Description
What our Comparing and Contrasting lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Comparing and Contrasting teaches students how to find similar traits and those that differ between objects. Students will be able to define both terms and correctly use them in various situations. This lesson is for students in 1st grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. The supplies you will need for this lesson are items for students to compare and contrast and the handouts. To prepare for this lesson ahead of time, you can gather the supplies and copy the handouts.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. For the activity, one optional adjustment is to read stories and compare two characters rather than comparing items. You could also pair students and have each pair compare and contrast themselves and their partner.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. It notes that students compare and contrast every day in their day to day lives without realizing it, and that making that connection can be a good introduction to the concepts in this lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
COMPARING AND CONTRASTING LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
The Comparing and Contrasting lesson includes one page of content. The lesson begins by asking students to find things that are the same about two objects (a basketball and a soccer ball). It then asks them to find things that are different. Students will learn that comparing two objects refers to finding things that are similar between the two. Contrasting two objects refers to finding the traits or properties that are different. Students can use these skills when reading stories or school books. The lesson also includes an example paragraph for students to practice comparing and contrasting characters with.
At the bottom of the page, there is a helpful chart that will remind students what to look for. When comparing, they should ask themselves what is the same between two items. When contrasting, they should ask what is different between two items.
COMPARING AND CONTRASTING LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Comparing and Contrasting lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
ITEM PAIRS ACTIVITY
Students can work in pairs, groups, or on their own for the activity. You will provide each student, or group of students, several pairs of objects. Students will compare and contrast the items in each pair. The table on the worksheet shows three columns. Students will write what items they received in each pair in the first column. They will then write what is the same in the second column. Finally, they will write what differs between the objects in the third column.
COMPARING AND CONTRASTING PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet lists four groups of compare and contrast lines. There are pictures of two objects on the right that correspond to each group of lines. Students will compare and contrast each set of pictures and write what they find on the given lines.
VENN DIAGRAM HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
For the homework assignment, students will compare different sets of two items. They will use Venn diagrams to show what they find. There are three sets of items for them to compare and contrast.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes an answer key for the practice worksheet. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits this page. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
