Choose two books for your class from a fourth-grade reading list. Examples of books at a fourth-grade level include "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney and "Aesop's Fables." Divide your class into two groups. One group compares; the other contrasts. Each group writes a short essay and a list of the differences or similarities, depending on which group they are, of the two books you've provided. At the end of the exercise, students from each group take turns reading from the essay and list, then discuss how these differences and similarities affect each of the books.
Assign students to watch a movie based on a book you've assigned the class to read. Movies made from books are ideal for comparing and contrasting, as the stories are essentially the same. However, a story made into a movie usually involves changes so that the book can effectively transition from the page to the big screen. The compare-and-contrast method may uncover interesting similarities and differences that give your students insight into how a story can be altered yet still yield the same basic message. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is ideal because the book is at a fourth-grade reading level and has been made into a movie.
Write down a list of books for your students to choose from. These should be books your students are familiar with and stories that deliver a message relating to the real world, such as "The Ugly Duckling." Ask students to write a compare-and-contrast essay that begins with an opening paragraph giving a general statement about the story. Advise students to follow this with a paragraph comparing the story to their own lives, followed by a paragraph contrasting the story to their own lives. Fairy tales work well here because they typically incorporate life messages your students can use in comparing the stories to their lives.
Place images in front of your students. The images can be of nature, animals or even book covers. Although the compare-and-contrast method is most often used in literature, this visual exercise is an alternate way of illustrating the concept of comparing and contrasting and can be useful at a fourth-grade level. The concept is the same, but because kids, particularly in the elementary stages of education, often respond better to visual stimuli, using images may help demonstrate comparing and contrasting to those students having a hard time grasping the concept.