Comparing and Contrasting

We've spent the last week working on comparing and contrasting during Instructional Focus. The standard(s) addressed are: 2.RL.9 - Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures. and 2.RIT.9 - Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.

I started out small, by first just going over what comparing and contrasting means and what it looks like. Here is our anchor chart:

Then, I had the students compare/contrast our school librarian and myself. We made a giant venn diagram (not one of my prettiest pieces of art, but hey, it works), and students wrote their thoughts on sticky notes and added it to the large venn diagram. Some of the answers were so cute. One of my personal favorites, "They both are good techers." :-) My heart is smiling for both the comment and the spelling!

Next, students were put in pairs and compared each other. After filling out a venn diagram, students had to write about their similarities/differences.

The following day, we read two books, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Silly Girls Grubb. Students then had to compare and contrast the different versions of the story. To do this, students filled out a comparison organizer and wrote about the similarities and differences. Check it out below!

The final activity we did this week was to read 2 different versions of informational text selections on bats. Students had to compare and contrast the two texts using the bat organizer. They then had to write about the similarities and differences. Here is an example of how this turned out:

Overall, it was a great set of standards to focus on for the week, and the kiddos loved the activities that went with it, and they seemed to really do well and learn a lot about comparing and contrasting. Another successful week down (two more to go until break, but who's counting???)! :-)

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