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3rd Grade · Reading · RL.3.9, RI.3.9

Compare and Contrast Lesson Plan for 3rd Grade

A ready-to-teach compare and contrast lesson for 3rd Grade, built around comparing two stories with the same characters in a venn diagram, and comparing the key points of two texts on one topic. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.

Approximately 47 minutes

Learning objective

  • Compare two stories with the same characters
  • Fill in a Venn diagram with likenesses and differences
  • Write how two stories are alike and different

Materials

Lesson steps

  1. 1. Build the background (5 min)

    Connect compare and contrast to a book the class already finished. Prior knowledge is doing most of the work in comprehension, so spend the time here.

  2. 2. Read aloud and think aloud (I do) (10 min)

    Read a short passage aloud and stop twice to narrate your own thinking about compare and contrast. Students are learning the move, not the answer.

  3. 3. Guided practice (we do) (12 min)

    Read a second passage together. This time students find the evidence and you record it. Push every answer back to the text with "what words told you that?"

  4. 4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)

    Hand out "Compare Two Stories About Pip the Puppy". Students read and answer on their own. Circulate and ask individuals to point to the line in the text that supports their answer.

  5. 5. Share and close (5 min)

    Two or three students share an answer and the evidence behind it. Restate compare and contrast one final time in the students' own words, not yours.

Check for understanding

Ask each student to point to the evidence in the text for one of their answers. A student who has the right answer but cannot find the line has not yet learned compare and contrast.

Differentiation

Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild compare and contrast with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.

Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own compare and contrast problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand compare and contrast.

Skills covered in this lesson

Compare two stories · Compare two texts

Practice pages for this lesson

6 items, 12 printable pages that match the independent-practice step.

Questions teachers ask about teaching compare and contrast

What is the difference between compare and contrast?
To compare is to tell how two things are alike. To contrast is to tell how they are different. A Venn diagram shows both, with what is alike in the middle and the differences in the outside parts.
Why do the two stories have the same characters?
In 3rd grade, children compare the themes, settings and plots of stories by the same author about the same or similar characters (RL.3.9). Keeping Pip or Captain Fluff in both stories makes it easier to see what changed from one story to the next.
How do children compare two informational texts?
They write three key points from Text A and three from Text B, answer questions about the texts, then write one fact found only in Text A and one found only in Text B. This is the RI.3.9 skill of comparing the most important points in two texts on the same topic.
Is there an answer key for each worksheet?
Yes. All ten compare and contrast sheets have an answer key, with sample answers for the Venn diagrams and charts.

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