Comparing shows you what two things share, and contrasting shows you where they split. Together they're how you really see either one.
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Students will learn what it means to compare and to contrast, use signal words to spot both, choose points of comparison, sort likenesses and differences the way a Venn diagram does, and apply all of it to Mary Antin's account of the morning she started school and her sister Frieda went to work.
To compare is to find how things are alike, and to contrast is to find how they differ. A good comparison picks the same points for both things, so that it's fair.
Signal words show the writer's direction. Words like both, also and similarly point to likenesses, and words like but, however, unlike and while point to differences.
Comparing different points. Saying one school has a gym and the other is old isn't a comparison, because the two things aren't being measured on the same point.
Forgetting the likenesses. Students go straight for the differences, but the overlap in the middle is part of the answer too, and in Antin's pages it's the sisters' love.
Draw two overlapping circles on paper and sort the story into them with the student: Mary only, Frieda only, and what the two share. The drawing is the Venn diagram and sets up the writing task.
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Before You Start
The words this lesson uses. Tap a card to see what it means, then come back to them whenever a question uses one.
Part One
Questions about the story you just read. Pick your answer straight off, or press Find it in the story if you would rather hunt for the sentence first.
Part Two
The word cards are at the top of this page. Look back at them as often as you need, then answer.