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Common Core ELAKindergartenReading: Literature

RL.K.9: Compare Characters’ Adventures

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

All 41 Kindergarten ELA Standards

The Official Wording

With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.

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

What RL.K.9 Means in Plain English

Kindergartners hold two familiar stories side by side and say how the characters’ adventures match and differ. A frog who finds his lost hat alone and a dog who finds her lost bone with a friend: both lost something, but only one had help.

The comparison is about what happens, not what the characters look like, and the words both and but carry it. Two overlapping hula hoops on the rug make it something children can stand in. In 1st grade children compare adventures without the teacher leading (RL.1.9).

RL.K.9 I Can Statements

  • I can tell how two stories are the same.
  • I can tell how two stories are different.
  • I can use the words both and but.

RL.K.9 Worked Example

Two tiny stories about losing something, and two answers to how the adventures compare.

Read the Story
Story 1: Pip the frog lost his hat in the wind.He hopped all over the pond until he found it himself.Story 2: Dot the dog lost her bone in the snow.Her friend Cat helped her dig, and they found it together.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: How are Pip’s and Dot’s adventures alike? How are they different?
Not Yet“Pip is a frog and Dot is a dog.”True, but it compares the animals, not what happened to them. Nothing about losing or finding.
Meets the Standard“They both lost something and found it. Pip found his hat by himself, but Dot had a friend help her.”One way they are alike and one way they differ, both about what happened, joined with both and but.
Question Stems to Use
In both stories…They both…But in this story…This one is different because…Who had help?

Common Mistakes with RL.K.9

Comparing looks instead of adventures

“Pip is green and Dot is brown.”

Try this: Ask “What happened to them?” first, and only compare once both characters’ adventures have been told out loud.

Finding only what is the same

“They both lost something. They both found it. They both were happy.”

Try this: Give each child a both card and a but card, and ask for one sentence that starts with each word.

Comparing stories that aren’t familiar yet

Two brand-new books read back to back, and blank faces at “How are they alike?”

Try this: Read each story several times across the week first, and retell both before asking a single compare question.

Where RL.K.9 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.K.2Retell each familiar story with its key details first.RL.K.3Name the characters and big events in each story.
AlongsideRI.K.9Tell what is alike and different in two informational books on the same topic.
Comes NextRL.1.9Compare the adventures of characters in two stories, now without prompting.

Practice RL.K.9

Quick Check

  1. What did Pip lose, and what did Dot lose?
  2. Name one way the two adventures are alike.
  3. Name one way they are different.

RL.K.9: Other Names

RL.K.9CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.9

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.