Direct instruction and practice enables children to apply what they already know and do in their daily lives to the things they will be expected to do as students and adults. Understanding the concept of comparing and contrasting is necessary for critical reading and writing.
Compare and Contrast Lesson Plan Objectives:
- Students will compare and contrast characteristics of two teachers.
- Students will use a Venn diagram to make comparisons of two stories
- Students will compare and contrast stories from newspaper article
Materials:
- copy of Venn diagram for each student
- copies of two different stories for each student
- copies of article about the same person or event written by two different newspapers
- pencils
- paper
Procedure: Brainstorming Likenesses and Differences
Draw a Venn diagram on a dry erase board. Ask students to choose two teachers to compare. Write the name of one teacher over one circle and the name of the second teacher over the second circle. Tell the students they will brainstorm the ways the two teachers are alike and different. Tell them to think of good things about the teachers.
Call on different students to read the similarities and differences and the ways in which the teachers are alike. Give them examples of how they do this in their daily lives, i.e. comparing friends, games, foods. Write the ways the two teachers are alike in the space in the diagram where the circles overlap. Write the ways the teachers are different in the appropriate spaces.
Comparing Two Stories
Read two short stories to children and ask them to think of the ways the stories are alike and how they are different. Give the students copies of Venn diagrams. Tell students to list the ways the stories are alike and write the ways they are different in the correct circle. When students finish, ask them to share their work with the class.
Similarities and Differences in Newspaper Articles
Give the newspaper articles to students. Divide students in groups of four and tell them to select a recorder and a reporter.
Tell them to find the similarities and differences in the two articles and write them. Tell them they may want to draw a Venn diagram. When they have finished, ask the reporter from one group to report for his group. Ask the reporters from other groups if they want to add anything to the first group’s report.
Compare and Contrast Assessment
Collect students’ individual work comparing two stories for their portfolios. Observe student participation in group activities.
This lesson builds on and develops skills that students began to develop at an early age when they compared people, places, and things. Practice in observing ways that stories, people, and articles are alike and different helps students progress and become proficient in the language arts.
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