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Unit  Sustaining Community
Lesson Name  Using Paired Text to Teach Perspective
Grade Band 

Elementary (3-5)

Middle School (6-8)

High School (9-12)
Required Materials
Standards / Competencies 

SEL Core Competencies: 

  • Self-Awareness: identifying emotions, experiencing self-efficacy, linking feelings, values and thoughts, demonstrating honesty and integrity 

  • Self-Management: managing one’s emotions, exhibiting self-discipline 

  • Social Awareness: taking others’ perspectives, recognizing strengths in others, demonstrating empathy and compassion, identifying diverse social norms, showing concern for the feelings of others 

  • Relationship Skills: communicating effectively, developing positive relationships, showing leadership in groups, resolving conflicts constructively, seeking or offering support when needed 

ELA Standards: Listening and Speaking, Reading, Writing 

Social Studies Theme: Individual Development and Identity 
Recommended Time  90 mins 
Essential Question  How can connections deepen our understanding of others’ perspectives
and the world around us?
Learning Objectives 

Literature is a tool to extend upon “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors.” Mirrors allow children to see reflections of themselves through physical, cultural, or emotional dimensions of texts. Through windows, children can see different people, experiences, and worlds while providing opportunities to learn about similarities and differences. Complementary to windows, sliding glass doors allow children to experience change through literacy engagement with books.

Students will make connections to themselves, the world around them and within two texts to deeper conceptual understanding.

Students will analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the author’s approach.
Activating Prior Knowledge 

Begin by introducing the following quote by Dr. Rudine Bishop: “Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror.” 

Supplemental Video by Dr. Bishop:

Mirrors,
Windows and Sliding Glass Doors
Core Instruction 

Introduce Gill
Reading with Intent.pdf – “Readers ask questions, notice all elements of a picture book, wonder what may happen next and make connections”.

Invite students to reflect on the Sentence Stems and relate to their personal reading material. Share aloud. 

Example Paired Text Set:  

Hansel and Gretel by Paul Zelinsky

Into the Forest by Anthony Browne

Texts provide two different perspectives on a popular fairytale: one traditional and one with an intriguing, updated twist.

Consider relating perspective to the point of view of the narrator to begin.

“Readers today, we are going to read two books that are written by different authors but are connected thematically or in some way.  I would like you to stop, think and notice visual elements as well as the story as we do our Picture Walk”.

Conduct a Picture
Walk.pdf with students.  This is a time to thoroughly look at the visual elements and layers of the story, make predictions, anticipations, wonderings, and generate inferences about the visuals.

Provide students with the following handout to document any notes or findings. Sanampreet
Gill Researching a Picture Book (2).pdf

Next, engage students with a read-aloud experience.  Utilizing self-questioning dialogue is recommended to prove, disprove predictions and study the character.  Consider maintaining a rich dialogue surrounding character development, problem and solution, depending on the needs of your students.

Gill
Picture Walk Questioning.pdf

Conclude first reading, allow time for open discussion and reflection.  Students may complete notes in their sheet.  Next, introduce the second book in the same manner.

Finally, reflect and share one thing that was“similar and/or different”.

To delve deeper into the intertextual connections, provide students with Paired
Text Intertextuality Chart.pptx.pdf and independent or small group work time to reflect upon connections between both texts.
Wrap-up  Share aloud as a whole group.  Revisit perspective and invite
students to share their reflections and understandings of the common
theme.
Learning Beyond Classroom Walls  Students can mindfully engage with literature, make connections as
they take on the perspective of others through engaging in reflective
dialogue.
Instructional Content Adaptations 

  • ​​Students may need modeling of purposeful, engaging reading behavior and scaffolding to engage them initially.  

  • Depending on your classroom, you may do the lesson as a whole group first and complete the Intertextuality Chart together.

  • Students may need reminding that it is okay if their prediction was not right, this is the moment learning occurs.

  • Consider book choice while planning initial learning experience. 

  • Utilize writing or sketch or technology to represent important intertextual connections.

  • Begin with single text to model picture walk, repeated reading.

  • To differentiate this learning experience, students may conduct picture walks with peers or in small groups.  It is recommended to engage students in the read aloud experience as a whole class and then gradually release the responsibility to students to research the visuals of their own paired texts in small groups. 

  • For struggling readers, consider electronic books through Bookshare or Learning Ally

Lesson prepared by Sanampreet Gill

Download this lesson to access handouts.