Identifying+similarities+and+differences

Research and theory on identifying similarities and differences 1. Presenting students with explicit guidance in identifying similarities and differences enhances students' understanding of and ability to use knowledge. a. Being direct in pointing out similarities and differences, however, does not mean that instruction must be rigid or didactic. 2. Asking students to independently identify similarities and differences enhances students' understanding of and ability to use knowledge. a. teacher-directed activities result in more homogeneous conclusions b. student-directed activities result in more heterogeneous conclusions 3. Representing similarities and differences in graphic or symbolic form enhances students' understanding of and ability to use knowledge. a. symbolic and graphic representation increases knowledge and ability to generate similarities and differences 4. Identification of similarities and differences can be accomplished in a variety of ways. The identification of similarities and differences is a highly robust activity. a. comparing - the process of identifying similarities and differences between or among things or ideas i. identification of important characteristics ii introduce by presenting students with highly structured tasks iii. use graphic organizer b. classifying - the process of grouping things that are alike into categories on the basis of their characteristics i. identifying the rules that govern class or category membership ii. use graphic organizer c. creating metaphors - the process of identifying a general pr basic pattern in a specific topic and then finding another topic that appears to be quite different but that has the same general pattern i. two items are connected by an abstract or nonliteral relationship ii. teacher to provide first element of the metaphor (provide scaffold) d. creating analogies - the process of identifying relationships between pairs of concepts - in other words, identifying relationships between relationships i. A is to B as C is to D [|Resources for teaching similarities and differences] e. the usage of Kidspiration for English Language Learners provides effective strategies for comparing similarities and differences.