Building Writers With Mentor Texts: Compare and Contrast

I’m so happy to join The Reading Crew to bring you “Building Writers with Mentor Texts.” I will be sharing a compare and contrast lesson using two books from the Mother Bruce series by Ryan T Higgins. These hilarious books are a huge hit with my kids at home and in school. They chronicle the adventures of a grumpy bear named Bruce who finds himself raising baby geese.

Book Summary

Book 1 Hotel Bruce
When Bruce and his goslings return from migration, they are surprised to find that three mice have turned their home into “Hotel Bruce.” Needless to say, Bruce isn’t impressed and his effort to evacuate his guests is very entertaining.

Book 2: Bruce’s Big Move
After the hotel debacle, Bruce packs up the goslings and moves to a new home without the three mice. Things don’t turn out quite as Bruce planned!

Lesson

Begin by reading these two wonderful texts in whatever way works best for your class! You could read them both in one sitting, at separate times during the day, or on different days. Whatever you decide, once you have gotten through both, it is time to fill out the chart!

There are a variety of ways that you can do this. Students can work individually or in pairs to fill out either the paper-pencil version or Google version of the chart. Then you can meet back as a group to fill out the chart on the Promethean/Smartboard. If you prefer, you can do the whole activity whole group.

Additional Activities

These Mother Bruce books can also lend themselves to character trait lessons. Here is an example of one of my favorite character trait activities using WordArt. For more information check out this blog post, Quick and Easy Ways to Teach Character Traits.