February Topic - Identifying Similarities and Differences

Surprisingly, it is already February, so it's time to move onto our new topic, Identifying Similarities and Differences. For this month, perhaps everyone could share their general thoughts on the chapter, examples of graphic organizers that facilitate comparing and contrasting, or even student examples. Also, maybe teachers of the sciences or mathematics could share how they are able to incorporate similarities and differences in their disciplines where it might be difficult to do so.  

I found this chapter in the book to be especially interesting and useful. Similarities and differences are so frequently found in a subject such as History, that it is very beneficial to see the ways in which similarities and differences can be adapted, whether it is simply comparing and contrasting, or even have the students begin to create analogies. Of course the Venn Diagram is so commonly used and is effective, but I've also found that categorizing topics based on similarities is extremely effective in getting the students to understanding similarities and differences, especially when it comes to History. When asking students to categorize, it seems to work best when you provide the students with the categories and then allow them to select the topics that are appropriate. That way, they are forced to understand the topics' similarities before they are able to categorize them. Our next topic of study in U.S.I History involves many similarities and differences, so during that topic I plan to incorporate metaphors and analogies instead of relying on Venn Diagrams for comparing and contrasting. I'll make sure to post my findings and share how effective the activity was.