Contrasting Two Characters

Differentiation for Comprehension

“Learning to see and create visual images must be recognized as essential to the learning process” – Bette Fetter, Educational Author

Students are often asked to contrast two characters' qualities or points of view. To support all students, provide everyone with this graphic organizer, so they can visually keep track of their thoughts and revisit their documents to build comprehension. (Here's the link to this graphic organizer.)

For example, some students in fourth grade Wonders recently read about historical figure Judy Bonds' activism against coal mining. The passage is packed with information about Bonds' concerns.

While reading complex text as a class, you can stop students repeatedly to fill out this graphic organizer. Model how to list and/or doodle important points from what's being read. This helps students understand and remember how two characters or points of view differ. (Comprehension increases if students turn and talk/explain their work.)

An added benefit of this graphic organizer is that it helps prepare students to write. When we provided our students with sentence frames to complete a writing activity about Judy Bonds, students had the support of their graphic organizers to help them generate what to write.

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