What kind of task will help students synthesize their learning?
Think about sometimes you have used comparison in your classroom
What are some lessons or situation where you asked your students to compare?
Why did you use comparison in these situations?
What are some of the strengths or some weaknesses when you used comparison as a strategy?
4 Goals of Compare & Contrast
• Memory• Higher Order Thinking• Comprehension• Writing in the Content Areas
Research clearly indicates the impact of each of these on student learning:
Category: Percentile Gain:
Identifying Similarities & Differences 45Summarizing & Notetaking 34Reinforcing Effort & Providing Recognition 29Homework & Practice 28Non-Linguistic Representation 27Cooperative Learning 27Setting Objectives & Providing Feedback
23Generating & Testing Hypotheses 23Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers
22
The Four Phases of a Thoughtful Compare & Contrast Lesson
• Describe
• Compare
• Conclude
• Apply
Description
How will I help students identify criteria?
What is the purpose
What are the sources?
Comparison
What visual organizer will I use to help students compare?
Conclusion
What causes the differences and what are these effects?
What discussion questions will I use to develop students thinking?
Are the concepts more alike or different?
What can you generalize from the similarities?
Phase IV: Application (Synthesis)
• Identify other examples of each item.
• Create a product or complete a task that applies new learning.
Similarities and Differences 4 Types of Strategies
Compare & Contrast
Classification
Decision Making
Metaphor
Phase I: Description• Select the items to compare.
• Identify the criteria or characteristics that would focus examination of the items.
• Describe each item separately.On one hand there is… and on the other hand there is…
criteria
Phase II: Comparison
• Select a graphic organizer.
• Identify similarities and differences.
Phase III: Conclusion
• Ask questions such as:
Are the items more similar or more different?
What might account for the differences? What might account for the simililarities?
What new ideas, conclusions or generalizations can you now make?
Principles of Comparison
• Know the content• Give thoughts a
shape• One, two, three
stretch• Make it real