Inside: Paired passages can be a challenge for even the most diligent reader. Balancing one question across two texts requires mental organization. This article describes a process in which teachers can plan for and create a powerful paired passage unit to increase student success. After all, that is what we all desire.
Full disclosure: I linked my relevant TPT products for your convenience.
What Not to Do
One of the first times I used a Venn Diagram to compare/contrast two paired passages, it totally bombed. My students rushed through the activity, listing basic recall facts on their Venn. Before long it was, “Mrs. Price, we’re done.” I spend the rest of the period backtracking, conferencing, and setting standards for what their paired passage analysis should look like.
What I wanted to see was deeper level thematic connections and analysis of the literary elements, but what I got was a short list of obvious facts… very little higher level thinking.
I didn’t give them enough direction, and I own that. They didn’t have the depth of thinking that I had hoped for, and I failed to provide the scaffolds required to get there. Lesson learned.
Beyond that first Venn though, I’ve noticed a recurring pattern: making thematic connections across paired passages is hard for secondary students. Balancing one question through two passages is tricky. If students have any sort of struggle with reading, paired passages can be a nightmare. However, they don’t have to be.
With intentional planning, you can set your students up for paired passage success.
Successful Strategies for Paired Passages
1. Choose Relevant Topics, Themes, and Texts
Take the time to look for topics/themes that will interest your students. Adolescents are interested in drama, so anything that can be argued is usually a win. I’ve also noticed that current events, stories with unexpected outcomes, and stories of fear/courage are popular.
Once you find interesting themes, bring them to the surface and build your texts and lessons around them. I’m a planning with the end in mind kind of girl, so make sure the texts hit the objectives that you need to teach.
I use these websites to build my paired text units:
- Common Lit – A favorite because you can sort by theme. It’s the fastest way to build a paired text set.
- Newsela – Perfect to incorporate current events and leveled texts.
- Poetry 180 – Poems for high schoolers. Enough for 1 day of each school year.
- Kelly Gallagher’s article of the week
As an example, my 6th grade ELA PLC chose the topic overcoming challenges. This broad category allowed us to teach endless texts across genres, including nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and drama. Better yet, it gave us space to teach growth mindset. (Don’t all of our kiddos need that?)
Need ideas? I recently launched a “Blushing and Crushing Paired Poems” unit in my TPT store. It’s filled with poems that teens and tweens will connect to.
2. Activate Prior Knowledge
Was this not the absolute best answer for every question in college? I remember this using this phrase repeatedly in my education courses, but at the time, I didn’t realize how valuable this step is.
If you’re teaching paired passages, use quick writes, engaging questions, info-graphics, and images to engage your students’ prior knowledge about the topics and themes.
This before reading strategy scaffolds the learning for your ELL students, helping build their background schema. For more engaging ELL ideas, read my previous post on lesson planning for ELL students.
One easy method: Ink Think
- Write thematically linked questions on large pieces of butcher paper.
- Have students silently walk around and write their answer.
- If they see something they agree with, they can write a check mark and explain why they agree.
- If they see something they disagree with, they can respectfully write a response explaining why they disagree.
3. Equip Them
Before they can compare/contrast the deeper level thinking about paired texts, they have to know how to analyze just one text. My experience is that it’s much easier to teach students to infer a topic/theme of a single text and get good at that before adding another.
Here are the basic skills that I recursively equip my students with before teaching them as paired passage strategies. In my book, it’s more effective to teach few skills well than many skills quickly.
- Analyzing figurative language
- Inferring topic/theme
- Using context to define vocabulary
- Summarizing
Learning these skills gives students tools to get to the next step, comparing. I’ve linked a few of my TPT products that provide a method for analyzing figurative language and inferring topic/theme.
The consistency of teaching the same skills to mastery has improved my students’ confidence with comparing texts.
4. Help them compare/contrast
Yes, give them a Venn, but provide a structure or list of what content they should be considering. Like I said before, without my guidance, my students spent their energy on simple recall facts instead of analysis. Recall of information is an important part of learning, but higher level thinking is where we want them to spend most of their time.
Examples of content for students to compare/contrast
Poetry/fiction/literary nonfiction:
- How authors use figurative language.
- How authors use any literary device (symbolism, refrain, repetition, alliteration etc) Get specific about the text you are teaching.
- The theme taught by the text.
- Events in the plot
- Rhyme scheme
Expository/nonfiction
- How author’s support their argument.
- Organizational patterns of the text
- Difference in text features and info-graphics
- Types of persuasive messages
- Types of rhetoric or persuasive techniques
- Methods use to support their argument (I use C.A.F.E. S.Qu.I.D.D. with this)
One easy method:
My favorite comparison activity is to have students create a Venn Diagram together. I use butcher paper and let students work in groups of 3 or 4. This works best after already having read and analyzed both paired texts. (A close reading activity) Students work together to fill out the Venn and then I give them the chance to Gallery Walk to see other group posters,
I use this Venn Diagram for poems as a go to method for my students to analyze paired poems.
5. Let Them Argue
When students work through paired texts, they often leave with different opinions and perspectives. Sometimes strong opinions serve as a lead in way to get students thinking about the text. Give them a paired passage question and let them (respectfully) argue their opinion. Socratic seminar is a meaningful way to structure class discussion
Students can argue their side of the argument, but they must have text proof to support their thinking. One of my coworkers sets up her classroom like a court, and students defend their thinking using text proof. Novelty helps students engage. I’ve been known to play the Law and Order theme song before asking students to provide their rationale… keep it fun.
Ultimately, Be Proactive!
The big picture is that paired passages are challenging for many students. Managing two texts requires executive functioning skills that countless students struggle with – especially our striving learners.
Let’s make it happen for them. Choose meaningful themes, bring in what they already know, teach solid literary analysis, guide their compare/contrast process, and finally, engage them in a heated debate over the topic.
If all else fails, let them color code each article with a different colored highlighter. When they go to tackle paired passage questions, they can color code the answer and choices with the corresponding highlighter. Taking the time to teach them how to organize the thoughts is where it’s at. They benefit greatly from hearing your process.
You’ve got this!
Happy Reading,
Mrs. Price
Looking for more text analysis ideas? You may enjoy my previous post on analyzing poetry , or my paired passages poetry bundle on TPT.