Identifying Similarities and Differences Strategy

1) Presenting Students with explicit guidance in identifying similarities and differences enhances students' understanding of and ability to use knowledge.

2) Asking students to independently identify similarities and differences enhances students' understanding of an ability to use knowledge

3) Representing similarities and differences in graphic or symbolic form enhances students' understanding of and ability to use knowledge.

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. there are 4 different forms that research has indicated.

• Comparing- The process of identifying similarities and differences between or among things or ideas.
• Classifying- The process of grouping things that are alike into categories on the basis of their characteristics.
• Creating Metaphors- The process of identifying a general or basic pattern in a specific topic and then finding another topic that appears to be quite different but that has the same general pattern.
• Creating Analogies- Is the process of identifying relationships between pairs of concepts- in other words, identifying relationships between relationships.

Taken From: Classroom Instruction that Works Research Based Strategies For Increasing Student Achievement by Marzano, Pickering, Pollock