We use compare and contrasting throughout our life. It’s how we as humans tend to look at the world. Is bananas as good as apples? Is this blanket softer than this one? Etc. You get the point. So how do we use this in our lessons?

Well I like to start with teaching the 5 Ws. The Who, What, Why, When, and Where.

Who – who are the characters? Who wrote it or created the source?

Where – where does it take place?

When – when did it take place? Past, present, future?

Why – what is the motivation or goals of the characters? What is the purpose of this source?

What – what happened to change the beginning, middle and end?

Now this can be used for teaching ELA/ Language Arts, History, Art and so many other subjects. This can also be good for using a multitude of resources like books, movies, newspapers etc.

Now I did make a master list on Book based Movies. A large list to use for all ages so if you need ideas you can check it out. I will fix up that article to make it easier for age appropriate. I also created this printable you can access to print off and use no matter the source. Some questions may need to be reworded for newspapers and subject but its great for History and ELA.

I’m also going to link in our Minecraft Story- time Lesson, should you choose to utilize these questions within the minecraft world, they are on there with building and developing tasks.