Catherine Cowan's retelling of The Nose is a picture book, with paintings by Kevin Hawkes accompanying the text across its 31 pages. That gives teachers a chance to assign essays that look at how words and images work together to tell a strange story. Visual analysis is a valuable literacy skill, but it introduces new grading questions about what counts as good evidence. A rubric built for this kind of writing keeps scoring fair and helps students look more carefully.

Many students have never been asked to write about illustrations as a form of evidence. They tend to say things like "the picture is nice" or "it looks funny," which describes a reaction but not a choice the artist made. Teaching them to notice specific elements, such as color, placement, expression, and what is shown versus what the words say, turns a reaction into an observation. Model this aloud with a single page before asking students to write.

An assignment might ask students to choose one page and explain what the picture adds to the words. Another might ask them to describe a moment where the image shows something the text does not say. Both tasks require students to hold two sources of information in mind at once. That is more demanding than it looks, so give students a chance to talk before they write.

What Visual Analysis Adds to a Literature Unit

Picture books teach students that meaning can be built through more than sentences. In a story as odd as this one, the paintings can shape how readers feel about the Deputy Inspector and his wandering nose. Students who examine these choices practice inference in a form that is easy to access, including for readers who struggle with print. That makes visual analysis a fair way to see what a wider range of students understand.

• The student identifies a specific visual detail rather than saying the picture is good
• The student connects the detail to something in the words or the events of the story
• The student explains what the image adds, such as mood, humor, or information
• The student uses precise language for what they see, including color, position, or expression
• The student writes clearly enough that a reader who has not seen the page could follow

Rubric Rows for Image and Text Essays

A useful rubric for this assignment has four rows: observation, connection between image and text, explanation of effect, and clarity of writing. Observation checks that the student describes something actually visible on the page. Connection asks how that detail relates to the words or the story events. Explanation asks what difference the image makes, and clarity ensures the response makes sense to someone who cannot see it.

Be careful about scoring interpretation of artistic intent too harshly. Students cannot know what the illustrator was thinking, so reward reasonable claims stated with appropriate care, such as "this may suggest" or "this makes me think." Do not require certainty about things nobody can verify. What you can require is that the interpretation is tied to something visible and is explained.

Feedback on Describing What Students See

The most common weakness is vague description. A comment such as "Point to one thing in the picture and tell us exactly what you see" pushes students to slow down and observe. Ask them to include a color, a shape, a position, or an expression whenever possible. Specific observations make the explanation that follows much stronger.

A second common weakness is treating the picture and the text as separate topics. Students describe the words in one paragraph and the image in another without relating them. Encourage transitions that force a link, such as asking how the picture supports, adds to, or changes the sentence on the same page. That question alone often lifts the quality of a response.

Grading Fairly When Students Notice Different Things

Two students can look at the same page and write about completely different details, and both can be right. Avoid scoring against a fixed list of expected observations. Instead, score the quality of the reasoning that follows from whatever the student chose to notice. This keeps the assignment open and rewards close looking over guessing what the teacher wants.

If you use an AI grading tool, give it the rubric language and tell it explicitly not to penalize unexpected but reasonable observations. Because the tool cannot always see the artwork, students should describe what they see in words, which is itself part of what you are assessing. Review a sample of scored responses to confirm the tool is treating creative readings fairly. That check keeps the assignment from turning into a search for one right answer.