Paired Passages for 4th & 5th Grades

Learning to read is a process, a long process. I have found that there are two primary phases. From kindergarten through 2nd grade, students are ‘learning to read.’ From about 3rd grade forward, students move into a phase that I refer to as ‘reading to learn.’ Learning to think critically while reading is a goal of this second phase of reading instruction. Using paired passages is a great way to teach these important thinking skills.

Effective ways to teach paired passages and paired text.

What Are Paired Passages?

Paired passages as two different texts on the same topic or with the same underlying theme. Using this pair of texts allows students to work on some important thinking skills like comparing and contrasting, connecting, and inferencing.

Students read each passage and then answer questions on them individually and corporately. It is this second set of questioning that really takes our students thinking to another level.

Some paired passages involve two non-fiction texts, while other are one non-fiction text and one fiction text. There is a benefit to both types of paired passages in helping students develop important thinking skills.

Important Skills

reading brain power

Here’s just a few of the important thinking skills students practice when working on paired passages:

  • Comparing and Contrasting information
  • Determining author’s purpose and how it might change in a different text
  • Drawing conclusions
  • Inferencing based on prior knowledge (the first read text can be prior knowledge)
  • Improved comprehension from gaining additional information
  • Vocabulary and word meaning determination

How to Use Them

Generally, paired passages should be taught together, time permitting. Students should read one text and then the other before discussing or working on comprehension questions. The reason this works well is that is causes students to process one text in light of the second text. This really opens the mental door for students to connect the information in their brain, use the texts together to help figure out unknown words and to draw conclusions on the topic.

If you must break the texts into two or more teaching times, then I would encourage you to intentionally remind students of the first text before reading the second. This way the second text is not ‘just another reading passage’ but the students know from the beginning there is some relationship.

More Bang for Your Buck

I love teaching with paired passages because you can do more with them. Students can work on more skills than with a single passage, they offer opportunities for higher-level thinking, and they allow students to build a deeper understanding of the topic. This last reason is why I also love connecting our reading passages to science and social studies concepts when I can.

And if I still haven’t convinced you that you need to be using them in your classroom, here’s one more reason (although I hate to use it because it’s like hitting below the belt) . . . paired passages are on most state test and the SAT! Although I am not a fan of teaching to the test we must prepare our students for the tests they will face.

Paired Passages for 4th & 5th Grades

Because I love them so much, I have put a lot of time into developing paired reading passages on a variety of topics.

You can find all of these passages for 4th and 5th Grade bundled together in my store!

If you aren’t ready for the bundle then why not try one.

If you’d prefer to visit Teachers Pay Teachers, you can find all of my Paired Passages there too!

Save this for later

Just pin this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can jump back over when you are ready for paired passages!

paired reading passages teaching tips

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