Compare and Contrast without the Venn Diagram

We have been reading The Teacher from the Black Lagoon and The Principal from the Black Lagoon.  Two wonderfully funny books about how students sometimes hear how mean a teacher or principal can be and then their imagination runs wild on all the awful things the school staff does to students who get into trouble.

There are several of these Mike Thaler books and the kids just love them for the outrageous things that happen: a teacher who eats half a kid to teach fractions and a principal who spanks with a 12 foot poisoned spiked paddle!!

After reading both books and doing some deeper thinking on Post It notes about what the student was experiencing, we moved on to comparing the two stories.  We used Post It notes for this too.  We put our similarities and differences on Post Its and stuck them on our planning board.

Then I took their thoughts and typed them (to save time).  The next day, to check their thinking and comprehension, I handed out the differences and they had to say which book the comparison came from and we placed it on the chart.  How the books were the same went in the middle.  

I needed a new way to do comparing and contrasting.  I was tired of the Venn Diagram and the T-chart.  I get bored with doing the same things and need to change it up.  This picture took no time to make and it was very motivating for the students.  As soon as they walked in and saw it, they were all over it- what is this, what's it for, did you draw that???  They now think I am the best artist!  But I did come clean and tell them all I did was trace it on the Smartboard.  I think they still think it took lots of talent and that's okay with me!