Comparing and Contrasting Text in the Digital Age

These week I am working on a very important standards with my students: Comparing and contrasting two informational texts about the same topic. In the past, I have had students read two informational texts and compare these texts in their reader's notebooks. With the PARCC test looming around the corner, I thought it was time to venture into the 21st century!

I was lucky enough to attend a workshop earlier this month about using the Microsoft suite to update instruction in this digital age. After the workshop, I was itching to give these new tools a try. This is my first attempt!

For this lesson, I used OneNote. Unfortunately, my district only purchased accounts for the teachers and middle schoolers. Elementary students will receive accounts next year. For this reason, I had to make a few adjustments to my plan.

I created an "online binder" for this lesson. Normally I would assign elements from this binder to my students, but since they do not have accounts, I created a page for each students in my "binder."

To begin, students watched a video about how a robot called the VGo is being used in schools. The students had very little background knowledge about this topic, and the video really sparked their interest.

Then, students read two articles using the OneNote app on the iPad. Both of these articles were about how schools are using the VGo robot. Each article had one question that required students to type a response, while also highlighting evidence from the text.

We continued to use our RACE technique! Then, students created a Venn Diagram on the iPads comparing and contrasting the two texts. As the final activity, students answered a short answer question requiring students to analyze the way information was presented in each text, including the text structure. This answer was also constructed using the RACE strategy on the iPads.

Overall, the students were highly engaged in this lesson. They loved using the iPad for every step of this lesson. They're typing skills definitely need some refining. I am going to continue using OneNote for many lessons in the future!

How do you prepare students for reading and analyzing texts on the computer?

Comparing and Contrasting Informational Text!

Comparing and contrasting two texts is a key skill presented in the Common Core Standards, both in literature and informational text. For information texts, students must be able to compare and contrast two texts on the same topic. For literature, students must be able to compare two texts by the same author.

This lesson focuses on comparing two informational texts. With my third graders, I differentiate the levels of the texts for each guided reading group, but keep the essential elements and focus of the lesson the same. I have a majority of boys in these reading groups, so I tried to pick some really high interest science texts. I chose one set that focused on hurricanes, and one set that focused on volcanoes.

For the beginning of the lesson, I introduced the concepts to the students. We discussed what students already knew about hurricanes and volcanoes. I showed short clips on Teacher Tube to spark student interest as well. We also went through the key vocabulary in the glossary. I purposefully chose texts filled with rich text features.

The lesson went on with my normal structure of guided reading. Students continued to practice using their word attack strategies, (See more on those here!)as I went around and listened/assisted each student. When finished, we discussed the key information in the texts, especially the text features. Since it takes a lot of time to read two texts for a comparison, I took this time to review a variety of skills taught throughout the year during our discussion. These skills included cause and effect, text features, main idea and supporting details, and genre.

Once finished with our discussion, we created a Venn diagram in our reader’s notebooks comparing and contrasting the two texts. To keep my students on track, I gave them a specific focus for their Venn diagram. They were comparing and contrasting the two texts, but they needed to include the genres, important content, and text features. In this way, I was continuing my cumulative review.

Then, we had one last skill to practice: using evidence from the text. We are continually working on our written responses. For each set of texts, I came up with a written response question that would require students to use evidence from both texts. This is a skill they will need to master for next year’s PARCC assessments. Students had little experience with this, and we will definitely need to revisit this skill.

Overall, this lesson gave students a great opportunity to review and practice a wide variety of skills, perfect for the end of the school year.

How do you incorporate cumulative review into your instruction?

Stone Soup!

My third graders and I had a little fun studying the classic folktale Stone Soup. We read a few different versions, including a reader's theater version. They really enjoyed the stories, but couldn't believe anyone would fall for that trick!

To begin, we read a short story version of Stone Soup. After students read the story independently, we completed a story map. Now, this was not any ordinary story map! It was organized to look like a recipe card. With the internet, I was actually quite surprised that my students recognized the graphic organizer as a recipe card. Then again, they mostly mentioned that their grandmothers used them! 

On one side of the graphic organizer we identified the characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme. Then on the other side, we sequenced the important events. If you would like a copy of the graphic organizer click here, or on the image above.

Next, I read aloud Cactus Soup. This story is very similar to Stone Soup, except that it takes place in Mexico and involves a cactus instead of a stone. My students all agreed that a stone was safer to use than a cactus. They thought someone was going to get poked by the needle when they took a sip!

After reading both stories, we completed a venn diagram in our reader's notebooks comparing and contrasting the two folktales. I think the stories had just the right amount of similarities and differences to make a good comparison.

Next, the students practiced a reader's theater version of Stone Soup. I chose this particular version of the story because it only had two characters, and it was most similar to the first version we read. Also, I wanted students to practice in partners and then perform for the entire group. While students were performing, I recorded their voices on the iPad. The next day we listed to everyone's performances. The students were really excited, but got very embarrassed listening to their own voices. All in all, we had a lot of fun with Stone Soup!

What stories do you like to read multiple versions of?

Comparing Texts

My fourth graders have been reading Sarah, Plain and Tall in their classrooms. They also happened to be studying compare and contrast. I decided I would incorporate the theme of the prairie into a lesson on compare and contrast.

