Identifying similarities and differences among things or ideas is at the top of Robert Marzano’s list of “high-yield” classroom strategies across grade levels and content areas.
![Compare and Contrast Compare and Contrast](https://hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/apples_to_oranges_400_clr_5502-298x224.png)
In fact, Marzano and his colleagues found that teaching students to think comparatively led to an increase of 45 percentile points on performance assessments – higher than any other classroom strategy!
Using Compare and Contrast in the classroom helps students relate new information to what is already known, make abstract concepts more concrete, think more flexibly and metacognitively, and communicate more effectively (Compare & Contrast by Harvey H. Silver, ASCD)
Teaching students to find similarities and differences in stories or elements of stories can help them make those valuable text-to-text connections when they read. There are many ways we can support comparative thinking in the literacy classroom by having students compare and contrast:
- genres and text structures
- different passages by the same author
- topics or themes
- plot structure
- characters
- literary techniques
- fiction and nonfiction passages on the same theme
- different variations of the same story
- passages on the same theme with different writing styles/voices
- passages on the same theme written for different audiences and/or purposes
GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS TO SUPPORT COMPARATIVE THINKING WITH LITERATURE
Scroll down to find a collection of suggested pairings of HIP novels for comparing and contrasting.
HIP’S FAVORITE FOLDABLE VENN DIAGRAM
Save time at the photocopier by teaching students to fold their own graphic organizers.
Click on the image to download a completed sample comparing SURVIVAL and OUR PLANE IS DOWN.
HIP PARTNER TITLES FOR COMPARING AND CONTRASTING
Click on the image to download a completed sample comparing the main characters in STREET RACER and PLAYING CHICKEN.
Click here to download a blank Double Bubble Graphic Organizer.
![Wave & Overboard: HIP novels with water adventures Wave & Overboard: HIP novels with water adventures](https://www.hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2017-05-27-at-9.06.16-PM.png)
![Street Racer & Playing Chicken Street Racer & Playing Chicken: HIP novels about street racing](https://www.hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2017-05-27-at-9.08.31-PM.png)
STREET RACER and PLAYING CHICKEN both focus on young men in cars, reckless behavior and tragic results.
![Survival & Our Plane Survival & Our Plane is Down: HIP novels with teen heroes in plane crashes](https://www.hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2017-05-27-at-9.07.30-PM.png)
SURVIVAL and OUR PLANE IS DOWN are both about plane crashes in the bush. Teen heroes must fight for their own survival – and save the others.
![Student Narc & Hacker Student Narc & Hacker: HIP novels with school settings](https://www.hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2017-05-27-at-9.07.53-PM.png)
High school kids do their part to catch criminals – drug dealers and computer hackers – in both HACKER and STUDENT NARC.
![HIP Partner Texts – Turf War, Street Scene, Death on the Sidewalk Turf War, Street Scene, Death on the Sidewalk - HIP Partner Texts for compare and contrast](https://www.hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/screen-shot-2022-08-10-at-8.56.07-am-1.png)
STREET SCENE, DEATH ON THE SIDEWALK and TURF WAR describe gang conflicts in the inner city.
![Dark Ryder and Misty Knows: HIP novels about horses Dark Ryder and Misty Knows: HIP novels about horses](https://www.hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2017-05-27-at-9.06.37-PM.png)
Lovers of horse stories will appreciate the similarities and differences in these two tales of horse rescues – MISTY KNOWS and DARK RYDER.
![Frozen & Caught in the Blizzard: HIP Novels with Arctic Settings Frozen & Caught in the Blizzard: HIP Novels with Arctic Settings](https://www.hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2017-05-27-at-9.05.50-PM.png)
FROZEN and CAUGHT IN THE BLIZZARD tell of teens lost in an Arctic storm.
![HIP Show Off and Curse of the Skull – teen novels about peer pressure HIP Show Off and Curse of the Skull - teen novels about peer pressure](https://www.hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/screen-shot-2022-07-23-at-12.07.16-pm.png)
SHOW OFF and CURSE OF THE SKULL tell of characters – one female and one male – who face peer pressure to engage in illegal activities and the consequences they face.
![HIP One Last Scar and Outrage – teen novels for comparative thinking HIP One Last Scar and Outrage - teen novels for comparative thinking](https://www.hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/screen-shot-2022-07-23-at-12.07.35-pm-1.png)
Compare two quite different stories about troubled teens by the same author in OUTRAGE and ONE LAST SCAR.
![HIP Behind the Door and The Warning Book – 2 scary stories for comparative HIP Behind the Door and The Warning Book - 2 scary stories for comparative thinking](https://www.hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/screen-shot-2022-07-23-at-12.07.41-pm.png)
BEHIND THE DOOR and THE WARNING both feature tales of the supernatural, one a full-length novel and the other a collection of short stories.
![HIP Partner texts – Choose Your Bully and The Bully HIP Partner texts - Choose Your Bully and The Bully](https://www.hip-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/screen-shot-2022-08-10-at-3.54.00-pm.png)
THE BULLY and CHOOSE YOUR BULLY compare situations with female and male bullies.