Dear Parent/Guardian,

Your child is currently working on the literacy strategy, Use pictures, illustrations, and diagrams, which helps with the overall goal, Expand Vocabulary.

One way readers expand their vocabulary is by paying attention to pictures, illustrations, and diagrams in a text. They use the context of the story, their background knowledge of what is being read, and at times infer to gain meaning of what is being read. Readers do this because illustrations provide clues about the meaning of words and text. Paying attention to the pictures may confirm the meaning of words. Help your child become familiar with this strategy by using the following suggestions at home.

How can you help your child with this strategy at home?
  • When reading with your child, remind your child to cross check. A reader cross-checks by asking, “Do the pictures match what I think the word means, and does itmake sense?”
  • Model this strategy by breaking it down in these steps:
    • Read a picture book or nonfiction book.
    • When you come to a difficult or “interesting” word, stop.
    • Say, “I am going to look at this picture to see if I can figure out what this word means.”
    • Infer the words meaning based on background knowledge of text and what is shown in the picture.
    • Celebrate figuring out the word—remind your child that using pictures helped to increase your understanding of the text.
    Encourage your child to model the above steps for you.
  • Practice using pictures, illustrations, and diagrams to increase meaning by doing a picture walk through a story. Before reading the words, view all of the pictures of the story and see what story the pictures tell. Then, go back and read the words. Visiting the pictures first will draw attention to important details that will increase understanding of the text and reinforce this vocabulary strategy.
    • Thank you for your continued support at home!

    —Mrs. Boushey

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