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Two Tales, One Pattern is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on comparing themes, settings and plots of related stories, aligned to Common Core standard RL.3.9. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 20 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Two Tales, One Pattern

RL.3.9

NameDate

Read Text 1 and answer the question under it.

1.Read Text 1 and answer the question under it.

Text 1: The Museum Key (a scene from a play)

SCENE TWO. The museum store room. Night. Boxes everywhere. A single desk lamp. PRIYA: (whispering) It was here on Tuesday. On this shelf. JON: You are sure it was this shelf? PRIYA: I dusted it. I am sure. JON: (lifting a lid) Then somebody moved it after Tuesday. PRIYA: Or before Tuesday, and I dusted the empty space. (Pause. JON puts the lid down slowly.) JON: That is worse. PRIYA: I know.

  1. 1. What is the only light in the room?
2.Now read Text 2 and answer these questions about BOTH texts.

Text 2: Conker

First stanza: Inside the green and spiny case, packed in a lining soft as silk, it waits all summer in the dark and grows the colour of stained milk. Second stanza: Then autumn cracks the case in two. It falls. It hits the path and shines so hard and bright and newly made you cannot walk past it. Nobody can. Third stanza: By Sunday it is dull and cracked and lighter than it was before — a small brown stone inside a pocket, and no one wants it any more.

  1. 1. How is a scene from a play different from a chapter of a story?
  2. 2. What do this poem and the play scene share?
  3. 3. How is a poem different from the play scene?

LessonPrint · RL.3.9 · Set 20 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Two Tales, One Pattern

Set 20. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. A single desk lamp.
  2. 2.1. A scene gives speech and stage directions only; a chapter can tell you what a character thinks. 2. Both are short and both build to a turn — the conker falling, Jon putting the lid down — and leave the reader to conclude. 3. A poem is in stanzas with rhythm and comparison; a scene is speech and stage directions.

More practice for RL.3.9

Compare two books from a series on theme, setting and plot.

Teaching this next? Comparing Stories by One Author is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 3 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.3.9 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.