Comparing and contrasting goes beyond beyond obvious differences—it includes critical thinking skills, too! Through a short video, writers learn how to organize ideas within a compare/contrast paper. The video highlights different styles of organization and brainstorming strategies—great for all learning styles!

Concepts

compare and contrast, compare and contrast essays, compare and contrast texts, writing strategies, writing structure

Show More Show Less

Additional Tags

english language arts

Show More Show Less

Instructional Ideas

• Draw a few Venn diagrams on chart paper and place them around the room, asking learners to walk around and compare/contrast different topics on each Venn diagram
• Write a sample compare/contrast paper and, as a class, deconstruct the paper to discover the comparisons and contrasts it contains

Classroom Considerations

• Pause the video on scenes with large amounts of text to allow viewers time to read the screen

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• Provides a sample topic and models each strategy discussed
• Includes visual elements, such as illustrations and graphic organizers, to enhance the content

Cons

• Gives a significant amount of attention to some strategies and glosses over others

Common Core

W.9-10.4 W.9-10.5 W.11-12.4 W.11-12.5