Reading · Grades 5–6 and 7–8

Two tellings

Your child compares two tellings of the same thing and says what the difference shows about each teller.

Your child reads one thing told twice, taps the sentence where the second telling differs, then chooses why: what a teller leaves out, knows or sides with, or at Grade 7–8 what a film changed, how two writers use one fact, what a new story borrowed from a myth, and when not to trust a teller.

Grades 5–6 and 7–8
15 min
Nothing to prepare
On the screen

Free to sign up.

Is it a good fit?

Ready if Your child reads a short paragraph on their own.
Too much today? Start with Prove it: one passage checked for what it says, before two compared.
Too easy? The Grade 7–8 level: a book and its film, two writers with one fact, a myth retold, and a teller you can't trust.

What your child practises

Point of view
Comparing two texts on one topic
What a teller leaves out
A book and its film (Grade 7–8)
A story built on a myth (Grade 7–8)

Listen for

“This one says something the other one leaves out, and that tells me about the teller.”

If your child says something like this, in their own words, the idea has landed. Finishing the rounds means they took part; this is the learning.

Your part

Nothing for the game itself
Each question has a Read it to me button

Take it off the screen (optional)

Ask two people at home about the same day, then find one thing only one of them says, and wonder together why.

The full design

What it is

One thing told twice is two tellings, and where they differ tells you about the teller. The Pet is sure two tellings must say the same thing ("They were both there, so their stories match!"); your child finds the sentence where they part and says why.

How it goes

The two tellings stand one above the other, each named with its teller. Every sentence of the second is a button. A sentence that is not the one is marked "not this one", and the Pet says why; the one is marked with what the round compares, and three choices come. A choice that does not fit gets its own reason from the tellings.

The Pet

It believes every telling, never your child: two tellings must match, a story is a fact page, a teller who says he never gets angry never does. It asks your child to read the two side by side, and when a round is won it says what the difference showed. Its dare is the next step up: at 5–6, a book and its film; at the top, two people at home telling the same day, and one thing only one of them says.

By band

Four pairs a play, two steps each: tap the sentence in the second telling that shows the difference, then choose why from three. 5–6: what one teller leaves out (a brother remembers his sister said they didn't need the umbrella), a fact page beside a story about the same owl, a thought only the teller could know, and two newsletters on one goal, "lucky" and "brilliant". 7–8: a book page beside its film script (a camera can't film a thought), two letters using the same fact for opposite plans, a new story built on Icarus (a warning nobody listened to), and a teller whose words don't match what happened.

What it grows

The reading standards ask a Grade 5 child to compare two characters or settings, and two texts on the same topic (Common Core RL.5.3, RI.5.9); a Grade 6 child to explain how an author develops the narrator's point of view (RL.6.6); a Grade 7 child to compare a written story with its film (RL.7.7), to say how two authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations (RI.7.9), and how an author shows different characters' points of view (RL.7.6); and a Grade 8 child to say how a modern work draws on themes and patterns of events from myths and traditional stories (RL.8.9). The game asks for the difference and the reason, never a term to define.

Done, and what counts as evidence

Done means four pairs compared. "Asked what this one says that the other doesn't" is an observation you may keep. The best record is off the screen: two people at home telling the same day, and your child finding one thing only one of them says.

What's personal

Nothing: every telling is written for the game, about no real person. No family facts are used. The Arabic tellings are written in Arabic, with Arabic names, sentence for sentence in the same order.