Comparing Two Texts on One Subject

1. Show only the two titles and first sentences. A: "Sea turtles spend almost their whole lives in the ocean, but they need beaches to survive." B: "Sea turtles need beaches, but beaches are changing."
2. Ask: "Both are about sea turtles and beaches. How do you think they will be different?" Take predictions such as "B will be about danger" and write them in the corner of the board to check later.

1. Read Text A: "Sea turtles spend almost their whole lives in the ocean, but they need beaches to survive. A mother turtle crawls onto the sand at night and digs a nest with her back flippers. She lays about 100 eggs, covers them and returns to the sea. Two months later, the tiny hatchlings dig out and race toward the moonlit water."
2. Read Text B: "Sea turtles need beaches, but beaches are changing. Bright lights from hotels confuse the hatchlings, and they crawl away from the sea instead of toward it. Plastic bags in the water look like jellyfish, which turtles eat. Now volunteers switch off lights and clean beaches to help."
3. Fill the main-point row. A: "Sea turtles need beaches to lay their eggs." B: "People are making beaches dangerous for sea turtles, but they can help." Ask: "Same main point?" Partly — both say turtles need beaches — but B is about danger and A is about nesting.
4. Fill the key-details row. A: nest dug at night, about 100 eggs, hatchlings after two months. B: hotel lights, plastic bags, volunteers. Then find the shared detail: hatchlings heading for the water — A says they go to the "moonlit water"; B says lights make them go the wrong way.
5. Ask: "Do the texts disagree?" No. A never mentions plastic and B never mentions egg numbers, but neither says the other is wrong. Different details are not disagreements.
6. Hold up a purpose card: "You are making a poster for hotel owners." Ask which text helps more. B — it names the lights. Then: "You want to know how turtles lay eggs." A. Better always means better FOR something.

“Two rows, not one. First, what is each text mostly saying? Then, which facts does each one use? Two texts can share a topic and still have different main points — and different details are not the same as disagreeing.”

1. Give pairs two new texts on volcanoes. C: "A volcano is an opening in the Earth's crust. Hot melted rock called magma pushes up from deep below. When it bursts out, it is called lava." D: "Volcanoes can be dangerous, but people live near them. The ash makes soil very rich, so farmers grow good crops. Scientists watch volcanoes closely and warn people before an eruption."
2. Pairs fill all four cells. Expected main points: C — how a volcano works; D — people live near volcanoes because of good soil, and scientists keep them safe. Shared detail: both mention what comes out of a volcano (lava; ash).
3. Pairs write one sentence: "The texts are closer on their ___ than on their ___ because ___."
4. Each pair answers one purpose card: "Which text would help someone explain what lava is?" (C) or "Which text explains why people live near volcanoes?" (D).

“Fill the main-point row first. If you start with details, you will lose sight of what each text is mostly saying.”

1. Students complete the printable practice sheet: two short passages on one topic and a comparison grid.
2. Check the main-point row first as you circulate; it is the row most often left as a list of facts.

1. Go back to the warm-up predictions about the turtle texts. Ask which came true, and which row of the grid shows it.