted predictions reinforcing accuracy through class review.

What activities teach using pictures for character emotions?

Emotion mirroring in pairs and picture journals work well. Students match expressions to feeling words, mimic them, and explain clues like furrowed brows for anger. These build vocabulary and empathy, with gallery shares extending peer feedback on interpretations.

How can active learning help students use pictures to understand stories?

Active methods like picture walks, role-play, and group hunts engage students kinesthetically. Pointing to images, acting expressions, and collaborating on predictions make abstract comprehension tangible. These boost participation, verbal explanations, and retention compared to passive viewing, fitting Foundation attention spans.

How to differentiate picture story activities for diverse learners?

Offer wordless books for visual focus, emotion cards with labels for support, or digital magnifiers for detail. Pair stronger readers with peers, extend journals to drawings only, and use voice recording for explanations. Progress monitoring via shared predictions ensures all meet AC9EFLA07 outcomes.