As I’m listening to Monster Matches today, I hear the students working hard to identify what is similar and what is different between their monsters. In the session I’m listening to now, both teachers are having their students identify things that are similar and different. The teachers also have the students think about how they could have written their description better.
It occurred to me that this fits nicely with Marzano’s strategy of having students identify similarities and differences.
As an instructional strategy, it includes various activities that help learners see patterns and make connections. For example, students compare things that are similar and contrast things that express differences. They classify when they identify features or characteristics of a group of objects or ideas, and then develop a scheme to organize those objects.
After identifying the differences, students make connections (organize?) by trying to determine what they could have done differently to help the other class better understand what they meant.
Here’s a challenge for you today: How are YOUR videoconferences using research based instructional strategies?
[…] say, I am liking it. The students seem to be focused at a higher level of analysis to determine the similarities and differences as well as how the descriptions could be […]