Compare Caption and Body
Read the caption to identify the subject, date, conditions or purpose supplied for the image.
Worked classroom example
History
A river photograph caption names a dry-season date. Compare it with a paragraph about seasonal flow; the image does not establish that the river is always dry.
Use this example to make the language move visible. Select subject content appropriate to the class’s age and prior knowledge.
Teaching sequence
- Read the caption to identify the subject, date, conditions or purpose supplied for the image.
- Read the body text and match one claim to the caption or visible evidence.
- Identify a detail the caption clarifies and a conclusion that needs more than the image alone.
Materials and purpose
a figure and its surrounding paragraph
A purposeful reading move helps learners focus on meaning and evidence, while giving them a reason to return to the source.
Try it in your next lesson
Prepare
Use a figure and its surrounding paragraph. Choose a second example that checks the same language move without repeating the original answer.
Classroom task
Read the caption to identify the subject, date, conditions or purpose supplied for the image.
Check independent transfer
Identify a detail the caption clarifies and a conclusion that needs more than the image alone.
Collect a response on fresh content. Note what was achieved without the model, partner or teacher prompt, then choose one next teaching step.
Teacher language
Teacher language
Which detail changes when you read the caption as well as the body text?
“What does the source actually say, and what are you inferring?”
“What cannot be concluded from this evidence alone?”
Respond to the learner
Identify one successful meaning or language choice. Ask about one gap, allow thinking time, then invite a revision. Check the revised move again on a fresh example.
Adjust support and challenge
Offer a brief model, useful vocabulary and partner rehearsal where needed. Keep the subject goal; reduce one prompt on fresh content and record what was independent.
Teaching this skill → · Age and language support →
More support
Chunk the source, gloss essential terms and model one evidence selection. Keep the question’s reasoning demand. Allow familiar-language notes or another response mode when checking subject understanding.
Greater independence
Change the content, evidence or audience. Remove the completed model and ask learners to explain a choice. Increase subject complexity only when it fits the curriculum and prior knowledge.
Choose the next step
If subject meaning is insecure, reteach the concept. If the concept is understood but the English is unclear, model one useful language relationship and invite a fresh response.