Connections & Distinctions
Aligned to RI.8.3 — Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
What this lesson teaches
Authors link and separate ideas using comparisons, analogies, and categories. Notice how a text groups events or contrasts individuals to make a point clearer.
Worked examples
Example 1
An article compares a virus spreading to a rumor moving through a school, an analogy that clarifies the abstract idea of contagion by tying it to something familiar.
Example 2
Comparing a national budget to a household budget clarifies scale and hides the difference: a household cannot issue its own currency.
Example 3
Every analogy breaks somewhere. Knowing where it breaks is how you tell an explanation from a sales pitch.
Practice questions
- Find where a text compares two ideas or events.
- Explain what an analogy helps the reader understand.
- Identify a category the author uses to group examples.
Watch the lesson
Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.
▶ Watch this lessonEn español
Conexiones y Distinciones
Los autores enlazan y separan ideas mediante comparaciones, analogías y categorías. Observa cómo un texto agrupa sucesos o contrasta individuos para aclarar un punto.
Ejemplo 1: Un artículo compara la propagación de un virus con un rumor que recorre una escuela; esa analogía aclara la idea abstracta del contagio al ligarla con algo conocido.
Ejemplo 2: Comparar el presupuesto de un país con el de una casa aclara la escala y esconde la diferencia: una casa no puede emitir su propia moneda.
Ejemplo 3: Toda analogía se rompe en algún punto. Saber dónde se rompe es como distingues una explicación de un argumento de venta.
More Reading: Informational lessons
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