Two Engaging and Fun Activities to Teach Compare and Contrast
The other day, I asked my students to compare and contrast three of the characters in our book.
I was expecting really insightful answers like how they respond to conflicts is different even though they all have taken on an adult role.
However, what I got was, “Ummm….two of them are boys and the other one is a girl”
As I find myself doing sometimes, I expected my students to already be an expert in the concept.
In order to teach my students how to dive deep into the story and characters, I came up with two activities to practice comparing and contrasting.
Activity One: Shape Up
The overall idea: The students put what they want to compare on the points of the shape. On the lines between the points, they will write how the characters connect.
Before class, I made a set of cards with the names of each character in our book. To make things interesting and rigorous, I also included a card for a character in another novel. I also prearranged groups to make the transition easier. You can use a random grouping site like this one to help you with this.
Round One: Triangles
Working with their groups, students drew four connection cards out of their box.
Talking with their group, they decide which three connection cards to keep, and which one to put back in the box.
Then they select where to place the topics on the points of their shape.
On the lines in between the points students will write how the topics connected. For my class, I used characters.
Students placed the characters on each point and came up with events from the story that connected them, similar conflicts they faced, a trait that is similar, etc.
After they complete the triangle, students will place the connection cards back into the box and get ready for round two!
Round Two: Squares
If you are able, mix up one to two students per group.
For their second shape, the square, students select out five connection cards, keep four, and place them on the different points on the square.
As they were writing connections, I told students not to have any repeating connections from the triangle. This is where students start to practice digging a little bit deeper.
Round Three: Pentagon
If you are able, mix up one to two students per group.
For their third shape, the square, students select out six connection cards, keep five, and place them on the different points on the pentagon
These are images from when my class did this activity with our novel, Witness. I love how they added connections on the cross sections.
I moved around to help and encourage students to think more deeply about the connections. I ended up using the word impact a lot. For example, “How did this character impact the other character?”
But mostly, I was so impressed to hear my students talk about the characters, the events in the story, the problems the characters faced, and the personalities of each character. They took great care in selecting where each character went on their shape so they could make the best connections.
This resource is exclusively available on ELA Unlimited. If you’re an ELA Unlimited member, check out section seven- Text Structures and Compare/Contrast.
activity Two: The Flip and Roll
The Overall Idea: Students will use the manipulatives to practice comparing and contrasting.
Materials Needed: 10 playing cards per group, one die per group, a focus card.
Before class, I set up the focus card. In order to make my life easier, I projected this on the board instead of making a copy for each student.
Playing Card: For each round, students will flip over a playing card. If the card is red, the students will compare. If the card is black, the students will contrast.
Focus Card: This is where you will put what you want your students to focus on when comparing and contrasting. During the activity, students will roll the die to determine what they are going to compare or contrast. The number they roll will match the concept on the focus card. I have one card for literature and one for informational text.
For each round, students will flip a card and roll the die. So, if you are comparing and contrasting an informational text, if students flip over a 4 and roll a 1, they will have to compare the main points of the two articles. If students flip and roll the same combination, they will need to come up with a different response.
Students can write their responses in their notebook or you can use a worksheet like the one in the image.
Want to try it?
If you’re an ELA Unlimited member, check out the compare and contrast activities in section 7.
If you’re not yet a member and want to try out a resource, I have this activity available for download for FREE!
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