Grade
Skill/Strategy:
4
Unit
4
Week
1
Compare and Contrast
Essential Questions: Why do we compare and contrast? How can I write a compare and contrast paper?
Review: When you compare and contrast you tell how two or more things are alike and different. A chart can
help you compare and contrast. You can compare and contrast two things you read about or something you
read about with something you already know.
Reading Street, Grade 4, Unit 4, p. 392.
Part A: This will take at least 2 days.
Please use the PowerPoint file attached or show full size prints of the slides. The attached stories will be used
in the lesson also. The students will each need a back to back copy of the C/C graphic organizer.
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Work with students to read slides 1-17, discussing these as you go.
Use the first two stories for the example on slides 18-20.
Then, use the next two stories for slide 21, asking students to complete their graphic organizers before
showing the examples on the slide. Ask students to write a compare and contrast paragraph following
the format suggested. (You may want students to work with partners.)
Finally, read through the remaining slides. Encourage students to add transition words as needed.
Students should each read their paragraphs.
Part B:
Using the writing format from part A, ask students to complete a graphic organizer to compare and contrast two
items (you may choose). Then, ask students to compose a paragraph, add transition words, and read their
paragraphs to the group.
Compare and Contrast Stories
Newspaper Reporter
Did you ever wonder how a
newspaper reporter gets a
story? A reporter goes to many
places to get stories. The
reporters talk to people to get
the information wanted. This information is
written down in note form. Back at the
newspaper office, the reporter uses the notes to
write up the story.
King Midas and the Golden
Touch
King Midas wants more and
more gold, and is finally
granted his wish: Everything he
touches will turn to gold—he has the Midas
touch! He is ecstatic, as even the flowers
become gold under his powerful touch.
Unfortunately, when King Midas touches his
daughter she turns into a gold statue, and it is
at that moment he realizes that all the gold in
the world does not compare to his daughter or
her love.
Newspaper Photographer
The newspaper photographer
takes many pictures of an event.
Once the photographer comes
back to the newspaper office, the
pictures are developed in about
15 minutes. From all the pictures
taken, only one or two are
chosen to be printed in the
newspaper.
Erik and the Magic Carpet
There's a legend in Denmark about a lazy young man
named Erik. When his father dies and leaves him a magic
carpet, Erik flies to a distant land. He convinces the Sultan
to let him marry his daughter. But before the wedding, he
steals the Sultan's jewels and
precious things. He piles them all
onto the magic carpet, but on the
way back to Denmark, they fall into
the sea because they were too
heavy.
adapted from http://pbskids.org
Zach and the Egyptian Relic
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Zach is embarrassed that his
history project is too lame. It's an
imitation of a relic that his father
brought back from a trip to Egypt.
Zach tells his class that the relic is
real. His teacher asks permission to display the
ancient relic in the History Fair. Zach realizes
that if everyone found out about his lie, no one
would ever trust him again.
When the shepherd boy called for help to save his sheep
from an attacking wolf, the townspeople who rushed to his
rescue were not amused when they learned it was only a
trick. When he did it a second and
a third time, they started to get
angry. When he called for help
again—and this time it was for
real—no one came to his rescue.
adapted from "The Boy Who Cried
Wolf" by Aesop