Comparing Characters and Settings

1. Read "Before the Storm": "On Elm Row the radio said the storm would arrive by dark. Mr. Okafor nailed boards across every window by noon, filled twelve bottles of water, and wrote a list on the fridge: flashlight, batteries, blankets, radio. When his nephew asked if they could go to the park first, he said, "Rules are rules. Nobody leaves the house." Across the road, Mrs. Lindqvist did not board anything. She baked four loaves of bread, put a sign on her gate that said COME IN IF YOU ARE SCARED, and knocked on six doors to ask who was alone. At six o'clock the radio told Elm Row to leave for the school gym. Mr. Okafor had his bags in the car within five minutes. Mrs. Lindqvist stayed until she had walked old Mr. Bell to the gym herself. Both of them, before anything else, had counted the children on the street."
2. Write on the board: "Mr. Okafor and Mrs. Lindqvist are different." Ask: what is missing from this sentence? Fish for: different in what way — we do not know what they are being compared on.

1. Write the first dimension in the grid: "How each prepares for danger." Fill both cells with details: Okafor — boards, twelve bottles, a list on the fridge; Lindqvist — bread, a sign on the gate, knocking on six doors.
2. Ask: what does this difference reveal? Fish for: he protects things and the house; she protects people and the street. Write: "Okafor prepares by securing his house; Lindqvist prepares by gathering people."
3. Second dimension: "How each responds to the order to leave." Okafor obeys within five minutes and says "Rules are rules"; Lindqvist delays to walk Mr. Bell. Reveals: he trusts rules to keep people safe; she trusts her own judgment about who needs help.
4. Third dimension, a similarity: "Who each thinks of first." Both counted the children. Ask: why would the author put that in the last sentence? Fish for: it shows that underneath their different methods, they care about the same thing — the story suggests both kinds of care are needed.
5. Show the list version: "Mr. Okafor nails boards. He has a list. Mrs. Lindqvist bakes bread. She has a sign." Ask why this is not a comparison. Answer: it is two descriptions side by side with no shared question.
6. Briefly apply the same move to setting: compare Okafor's boarded house with Lindqvist's open gate on the dimension "what the house says to people outside."

“Name what you are comparing them on before you write a word. Without a dimension you will write two descriptions side by side, and the reader has to do the comparing for you.”

1. Pairs use the grid to compare the two characters on three dimensions from this list: how each speaks to others, what each owns or uses, how each treats rules, what each does at six o'clock.
2. For each row they write one "reveals" sentence beginning "This shows that ...".
3. One of the three rows must be a similarity. Circulate and ask pairs who have only differences: what do both of them do in the last sentence of the story?

“A similarity between two very different people is often the most important finding. Ask yourself why the author bothered to make them alike in that one way.”

1. Students complete the comparison page; the passage is on the sheet.
2. They must write the dimension at the top of each box before any details.

1. Ask three students for one dimension and its "reveals" sentence. Award the strongest to the one that says something about the whole story, not just the two people.