EL Support Lesson
Compare & Contrast Pictures
Objectives
Academic
Students will develop reading comprehension skills by comparing and contrasting books.
Language
Students will be able to compare and contrast stories at a discourse level using sentence frames and partner support.
Introduction
(5 minutes)
- Hold up the crayon and the marker.
- Ask the students how the crayon and marker are the same. Have them turn to a partner to share their ideas.
- Now ask the students how the crayon and the marker are different. Have them turn to a partner to share again.
Building academic language
Word
(5 minutes)- Tell the class that the crayon and the marker are the same, or alike, because you can write with both of them.
- Share that you just compared the two objects. Explain that when you compare, you think about how things are the same.
- Tell the class that the crayon and the marker are different, or not the same, because they are made of different materials.
- Share that you just contrasted the two objects. Explain that when you contrast, you think about how things are different.
Sentence
(10 minutes)- Tell students that when you compare objects, you can use the following sentence frame:
- The ____ and the ____ are the same because ____.
- Using the example of the marker and crayon, say, "The marker and the crayon are the same because you can write with both of them."
- Tell students that when you contrast objects, you can use the following sentence frame:
- The ____ (marker) and the ____ (crayon) are different because ____ (they are made of different materials).
- Hold up two different picture books. Have students use the above sentence frames to compare and contrast the books using the information they see on the covers.
Discourse
(10 minutes)- Put students in pairs, and hand out two picture books to each pair for students to examine. Have students use the following sentence frames:
- The books are the same because ____.
- The books are different because ____.
- Hand out index cards to students and have them write or draw ways that the books are the same on one card and ways that the books are different on the other card.
Additional EL adaptations
BEGINNING
- Have students work in a teacher-led small group.
- Have students use their home language to compare and contrast the books.
ADVANCED
- Have students write sentences on their index cards.
- Challenge students to read the books and do further comparing/contrasting.
Formative Assessment of Academic Language
(2 minutes)- Ask students to answer the following questions using the provided sentence stems:
- How were your books the same?
- "The books are the same because ____."
- How were your books different?
- "The books are different because ____."
- How were your books the same?
Review and closing
(3 minutes)- Call on pairs to volunteer to share how their books were similar and different.
