Best Books and Lessons for Teaching Compare and Contrast
I would never forget that I got a big, disappointing developing on my observation report in my first year teaching. Guess what my lesson was about? Compare and contrast!
Teaching Compare and Contrast is challenging because this reading comprehension skill requires higher-order thinking from students, and finding good mentor texts is not easy for teachers.
One reason why I failed in my compare and contrast lesson was because I only used one book (you’ll find out why this is a big problem) and the book I used was not a good one. Using good mentor texts will make your planning process easier, and help your students learn, apply and master this reading strategy.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas are my favorite books to teach compare and contrast, and they match the standards perfectly!
Let’s use the second grade Common Core Standard as an example:
Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.
If you don’t know Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas, it’s a story about a girl who went into the pandas’ house, ate their food, broke a chair, slept on their beds (sounds familiar, right?), but apologized and cleaned her own mess at the end. In addition, the characters in this book are Chinese, and it happened around Chinese New Year time. Different cultures, check.
Never teach a new strategy with a new book. Students need to know both stories well before comparing and contrasting the characters’ experiences, so you need to build a solid foundation for them in your lesson plans.
Here is a day-by-day lesson weekly plan for you:
Read Aloud
This is story time for your kiddos! You can ask questions while reading the story to check their understanding. This is also a great way of formative and informal assessment!
Story Elements
Read the story again. Have student discuss the characters, setting, problem and solution in the book. Ask open-ended questions like “Can the characters solve the problem in another way?” to make sure your lesson is rigorous! You can use one book to model and have students practice the skill independently with the other book.
Retelling
Read the story again! Good readers will read a story multiple times to understand it better. Now your students should know the stories well, and they can use their own words to retell what happened in the story with their partners.
Introduce Compare and Contrast and Venn Diagram with Prerequisite Activities
My favorite activity to introduce this concept is to have students compare and contrast one student and me. All students (including English Language Learners and Students with Disabilities) love to participate, because they see us and know us well, which made the activity visual and straightforward.
With all the preparation work done, you are ready to have your students compare and contrast Goldilocks and Goldy Luck’s story, and this is definitely a highly-effective lesson!
Great Resources for you lessons:
Other Paired Texts for Teaching Compare and Contrast:
The Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
Little Red Riding Hood and Lon PoPo