Compare and Contrast with Partner (Venn Diagram)

Combining two important tasks for Multilingual Learners

To understand academic content, students are often asked to compare and contrast. I like to get all students ready for this academic task by having them get to know each other too. Developing a classroom community that is based on learning, requires that students from all linguistic backgrounds get to know each other.

For this activity, intentionally pair students who might not normally sit together. Together, they create a Venn Diagram (link provided) which includes their similarities and differences. To support MLs at the beginning stages you could provide sentence stems such as:

I love ____________

I worry about ____________

I have ____________

I don’t have ____________

I would like to ____________

I speak ____________

I can ____________

After students finish, they can present them to the class by projecting it for all to see. Another idea is to post them around the classroom and give students an opportunity to wander and read them with music playing in the background.

Example:

Here’s a link to a blank Venn Diagram: