Students read the chapter "The Sugar Snow," engaging with a firsthand narrative about maple sugar production. The Life Application asks students to read online sources (e.g., How Maple Syrup is Made, a video, and a history page) about maple sugar farming, providing secondhand informational accounts. Students also summarize the chapter and discuss how maple sugar farming has changed since the late 1880s, connecting the firsthand account to modern descriptions.

Students read a primary text written by Laura Ingalls Wilder when they read and discuss "A Letter from the Author" (a dated letter by Wilder). Students also read the final chapters of Little House in the Big Woods and answer comprehension questions about events and environment. The lesson suggests (optional) that students view early episodes of the television adaptation and compare the characters in the book to the characters on the show, giving students material for comparing two accounts of similar events or people.

The lesson asks students to compare how Matt and Attean see Robinson Crusoe (Activity 3), including journal prompts asking why Matt identifies with Crusoe and why Attean reacts strongly to Friday. The Skills section requires students to "identify and discuss similarities and differences in events, characters, and ideas... and support them by referencing the text," which directs students to compare perspectives and differences in focus. The introduction prompts discussion that stories read from one culture may be confusing to those from another culture, encouraging students to examine differing viewpoints.

Activity 4 directs students to compare Matt's retelling of the Noah's ark story to Attean's flood story using a double-bubble map and to discuss that many cultures have similar flood stories. The double-bubble graphic organizer and directions explicitly ask students to identify similarities and differences between the two accounts. This provides a concrete task in which students read two accounts and record comparative details.

Students are asked to compare two creation stories ("Pan Gu Makes the World" and "Silver Fox and Coyote Create the Earth") using a double bubble map in Activity 3, which directs them to record similarities and differences. The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes comparing language and oral traditions that reflect customs, regions, and cultures, and several activities require summarizing and discussing multiple cultural tales. Students also summarize individual stories (Brazilian tale, African tale) and answer comprehension questions that support identification of story elements to use in comparisons.

Students are told that a story is an eyewitness (firsthand) account and that Amos claims to have been an eyewitness to Ben Franklin's life. Students read Chapters 1 and 2 of Ben and Me and answer questions that highlight Amos's motive for writing because "historians were getting it wrong," which raises the idea of other (secondhand) accounts. Students complete a "Fact and Fiction" chart in which they record a factual event and a fictional event for each chapter and are told they may need to research Franklin's life to learn the actual events.

The lesson's Activity 2 asks students to watch the movie The Chronicles of Narnia and discuss the differences between the book and the movie, including how characters, creatures, and setting were similar or different. The Skills section explicitly lists comparing communication in different forms, e.g., contrasting a dramatic performance with a print version of the same story. Options include writing a movie review that highlights what was enjoyed and what could be improved, which prompts students to note differences in focus and information presented.

Students read the chapters "The Queen" and "The Royal Breakfast" and answer journal and discussion questions about events and character reactions. Question #1 refers to a front-page newspaper story about disappearances (a secondhand report) and Question #8 has students note that the queen called the King of Sweden to verify the BFG's story. Activity 1 asks students to identify quotes from Sophie in both chapters and from the BFG, giving students access to multiple perspectives and accounts of events.

The Skills section tells students to take notes from classroom guests, books, and media and to use multiple sources including experts, which identifies both firsthand (classroom guests/interviews) and secondhand (books, online) sources. Activity 2 explicitly asks students to read about the armed forces in books or online and offers the extension of interviewing someone who serves, creating opportunities to gather both secondhand and firsthand information.

The Life Application asks students to find and watch a documentary about meerkats and to discuss how the meerkats in the film are similar to and different from the one in the book, which prompts a comparison between a filmed (firsthand) account and the book's portrayal. Question #3 directs students to identify scientifically accurate information about meerkats encountered in the story, and Question #4 asks students to distinguish fictional characteristics from scientific ones. Activity 3 has students take on the role of a zoologist and gather factual information about African animals, reinforcing attention to factual (informational) content.

Students read the narrative Racing the Wind and also read the About the Author section that explains how the author located Sadako's letters (she read them in a book the Bamboo class published, Kokeshi). Students answer comprehension questions about Sadako's story and about the author's connection to Japan and discovery of primary source letters. The presence of Sadako's letters (firsthand material) and the author's retelling (secondhand account) appears in the texts students read.

Students carry out a firsthand Hibernation Experiment: they rest, measure pulse, breaths, and temperature, then exercise and repeat measurements to observe physiological changes. Students also gather secondhand information by reading Chapters 13–14 and by researching hibernation using the Hibernation activity page and other sources, and they answer guided questions about hibernation and torpor.

Students read Pedro's Journal (a historical-fiction first-person narrative) and are instructed to read short biographies and online resources about Columbus. Students are asked to distinguish fact from opinion and to list two factual descriptions and two fictional examples from the story on the Historical Fiction organizer. Students research Columbus using biographies and activity pages (e.g., "Columbus, The Man" and the "Reasons for Exploration" chart) and record positives and negatives based on those sources.

Students read Pedro's journal entries for September, which provide a firsthand account of the sailors' observations and interpretations (for example, the journal records the meteor sighting and the sailors' reactions). Students also read expository material about meteors (including a NASA webpage and the 'Meteors as Signs' cultural beliefs page) that provide secondhand, informational and cultural perspectives about meteors. A specific question (Question #4) asks students to note how the sailors' interpretation differed from Columbus's, and Activity 2 asks students to discuss scientific explanations versus historical fears, connecting the firsthand reactions to secondhand explanations.

Students are asked to compare Pedro's Journal with The Island of the Skog using a graphic organizer that records similarities and characteristics unique to each story. The reading questions prompt students to identify parallel events and character experiences (for example, questions about the captain, threats to survival, and how communities change). Activity 2 asks students to identify and write three ways each text shows prejudice, which requires cross-text comparison of attitudes and actions.

Students are asked to write a firsthand report in Activity 3 by pretending to be Pedro and to explain the crew's survival, their discoveries, and what it was like to sail with Columbus; they then deliver this report to an audience. The lesson also prompts a class discussion about how the arrival of the Spaniards was viewed by native people and recommends the picture book Encounter, which presents an alternative perspective on the same historical event.