To compare is to find how things are ALIKE. To contrast is to find how they are DIFFERENT. Readers do both at once.

Signal words: Alike: both, same, also, alike. Different: but, however, unlike, while, instead. Picture two overlapping circles: what belongs to only one goes on the outsides; what they SHARE goes in the middle.

Model with something easy first: compare a school bus and a fire truck aloud. Both are large vehicles with wheels and flashing lights (middle of the circles). But a bus carries students while a fire truck carries firefighters; a bus is yellow, a fire truck is red (outsides).

Now the real skill: comparing across STORIES. Remember Bree and Sam from Camp Catahoula (Week 6)? Both campers faced the same lake crossing. But Sam listened and practiced first, while Bree skipped the safety tips. Same challenge, different choices, and that difference is what the story is really about.

Watch for the classic error: listing facts about each thing separately without connecting them. Push for sentences that hold BOTH things at once: "Both..." and "Unlike X, Y..."