Use pictures and words in a print book and a digital book to describe characters, setting and plot

Learning goal: Use illustrations and textual details in print or digital literary texts to describe characters, settings and plot elements. This lesson teaches Ohio's 2026 English language arts standard for grade 2, first implemented in the 2027-28 school year.

For the adult: why this standard says "print or digital". Children now meet stories both on paper and on screens. A print picture book has words and still illustrations on a page. A digital story, such as an e-book on a tablet or a story website chosen by a teacher, may add things a page cannot: a picture that moves, a sound effect, a voice that reads the words aloud while each word lights up, or a picture you can zoom into. The reading job is the same in both forms: gather details from the words and the pictures, and use them to describe the characters (who they are, how they look, feel and act), the setting (where and when the story happens) and the plot elements (the problem, the important events and how the problem is solved). The new part is learning to check digital extras against the words, because an animation or a sound can add a detail the author never wrote.

Original story — Pip and the Paper Boat

On a grey Saturday morning, rain drummed on the roof of Grandpa Teo's blue apartment building. Pip pressed her nose to the window. The street below had turned into a shiny river along the curb.

"I am so bored," Pip said, flopping onto the rug. Her curly hair spread out like a dark cloud.

Grandpa Teo put down his newspaper. He folded one page in half, then in half again. His big fingers pressed each crease sharp and flat. Pip sat up. A hat appeared, then a point, and then, with one last pull, a little paper boat.

"Can it really float?" Pip asked.

"Only one way to find out," said Grandpa Teo, reaching for his umbrella.

Downstairs, the rain had slowed to a drizzle. Water rushed along the curb toward a drain at the corner. Pip set the boat on the stream. It spun once, then zipped away. Pip ran beside it, splashing in her yellow boots, shouting, "Go, boat, go!"

Then the boat stopped. It was stuck against a soggy leaf, just a few steps from the drain. Pip's smile disappeared. If the boat went down the drain, it would be gone.

She looked around. A long stick lay under the bench. Pip reached out with the stick, very gently, and nudged the leaf aside. The boat wobbled, turned, and floated toward the edge of the curb, where Pip scooped it up before the drain could swallow it.

The boat was soft and dripping. One side was torn. Pip held it up, and her lip trembled.

"That boat did its job," Grandpa Teo said. "Now it is time to make a better one."

Back upstairs, they folded three more boats. This time Pip made the creases herself, pressing them flat the way Grandpa did. When the sun came out that afternoon, a fleet of four paper boats sat drying on the windowsill, and Pip was already planning a race.

Two ways to meet this story. This lesson does not include the story's pictures; the pages below are described in words. Before teaching, the adult either draws three simple pictures from these descriptions or reads the descriptions aloud and has the children sketch them, so the class has pictures to point to. Imagine the story in two forms. In the print book, page 1 shows Pip at the window with rain streaks on the glass; page 4 shows the boat stuck against a brown leaf beside a dark drain, with Pip leaning over it, her mouth open and her hands up; page 6 shows four boats on the windowsill in sunlight. In the digital book, the same pictures appear, but the rain on page 1 falls in a loop, a gurgling sound plays near the drain, you can pinch to zoom into the windowsill and see water drops on the boats, and a voice reads each sentence while the words are highlighted.

Describing a character with words and pictures. The words tell us Pip is bored, then excited ("Go, boat, go!"), then worried ("her smile disappeared"), then sad ("her lip trembled"), then eager ("already planning a race"). The words also give her curly hair and yellow boots. A picture can add her face at each moment, which helps a reader see the change. Put both together: "Pip is a curious girl who gets worried when the boat is stuck, but she solves the problem carefully with a stick." Every part of that sentence comes from a detail you can point to.

Describing the setting. Words: a grey Saturday morning, rain on the roof, Grandpa Teo's blue apartment building, the street, the curb, a drain at the corner, then the windowsill in the afternoon sun. Pictures add the look of the street and the window. The setting changes during the story, from inside to outside and back inside, and from morning rain to afternoon sun.

Describing plot elements. The problem begins with boredom, but the biggest problem is the boat stuck near the drain. The important events are: Grandpa folds a boat; they float it; it gets stuck; Pip frees it with a stick; they fold more boats. The solution is that Pip saves the boat and learns to fold her own. The print picture on page 4 helps a reader feel how close the drain is. The words tell us why it matters: "If the boat went down the drain, it would be gone."

Checking digital extras against the words. A digital picture can show more than the author wrote. Suppose the animation on page 4 shows a cat watching from a doorway. The words never mention a cat, so the cat is an extra detail added by the illustrator or app maker. You may describe it as a detail of the picture ("a cat watches from the doorway"), but you should not say "a cat helped Pip": neither the words nor the picture show the cat doing anything in the plot. The gurgling sound near the drain is different: it supports the words "the drain could swallow it" and makes the danger feel real. Ask of every picture, sound or movement: Does it match the words, add to them, or change them?

The misconception, and why it is wrong. Many readers look only at the pictures and skip the words, especially on a screen full of movement. But the pictures in this book do not show everything. None of its pictures shows that it is Saturday, that Pip is bored before she flops down, or that Grandpa says the first boat "did its job." (A different book might show a day with a calendar or a thought with a thought bubble, so always ask what these pictures show.) Other readers do the opposite and ignore the pictures. The best description uses both and checks that they agree.

Worked example 1 — a character. Question: How does Pip feel when the boat is stuck, and how do you know? Text: "Pip's smile disappeared." and "If the boat went down the drain, it would be gone." Print picture (page 4): her mouth open and hands up. Answer: "Pip feels worried. The words say her smile disappeared, and the picture shows her hands up in alarm."

Worked example 2 — setting in a digital book. Question: Describe the setting at the end of the story. Text: "When the sun came out that afternoon, a fleet of four paper boats sat drying on the windowsill." Digital feature: zooming in shows water drops on the boats and sunlight on the sill. Answer: "The story ends inside, at the windowsill, in the afternoon sun. The zoom shows the boats still wet, which matches the word drying."

Worked example 3 — checking an extra detail. Question: In the digital version, a cat appears in the doorway on page 4. Is the cat part of the plot? Check the words: no sentence mentions a cat, and nothing in the plot depends on one. Answer: "The cat is an extra detail in the digital picture. I can mention it when I describe that picture, but it does nothing in the plot, so I leave it out of my retelling of the events."

Representation task — the three-column story chart: Make a chart with three rows (Characters, Setting, Plot) and three columns (The words say, The print picture shows, The digital version adds). Fill every row with at least one detail from the words and one from a picture. In the third column, write whether each digital extra matches, adds to or changes the words.

Independent performance: Choose a picture book that your class has in both print and digital form (the adult selects a digital version from a school-approved source). Read or listen to it, then tell or write a description of one character, the setting and the plot. Success criteria: (1) you describe a character using at least one word detail and one picture detail; (2) you describe where and when the story happens, including any change in setting; (3) you name the problem, two important events and the solution in order; (4) you point to one digital feature (movement, sound, highlighting or zoom) and say whether it matches, adds to or changes the words; (5) nothing in your description comes only from your imagination.