English Language Arts · 1st Grade · Exploring the Real World · Weeks 19-27

Using Illustrations and Diagrams

Students analyze how images, diagrams, and charts contribute to understanding in informational texts.

• Common Core State Standards
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.7

About This Topic

In informational texts, images are not decoration. Photographs, diagrams, charts, maps, and captions all carry meaning that the written text may not fully convey. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.7 asks first graders to use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas, and understanding how visual elements contribute to comprehension is a skill that transfers across every content area.

First graders often treat pictures in non-fiction as something to glance at rather than read carefully. Teaching them to treat diagrams and photographs as information sources changes how they approach an entire page. A labeled diagram of a butterfly's life cycle, for example, communicates sequence and structure more efficiently than paragraphs of text could for a beginning reader. Students learn that authors make deliberate decisions about when to use an image versus words.

Active learning approaches engage students with visual features more deeply than simply looking at them during a read-aloud. Analyzing a diagram in a small group, writing captions for unlabeled photographs, or comparing what a diagram tells them versus what the text tells them all require students to treat visual elements with the same rigor they bring to words. These experiences build visual literacy alongside print literacy.

Key Questions

1. Explain how a diagram helps us understand a process better than just words.
2. Analyze the information conveyed by a photograph in a non-fiction book.
3. Construct a caption for an image that adds new information.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the key details presented in a photograph within an informational text.
• Explain how a diagram clarifies a process or concept more effectively than text alone.
• Compare the information presented in an illustration with the accompanying text to identify unique contributions.
• Create a descriptive caption for an image that adds relevant information not present in the main text.

Before You Start

Identifying Main Idea and Key Details in Text

Why: Students need to be able to find the main idea and supporting details in written text before they can analyze how illustrations support these elements.

Recognizing Different Types of Text (Fiction vs. Non-Fiction)

Why: Understanding that informational texts aim to teach facts helps students approach illustrations as sources of information, not just decoration.

Key Vocabulary

illustration	A picture or drawing that explains or decorates a book or other piece of writing.
diagram	A simplified drawing that shows the appearance, structure, or workings of something; a schematic or graphic representation.
photograph	A picture taken with a camera, showing a real person, place, or thing.
caption	A title or short explanation that accompanies an illustration, photograph, or chart.
label	A word or phrase that names or describes something, often used on diagrams or charts.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Pictures in non-fiction books are just there to make the book look interesting.

What to Teach Instead

Visual elements in informational texts are primary sources of information, not decoration. Diagrams can show processes, relationships, and structures that are extremely difficult to convey in text, especially for early readers. Treating images as information to be read carefully, by labeling parts, writing captions, or comparing diagrams across books, builds this understanding directly.

Common Misconception

A diagram and a photograph show the same kind of information.

What to Teach Instead

A photograph shows what something looks like in reality; a diagram can simplify, label, and explain how something works or is organized. Comparing a photograph of a flower with a labeled diagram of a flower's parts shows students how different visual formats serve different informational purposes. Small-group comparison activities make this distinction tangible.

Active Learning Ideas

Inquiry Circle: Diagram Analysis

Give small groups a non-fiction book open to a page with a diagram or labeled illustration. Groups work together to answer three questions: What does the diagram show? What does the diagram tell you that the words do not? What would be harder to understand without the diagram? Groups share their answers with the class.

15 min·Small Groups

Gallery Walk: Caption Writing

Display five or six photographs from non-fiction texts around the room, with captions removed. Students rotate in pairs with a sticky note, writing or drawing a caption for each photo that adds information not visible in the image alone. The class compares their captions to the original text captions at the end.

20 min·Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: Words vs. Pictures

Read one page of an informational text aloud to students without showing the illustrations. Ask them to draw what they pictured based only on the words. Then reveal the actual photograph or diagram and compare. Partners discuss what the image added that the words could not fully describe on their own.

15 min·Pairs

Real-World Connections

• Museum curators use photographs and diagrams to explain historical artifacts and scientific specimens to visitors, helping them understand context and function.
• Gardeners and farmers use diagrams of plant life cycles and soil layers to plan planting schedules and understand how to best care for their crops.
• Cookbook authors use step-by-step photographs and diagrams to demonstrate cooking techniques, making complex recipes easier for home cooks to follow.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

Provide students with a page from an informational text that includes a photograph and a diagram. Ask them to write one sentence explaining what they learned from the photograph and one sentence explaining what they learned from the diagram.

Quick Check

Display a labeled diagram of a common object (e.g., a bicycle, a simple machine). Ask students to point to specific parts and explain what each label means, or ask them to describe the function of a part based on its label and placement.

Discussion Prompt

Show students two different ways an author presented the same information: one using only text, and another using text with an illustration or diagram. Ask: 'Which way helped you understand the idea better, and why? What did the picture add that the words did not?'

Frequently Asked Questions

What does CCSS RI.1.7 ask first graders to do with illustrations?

RI.1.7 asks students to use illustrations and details in a text to describe key ideas. For informational texts, this means treating photographs, diagrams, charts, and captions as information sources that students actively analyze and connect to the written text. Students should be able to explain what a visual adds to their understanding beyond what the words alone provide.

How do diagrams help reading comprehension for first graders?

Diagrams organize visual information in a way that shows relationships, sequences, and structures that text descriptions must work much harder to convey. For beginning readers, a labeled diagram of a plant's parts is faster to process and more memorable than a paragraph of text covering the same content. Teaching students to read diagrams actively builds an important comprehension tool.

How do you teach text features in first grade?

Introduce one text feature at a time during shared reading, pointing out what it is, what it shows, and what it adds to the text around it. Have students hunt for the same feature type across different non-fiction books, then compare what they found. Creating their own captions for unlabeled images gives students a production task that deepens their understanding of what good captions do.

How does active learning support analyzing illustrations and diagrams in non-fiction?

When students write captions for photographs, compare diagrams in small groups, or discuss what an image adds beyond the text, they are doing close visual reading rather than passive looking. These tasks require students to articulate what information a visual carries, which builds both analytical skill and the academic vocabulary for describing visual features in informational texts.