Maryland ELA RL.2.9
The Standard
Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures. Identify common themes in stories or poems.
Maryland College and Career Ready Standards for English Language Arts (2025)
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read two versions of the same story and name what stays the same and what changes. They also find a message shared by stories or poems.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can compare events, characters, or settings in two retellings and point to a detail in each. They can state a shared message as a sentence, not just a word like “kindness.”
Common Misconceptions
- Students may say two stories are the same because both have a similar main character, while missing changes in events or setting. They may call a topic, such as friendship, a theme instead of saying what the stories suggest about friendship.
How to Assess It
- After reading Cinderella and Yeh-Shen, ask: “Name one event they share, one event that differs, and a message both stories teach. Give one detail from each story that supports your message.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs event cards from Cinderella and Yeh-Shen to place in a Venn diagram labeled with the two story titles.
Read two short poems about helping a friend, then ask, “What message do both poems give? Which line in each poem supports it?”
Play a matching game with four printed poems and message cards; students must point to a line before keeping a match.
Bring two Cinderella picture books from the library and compare their covers and back-cover summaries before reading.
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Printable RL.2.9 Worksheet
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