Since I had already introduced compare and contrast to my fourth graders, they already had a copy of the anchor chart in their reader's notebooks. We keep the anchor charts in our notebooks, so that we can keep referring to them. To begin this lesson, we reviewed the anchor chart and what it means to compare and contrast. I find that it is much more meaningful to the students when they look it up for themselves, as opposed to me telling them the answers.

Once we had reviewed our anchor chart, I introduced the first text. I chose Three Names because it is about life on the prairie and also happens to be by the same author as Sarah, Plain and Tall! Now doesn't that just work out perfectly?! (You may recognize the book from my lesson on inference as well. It really is a great book!)

For the second text, I chose a short story called Montana Prairie Sisters. Both of these texts were about children growing up on a prairie and attending school in a one room schoolhouse. One is a fictional story, whereas the other is nonfiction. 

The students read Montana Prairie Sisters independently. As they read, they highlighted the similarities between the two texts. We discussed these similarities together, and students added to their highlighting if necessary.

Next, we completed a graphic organizer comparing and contrasting the two texts. (If you would like your own copy of the graphic organizer, click the image above.) The students have a great deal of experience using Venn Diagrams, but I noticed the state tests occasionally use tables for comparing and contrasting. For this reason, I decided to create a table for this graphic organizer. I chose to focus on genre, point of view, setting, characters, and plot.

These two texts worked very well for comparing and contrasting. They were very similar, but also quite different. Basically, the fundamentals of the stories were almost identical, the major differences occurred in how the stories were told. 

I hope you give this different style of graphic organizer a try. Do you use anything besides Venn Diagrams for comparing and contrasting?

Disney Lied to Us!

Let me just begin by saying, the following lesson definitely ranks near the top, as one of the most fun lessons I have ever taught. My third graders had been working on cause and effect in their classrooms, so I decided to teach a lesson comparing the Disney version of Pocahontas to a biography of Pocahontas. My students were shocked by the differences between the two stories of Pocahontas's life.

For starters, the kids could not believe how different the real Pocahontas looked from the way Disney portrayed her. One of the little boys shouted, "Disney lied to us!" It took just about everything inside of me to keep from laughing. At this point, we discussed the difference between the genres of the texts we would be reading. The Disney version is historical fiction, therefore it is based on some facts, but mostly is a work of fiction. The biography is nonfiction, and therefore all facts.

We began with the biography. First, we looked through the pictures and identified the major text features.

This book is loaded with a lot of great information. In order to keep students' thinking organized, we kept a "FQR" in our reader's notebooks. (FQR stands for Facts - Questions - Response)

After finishing the biography, we began reading the Disney story. I found a copy of the story in the Disney Princess Collection (Disney Storybook Collections). I checked the book out from the school library and was told to return it as soon as possible. Apparently, the book is one of the library's most popular items! Let's just say I received some interesting looks carrying a hot pink book with silver page edges covered in glitter down the hallway. I copied the Pocahontas story and returned the book immediately. 

Students read the story independently. As they read, they highlighted similarities to the biography and underlined differences. When students finished, we went over what students marked together, adding when necessary.

Then, we completed a venn diagram together comparing and contrasting the two stories. Students recorded this venn diagram in their reader's notebooks. One of the boys just couldn't understand why Disney would put a "talking tree" in the story. He said Pocahontas clearly did not talk to a tree. Again, we talked about how the Disney version is fiction. I think many of them originally thought the Disney story was true and had a really hard time coming to terms with this.

The students also thought it was very strange that Disney focused so much on creating a relationship between Pocahontas and John Smith, when she actually married John Rolfe. I have to agree with them on that one. If you would like a copy of a venn diagram to compare the two stories and an answer key, click here.

Were (are) any of you big Disney princess fans?

Compare and Contrast

Today's lesson is on compare and contrast and was used with a group of fifth graders. I began by reading aloud two books. The first book was The Three Little Pigs by Bernadette Watts.

Most students were familiar with the story, but I wanted  it to be really fresh in their minds for our compare and contrast activity. Then I read aloud a great book called The Three Little Tamales by Eric A. Kimmel. The students loved how this book had some Spanish mixed throughout.

These two stories were just similar enough to be perfect for comparing and contrasting. After I read the two books aloud, we created a venn diagram together as an anchor chart.

Students had a copy of the anchor chart to fill out in their reader's notebooks as well.

Next we moved on to the guided practice portion of the lesson. Students independently read the book National Geographic: Storms!. This book is about different types of severe storms. We picked two types of storms from the book to compare and contrast. (Hurricanes and Tornadoes) Together we completed a venn diagram in students' reader's notebooks.

For the independent practice portion of the lesson, students independently read a short story about two girls that went to space camp. In this story, both girls enjoyed space camp, but one wants to become an astronaut and the other is more interested in mission control. 

As an assessment, I had students independently complete a venn diagram in their reader's notebooks comparing and contrasting the two girls. 

Overall I was very pleased with the students' work. We still need to work on being very specific in our answers, but all the students hit on the major concepts of the story.