Teaching students to look beyond just surface level comparisons can help them dig deeper into their reading and build understanding. Helping students make text-to-self connections by comparing and contrasting is an important foundational skill. These products won't cost you any extra, but the earnings from the use of these links help support the maintenance of this site. You can find them at the end of this post.ĭisclosure: I've included Amazon Affiliate links where applicable. To help you get started, I've included some great digital learning activities designed to facilitate effective instruction for these skills. This is why modeling and pointing out the compare-contrast structure in a read-aloud is so important.Īs you start to plan your lessons, there is lots to think about. However, comparative thinking can be challenging for some students and others will be able to recognize it in a reading passage but will struggle to reproduce it in their writing. While we often introduce this skill during a mini-lesson on character traits, it is also a great way to ease students into higher-level thinking skills. Today I want to share a great resource for teaching students how to use a Venn diagram to find similarities and differences between themselves and characters in a text. Since they are also commonly included in state assessments, teaching students to use this type of organizer early in the school year can help ease the stress as testing approaches. Venn diagrams are the most commonly seen graphic organizer for teaching this skill, and students must be taught how to use this tool to help them organize their thinking. It's also great to incorporate into your explicit vocabulary instruction. Comparative thinking is great for building connections between background knowledge and new concepts. I often ask pairs and groups to share one way in which they are alike, and one thing that made each student unique.Teaching compare and contrast is a great lesson for early in the school year because it is approachable for students and can be used in so many different ways. When students finish, you may want to have them share with the class what they have learned about one another. It can help to write suggested topics (favorite foods, hobbies, talents, number of siblings, pets, etc.) on the board and circle around to prompt students as they work. Keep in mind that some students will begin conversing without much prompting, while others will need a little support. Students note ways in which they are unique in the area where the circles don’t intersect. In the space where the circles intersect, they write the things they have in common. Partners and groups of three talk about themselves- their interests, families, backgrounds, likes, and dislikes. To begin the activity, ask each student to write his/her/their name just outside of one of the circles. I have either drawn the circles myself to photocopy or found Venn diagrams online. After I tried having students draw the Venn diagrams themselves, I found that giving them copies of pre-made Venn diagrams works best because it is tricky to draw intersecting circles with spaces large enough to write.
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