Tuesday Teaching Tips - Similarities and Differences

Instructional Strategy Focus

Similarities and Differences (Marzano)

Teachers engage students in activities that help them examine similarities and differences among ideas, issues, or events by engaging in mental processes such as:
*Compare & Contrast
*Classify
*Create metaphors
*Analogies

Sample Activities and Teaching Ideas:
*QAR
*Frayer Model (vocabulary)
*Knowledge Rating Chart
*Concept Circle
*Word Sort
*Semantic Feature Analysis
*Probable Passage
*Give One Get One
*Tea Party
*Anticipation Guide
*Metaphors and Similes
*Analogies
*Sentence Stem Comparison
*Venn Diagrams
*Double-Bubble Diagram
*Comparison Matrix
*Classification Chart
*Visual Analogies

Helpful Documents:
*Provide Students with tasks that require them to examine similarities and differences.  SAMPLES

*Similarities and Differences CHEAT SHEET

Tuesday Teaching Tip - Mental Math Stategies

Students may not have all facts memorized, but they should have strategies to solve these problems.

Here are some examples of mental-math strategies for addition:

1.  Counting On - Students start with a number and count on 1, 2, 3. For example, if the question is 5 + 2, students count 5, 6, 7. Note: This strategy is only useful for adding 1, 2, or 3.

2.  Make a Ten - Students make combinations that equal 10. Then they extend to make combinations that are multiples of 10. Examples: 6 + 4 = 10 extends to 76 + 4 = 80. This can then be extended to 10 + 4 = 14 or 50 + 8 = 58.

3.  Use Doubles - The first fact combinations students often learn are doubles. Examples:
2 + 2 =
3 + 3 =
8 + 8 =

4.  Think +10 for +9 -  Those 9s are such difficult facts!  But, adding 10 to a number is easy.  So, when I see 9 + 6, I can think 10 + 6 and then just subtract 1.

Here are some examples of mental-math strategies for subtraction:

1.  Counting Back - Students start with a number and count backwards. If the question is 5 – 2, students count 5, 4, 3. Note: This strategy is only useful for subtracting 1, 2, or 3.

2.  Counting Up - Students start with a number being subtracted and count up to the number from which it is being subtracted. For example, for the question 9 – 7, students can count 8, 9.

3.  Using Doubles - For the question 13 – 6 = ?, students think addition using doubles. For example, 6 + 6 = 12, then add-on 1 to make 13, so 6 + 1 = 7.

4.  Make Ten and Then Some - Given a subtraction question such as 14 – 8 = ?, students start with the part (8), add-on to make 10 (i.e., 8 + 2), then add-on from 10 to make 14 (10 + 4). Then the students add the numbers they added-on to make 14 (4 + 2 = 6).

Tuesday Teaching Tips - Informational Text

Reading Informational Text Tips

1.  Use Graphic organizers - Using graphic organizers throughout lessons helps students improve their comprehension and good readers use graphic organizers to summarize texts.

Here are some sample organizers:

 

2.  Share Mentor Texts for each Structure - Read the text aloud and show students how to fill in the text structure graphic organizer.  The mentor texts become models you can refer to throughout the rest of the school year.

Here are some sample Mentor Texts & their Text Structure:

Description	Animals Nobody Loves by Seymour Simon Students will remember the facts about each of the creatures on the least favored list!
Sequence	Liberty Rising by Pegi Deitz Shea The wonderful illustrations show the sequence of how the great Statue of Liberty came about.
Problem/Solution	Jimmy the Joey: The True Story of an Amazing Koala Rescue by Debora Lee Rose A little orphaned koala is rescued and learns to survive on his own.  Students are introduced to koala endangerment organizations for letter writing and project-based learning!
Cause/ Effect	Electrical Wizard by Elizabeth Rusch Whether Nikola Tesla was observing the sparks from petting his cat or studying the power of Niagara Falls, he lived in an inventor’s world of cause and effect!
Compare/Contrast	Lincoln and Douglass by Nikki Giovanni In spite of their differences, these two friends had much in common! What a great compare/contrast story.

3.  Pay Attention to Text Structures Throughout Reading - Encourage and guide students to use text structure to comprehend informational text.  Before reading, predict which text structure the author would use.  During reading, fill in the text structure organizer.  After reading, summarize the text using the graphic organizer.

Great 4th Grade Video - Ever Wondered Who Invented Pizza?

4.  Conduct Frequent Think-Alouds - "I think the author wrote this (article, book, chapter, section) by using (one of the 5 structures) because I see (clues, clue words, etc)."  When the class is reading informational text, pause to consider which structure fits the text.

5.  Assign a Text Structure to Groups or Pairs - Have students work in teams to hunt for text structures to identify in TFK, newspapers, online articles, trade books, and content textbooks.

Literacy Survival Tips - Informational Text

Tips for Reading Informational Text