R.8.5.g

Description: Compare/contrast details in literary and informational nonfiction texts.
Maps to Reading Plus skills: 9A

Exemplars

9A: Comparing/Contrasting

9A: Comparing/Contrasting

Description: Compare, Contrast, and/or Integrate

SeeReader
✓ standard met

Selection: H-51

H-51

Grade level: 8
Word count: 1624 words
Author: David Alexander
Synopsis: Tennis legends Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King shared many of the same qualities and used their fame for good causes.
Excerpt: In 1974, Billie Jean established the Women's Sports Foundation to make the lives of women and girls better through sports. "In the 1970s, we had to make it acceptable for people to accept girls and women as athletes," she said. "We had to make it okay for them to be active."

Ashe was active in protesting the apartheid policies that discriminated against blacks in South Africa. In 1985, he was arrested at an anti-apartheid rally outside the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. He was arrested again in 1992 while protesting a crackdown on refugees from Haiti.

Question: Read these two excerpts. What two things do they tell you about King and Ashe?
  1. They both were active in fighting discrimination.
  2. They both experienced some kind of discrimination.
  3. They both were willing to be arrested for protesting unfair government policies.
  4. They both retired from tennis and became owners of successful tennis businesses.
  5. They both thought all boys and girls should join the tennis teams at their schools.

Writing
✓ standard met

Writing prompt: Compare and contrast two stages of a fictional or real person's life. Use details from a selection you have read to illustrate and explain your answer.

Evaluator

Organization: Certica Solutions