Using Pictures to Understand StoriesActivities & Teaching Strategies
Active learning works well for this topic because young students learn to connect visual and textual information best through movement, discussion, and hands-on tasks. Working with images lets students practice making meaning without pressure to decode words first, building confidence and comprehension skills early on.
Learning Objectives
- 1Identify specific visual cues in illustrations that indicate a character's emotions.
- 2Explain how the setting depicted in a picture contributes to the story's mood.
- 3Analyze the sequence of events presented in a series of illustrations.
- 4Predict the next event in a story by examining the details in the current illustration.
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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.
Prepare & details
Analyze how pictures provide clues about what is happening in a story.
Facilitation Tip: During the Picture Walk, pause on each illustration and ask students to point to details that suggest what might happen next.
Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter
Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback
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.
Prepare & details
Predict what might happen next based on the illustrations.
Facilitation Tip: For the Emotion Mirror activity, give pairs one minute to copy each other’s facial expressions exactly before switching roles.
Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter
Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback
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.
Prepare & details
Explain how a character's feelings are shown through their facial expressions in pictures.
Facilitation Tip: In the Story Clues Hunt, assign each small group one picture to examine closely before sharing their findings with the class.
Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter
Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback
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.
Prepare & details
Analyze how pictures provide clues about what is happening in a story.
Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter
Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback
Teaching This Topic
Teachers should model thinking aloud about what pictures show and why it matters, showing students how to look beyond the obvious. Avoid spending too much time on art technique unless it directly supports comprehension, and always link visuals back to the story’s plot or characters. Research suggests young learners benefit from repeated, guided practice with the same image set to deepen their analysis.
What to Expect
Successful learning looks like students using pictures to predict events, describe character emotions accurately, and explain their reasoning with evidence from the illustrations. They should talk about images in detail, not just glance at them, and connect visuals to story elements confidently.
These activities are a starting point. A full mission is the experience.
- Complete facilitation script with teacher dialogue
- Printable student materials, ready for class
- Differentiation strategies for every learner
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Common MisconceptionDuring Picture Walk, watch for students who assume illustrations are just decorations.
What to Teach Instead
Pause on each image and ask, 'What details in this picture make you think that might happen next?' to guide students to see illustrations as sources of plot clues.
Common MisconceptionDuring Pairs Emotion Mirror, watch for students who rely only on the word labels for emotions rather than the facial expressions.
What to Teach Instead
Have pairs practice facial expressions without naming the emotion first, then ask them to describe what they see before matching it to a feeling word.
Common MisconceptionDuring Small Groups Story Clues Hunt, watch for students who think illustrations copy the text exactly.
What to Teach Instead
Ask groups to find one detail in their picture that isn’t mentioned in the text, then share these discoveries to highlight how pictures add meaning beyond words.
Assessment Ideas
After Picture Walk, 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 to assess their ability to read facial expressions in pictures.
After Picture Journal, provide students with a new 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.
During Small Groups Story Clues Hunt, 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 to assess their ability to infer events from visuals.
Extensions & Scaffolding
- Challenge: Provide a wordless picture book and ask students to write a short story based on the illustrations alone.
- Scaffolding: Offer picture cards with simple emotion words (happy, sad, scared) to help students label feelings during the Emotion Mirror activity.
- Deeper exploration: Compare two versions of the same story with different illustrations and discuss how the pictures change the reader’s understanding.
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. |
Suggested Methodologies
Planning templates for English
More in Making Meaning in Print
Understanding How Books Work
Students will identify the parts of a book (cover, title, author, pages) and how to hold and turn pages correctly.
2 methodologies
Tracking Print from Left to Right
Students will practice tracking print from left to right and top to bottom on a page.
2 methodologies
Making Simple Predictions
Students will make simple predictions about what will happen next in a story based on clues.
2 methodologies
Inferring Meaning from Complex Textual Evidence
Students will infer meaning, themes, and authorial intent from complex textual evidence, moving beyond surface-level predictions.
3 methodologies
Analysing Complex Character Motivations and Psychology
Students will analyse complex character motivations, psychological states, and the internal and external factors that influence their decisions and development.
3 methodologies
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