Common Core ELAKindergartenReading: Informational

RI.K.9: Compare Two Books on the Same Topic

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.9 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

The Official Wording

With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

Common Core State Standards, Kindergarten, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.K.9 Means in Plain English

Kindergartners hear two nonfiction books on one topic and say, with the teacher prompting, how they are alike and how they differ. Two books on growing beans both give the seed water and sun, but one grows it in a cup and the other in the garden.

The comparison can be in the pictures, the descriptions or the steps, and in kindergarten one likeness and one difference is plenty. In 1st grade (RI.1.9) children compare on their own, and in 2nd grade (RI.2.9) they compare the most important points two texts make.

RI.K.9 I Can Statements

I can tell how two books are the same.
I can tell how two books are different.
I can look at the pictures and the steps in both books.

RI.K.9 Worked Example

Two very short books on one topic, read back to back, with one alike-and-different question and two answers.

Read the Story

Book 1, Grow a Bean in a Cup: Put a wet paper towel in a clear cup. Tuck a bean seed between the towel and the side of the cup.Book 1: Set the cup by a sunny window. In a few days, a white root pokes out of the bean.Book 2, Grow a Bean Outside: Dig a small hole in the garden. Drop in a bean seed and cover it with dirt.Book 2: Water the dirt every day. In about a week, a green sprout pushes up into the sun.

A short passage written for this page.

Question: Both books are about growing a bean. How are they the same? How are they different?

Not Yet“They’re both about beans.”That is the topic, and the question already said so. It does not name anything the two books do the same way or a different way.

Meets the Standard“Both books plant a bean seed and give it water. But in Book 1 it grows in a cup by the window, and you see a root. In Book 2 it grows in the garden dirt, and you see a sprout.”One thing the same and two that differ, each taken from the steps the books describe. The child is comparing the books, not just naming their topic.

Question Stems to Use

What is the same in both books?What is different?Where does the bean grow in this book? And in that one?What do both books say a bean needs?Which book would you follow, and why?

Common Mistakes with RI.K.9

Naming the topic as the likeness

“They’re both about beans.”

Try this: Agree that the topic is the same, then ask “What do both books tell us to do?” and look at the steps in each.

Remembering only the second book

Every answer comes from Book 2, the one read last

Try this: Keep both books open side by side and turn to the matching page in each before asking what is different.

Mixing the two books together

“You put the bean in a cup in the garden.”

Try this: Color-code the books, a red dot on one and a blue dot on the other, and sort each fact under its dot.

Where RI.K.9 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.K.2Name what one book is mostly about and retell its facts, before holding two books side by side.

AlongsideRL.K.9Compare what happens to the characters in two familiar stories.RI.K.7Say what each picture shows, one of the places two books can differ.

Comes NextRI.1.9Identify basic ways two texts on one topic are alike and different, without the teacher’s prompting.

Practice RI.K.9

Quick Check

Where does the bean grow in Book 1?
In a clear cup with a wet paper towel, set by a sunny window.
Where does the bean grow in Book 2?
In a small hole in the garden, covered with dirt.
Name one thing that is the same in both books.
Any one of: both plant a bean seed, both give it water, both give it sun, both take days before something grows.

RI.K.9: Other Names

RI.K.9CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.9