What are paired passages? I’m so glad you asked! Paired passages are two texts about the same topic. First, students read the passages independently. Then, students use their reading skills to analyze the passages together. Using paired passages is an important skill in third grade. They often show up in tests, and being able to compare two informational texts is a really important skill when conducting scientific research.
Text: How to Use Paired Passages During 3rd Grade Science
Image: Text is displayed over an image of four children reading a book while laying on the grass.
Paired passages are often used in a literacy lesson, which is a great place to start! But I’m a big believer in integrated learning. Students shouldn’t only be using paired passages in literacy lessons. They need to know how to read two texts and use their key reading skills in scientific settings as well. So let’s dive into how to use paired passages in third grade.
Pick the Passages
These paired passages all about Fossils come from the integrated reading and science unit “Fossils”.
The first step is choosing paired passages that go with your current science standards. If you’re learning about fossils, pick two passages that look at fossils! Maybe you want students to learn about dinosaur bones and dinosaur fossils, so you find passages about how paleontologists find bones and fossils. If you’re studying life cycles of ocean fish you may find a passage about fish that live in coral reefs and another passage about fish that live in the trenches. Or maybe you want to teach students about cause and effect, so you pick a passage about garbage in coral reefs and a passage about how straws affect turtles.
Give it a try for free! The ‘engineering design process’ is a scientific standard for second, third and fourth grades and this set of paired passages addresses two famous bridges: The Golden Gate Bridge and the Sidney Harbour Bridge.
Annotate the Passages
After picking the texts, it’s time to read them with students and teach them how to interact with the text. Have students annotate the passages. I like to teach students how to locate important information and then use a highlighter. Teach them how to pick out key words and phrases, instead of highlighting huge chunks of text. Teach students how to find similar information in the paired passages.
For example, if they are trying to identify features of fish, they shouldn’t be underlining information about coral reefs. They should only be highlighting the information about features of fish.
Focus on a Key Reading Skill
It can be overwhelming when you first start teaching students about paired passages, so focus on one key reading skill at a time. Reading skills aren’t just for literacy lessons… they can be integrated into other subjects as well, including science! It’s important that students learn to compare/contrast, understand cause and effect, and know the difference between fact and opinion. But don’t feel any pressure to teach ALL these skills with the same paired passages.
Focus on one reading skill at a time so students can practice effectively.
If you’re looking for some third grade pair science texts to get you started, I have several available in my shop (links to resources). These are a great place to start as you continue on your journey of teaching reading skills while using paired texts.
Once you start using paired passages in science, you’ll never want to go back to only using them in literacy lessons.
Integrate Your Reading and Science!
Looking for a FAST way to plan out an integrated reading and science unit that already includes paired passages? In just a few clicks you can grab all of the pieces you need: lesson plans, paired passages, reading comprehension, key reading skills, and a hands-on science extension. Click and print. Planning is really that easy.