Use this lesson with your students to practice comparing and contrasting the key details in two texts on the same topic. It can be a stand-alone lesson or a pre-lesson for the What's Similar? What's Different? lesson.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a 17th century writer and philosopher who today is considered one of the first documented feminists and advocates for women’s education. In this lesson, students will read two nonfiction texts about Sor Juana and discuss her life and accomplishments before writing an opinion piece about her.

How are plants’ traits affected by environmental factors? In this integrated science and reading lesson, students will use multiple sources to identify and determine how traits are influenced by the environment.

Help your students absorb the details of a text and make inferences about what they read with the strategy of close reading. By reading closely, students will become better able to understand complex themes and nuances in a text.