This activity was developed by Dr. Pat Cunningham as a way to draw students' attention phonograms, also known as "word families" or "chunks". Phonograms consist of the vowel and what follows in a syllable. In the one syllable word stack, the phonogram is ack. In the multisyllable word truckstop, the phonograms are uck and op.

Research has shown that it is easier for children to decode words when they can recognize larger chunks, rather than read letter by letter. For instance, when reading the word frisbee, one child might try sounding out each individual letter: /f/-/r/-/i/-/s/-/b/-/e/-/e/. That's a lot of sounds that most likely won't make much sense to the reader once he's finished. But if the child realizes that the chunks is and bee are inside the word, then it's short work to add the /fr/ sound to the beginning.

Many young or struggling readers are not aware that these chunks exist. The compare and contrast game draws their attention to these phonograms. It is best played with a small group of students or individually with one child and a teacher.

1. The teacher creates 4 to 6 word cards for each student. Each word uses a different common phonogram:

   black

   will

   play

   make

   net

   pink

2. The students spread their cards out in front of them. The teacher makes sure that the students can read all of the words on the cards.
3. The teacher writes a word on the board that has the same phonogram as one of the word cards. For instance, she might write day.
4. The students each choose the word in front of them that they think is most like the teacher's word (play).
5. The teacher asks them to explain how their word is like the teacher's word, and she underlines the phonogram in the word (-ay).
6. This is repeated using other word cards. The idea is to draw students' attention to the chunk at the end of the word, to get them to look inside the words.

Variations:

• Give the students wipe boards while they have their cards spread before them. Tell them a new word to write that contains one of the phonograms. Example: stake  Students should be comfortable with the above activity before you try this with them, since it requires that they be able to find the phonogram and produce a new word.
• With older students who have difficulty breaking apart larger words, I like to do the above activity with multisyllable words. For instance, you might try writing the words attacking or sprinkling. Students should hold up black or pink, respectively.
• Try making nonsense compound words, where students must be ready to hold up two cards. You might write stinktray and the students should hold up the key words pink and play. This requires that they mentally divide the teacher's word into manageable sections and look for chunks, a skill that good readers often use with multisyllable words.