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The Falcon Comeback: Time Order and Compare-Contrast

Read two original texts about peregrine falcons, one in time order and one that compares and contrasts, then compare how the texts are built.

Grade 5ELAInteractive · Printable

Aligned toRI.5.5

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 Common Core standard
Printable answer key
10 questions
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Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 5
Subject: ELA
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students identify chronological and compare-contrast structures in two informational texts.
Students use signal words and phrases to compare how two texts are organized.

How to use

Read both texts, then have students circle time words in Text 1 and same-or-different words in Text 2 before they answer the questions.

Curriculum

Common Core standard covered

RI.5.5

Compare and contrast the overall structure of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or more texts.

Preview

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The Falcon Comeback: Time Order and Compare-Contrast

Two texts about peregrine falcons, organized in two different ways.

Read the two texts

Read both texts. Notice how each author organizes the information.

Text 1: A Bird in Trouble

1Peregrine falcons have lived in North America for thousands of years. In the early 1900s, these swift hunters nested on high cliffs across much of the continent.

2Then, in the 1940s and 1950s, farmers began spraying a pesticide called DDT on crops to kill insects. Over the next twenty years, the chemical moved through the food chain. Small birds ate insects with DDT on them, and falcons ate the small birds.

3By the 1960s, scientists noticed something alarming. The falcons were laying eggs with shells so thin that they cracked when the parents sat on them. Few chicks hatched. In the eastern United States, peregrines stopped nesting altogether.

4In the early 1970s, the United States banned most uses of DDT. Soon after, scientists began raising young falcons and releasing them into the wild, sometimes from the roofs of tall city buildings.

5Slowly, the falcons returned. By the end of the 1990s, there were enough peregrines that they were taken off the endangered species list. Today, they nest again in many places where they had once vanished.

Text 2: Cliff Falcons and City Falcons

1Today, peregrine falcons live in two very different kinds of places: wild cliffs and busy cities. The two homes seem like opposites, but they are alike in some surprising ways.

2Both homes give falcons what they need most, which is a high place. On a cliff, a falcon rests on a rocky ledge far above the ground. In a city, a skyscraper works the same way. Like a cliff ledge, a building's ledge gives the falcon a safe spot to nest and a wide view for spotting prey.

3The two homes differ in what falcons find to eat. Cliff falcons hunt many kinds of wild birds, such as ducks and songbirds. In cities, falcons often hunt pigeons, which gather in large flocks on streets and rooftops.

4Noise and people are another difference. A cliff nest is usually quiet and far from people. In contrast, a city nest may sit high above honking traffic and crowded sidewalks. Even so, many city falcons raise healthy chicks.

5Whether it lives on a cliff or a skyscraper, a peregrine is the same powerful hunter, diving through the air to catch its next meal.

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