Combining information from texts
Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably, combining and comparing what each source contributes
What a learner can do afterwards
- Read two informational texts on the same topic and identify information that appears in both, information unique to each, and any contradictions between them
- Combine key details from two sources into a coherent summary or short report that draws on both texts
- Explain how reading a second text on the same topic added to, confirmed, or challenged understanding gained from the first text
1 · Read
Sometimes you read two texts about the same topic, like a book and a magazine article. Each text gives you some facts. When you put the facts together, you understand the topic better than you would from just one text.
Say one article tells you volcanoes form when melted rock pushes up through cracks in the earth. A second article tells you some volcanoes sit deep under the ocean. Put both together, and now you know how volcanoes form and where they can be found, a fuller picture than either article gave alone.
Some questions need both texts. Say Text A tells you that foxes hunt at night, and Text B tells you that foxes hunt in the fields behind the farm. Put the two side by side and you can say where a fox is at night, which neither text said on its own. So before you answer, look for the piece each text holds. And if neither text mentions your question at all, these two texts cannot answer it, and saying so is a good answer.
When you read a second text on the same topic, each fact in it stands in one of three relationships to the first text. It can match, saying the same thing in different words. It can add, giving you something the first text never mentioned. Or it can disagree, telling you the opposite of what you already read. Naming which one you are looking at is what turns two texts into one clearer picture, and a disagreement is worth saying out loud rather than quietly picking a side.
Two texts together give you a fuller, better checked picture than just one text alone.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
This opens up
Where this leads
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.