1. Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement
Identifying Similarities and Differences:
A High-Yield Instructional Strategy
J.Silva
The most important factor affecting student learning is the teacher.
(Wright et al., 1997, p.63)

2. Classroom Instruction that Works
Robert Marzano (2001) and his colleagues identify nine high-yield instructional strategies through a meta-analysis of over 100 independent studies. They determined that these nine strategies have the greatest positive affect on student achievement for all students, in all subject areas, at all grade levels.

3. What are High Yield Strategies?
High yield strategies are tools used to teach students content that result in high student achievement. Effective and consistent use of these strategies yielded increases significant increases in percentile gains in student achievement.

4. What are the High Yield Strategies?
Using meta-analysis, Marzano concluded that nine high-yield instructional strategies have a strong effect on student achievement. They are:

5. Identifying similarities and differences - 45 percentile gain
Summarizing and note taking
- 34 percentile gain
Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
- 29 percentile gain
Homework and practice
- 28 percentile gain
Nonlinguistic representations
- 27 percentile gain
Cooperative learning
- 23 percentile gain
Setting objectives and providing feedback
Generating and testing hypothesis
Questions, cues, and advance organizers
- 22 percentile gain

6. Research and Theory on Identifying Similarities and Differences
1.Presenting students with explicit guidance in identifying similarities and differences enhances students’ understanding of and ability to use knowledge.
“teacher-directed”
results in homogeneous conclusions
convergence in students’ thinking

7. Research and Theory on Identifying Similarities and Differences
2.Asking students to independently identify similarities and differences enhances students’ understanding of and ability to use knowledge.
“student-directed”
draws heterogeneous conclusions
stimulates divergence in students’ thinking

8. Research and Theory on Identifying Similarities and Differences
3.Representing similarities and differences in graphic or symbolic form enhances students’ understanding of and ability to use knowledge.

9. Research and Theory on Identifying Similarities and Differences
4.Identification of similarities and differences can be accomplished ina variety of ways. The identification of similarities and differences is a highly robust activity.
Comparing
Classifying
Creating metaphors
Creating analogies

10. Classroom Practice in Identifying Similarities and Differences
Comparing
The process of indentifying similarities and differences between or among ideas or things.

11. Comparing: Teacher-Directed Tasks
Introduce the process of comparing by presenting students with highly structured tasks
Identify for students items to compare and the characteristics on which they are to base the comparison.
These tasks focus (even constrain) the types of conclusions students will reach.
Use when your goal is that all students obtain a general awareness of the same similarities and differences for the same characteristics.

12. Comparing: Teacher-Directed Task Example
Two rectangles have the same perimeter. Rectangle A’s length is double its width. Rectangle B’s length is triple its width. How do you know A has a greater area?
Big Idea/Goal:
Shapes can have measurements that
are independent, but sometimes one measure of a shape can be determined simply by knowing another measure.
Items to Compare:
rectangle A and rectangle B
Characteristics:
perimeter and area

13. Comparing: Student-Directed Task Example
Students select the characteristics on which the items are to be compared.
Provide the items to compare and ask:
How are these the same?
How are they different?

14. Comparing: Student-Directed Task Example
Students select both the items to compare and the characteristics on which they are compared.
Example?

15. Comparing: Graphic Organizers
Venn Diagram:
visual display of similarities (intersection) and differences (parts of the circle that do not intersect)
Pyramid w/ 6 faces
6 Faces
Pyramid
Square-based pyramid
Rectangular-based pyramid
Triangular-based pyramid
Square-based prism
Rectangular-based prism
Cube
Pentagonal-based pyramid

16. Comparing: Graphic Organizers
Comparison Matrix:
detailed chart
Characteristics
Items to be compared #1 #2 #3 1.
Similarities
Differences 2. 3.

17. Classroom Practice in Identifying Similarities and Differences
Classifying
The process of grouping things that are alike into categories on the basis of their own characteristics.

18. Classifying: Teacher-Directed Tasks
Identify for students the elements to classify and the categories into which these elements should be classified.
The focus is on placing items into their appropriate categories and understanding why they belong in those categories.

19. Classifying: Teacher-Directed Task Example
The students are given a complete list of events in the Olympics and are asked to classify them into the following categories:
Events that require mainly strength and agility.
Events that require mainly precision and accuracy.
Events that have about equal requirements for strength/agility and precision/accuracy.

20. Classifying: Student-Directed Tasks
Students are given the items to classify but must form the categories themselves.
Make a list of as many characters you can recall from the books we have read. Then, classify them into categories of your choosing. Use your categories to show your understanding of character development. When you are finished reclassify your characters, using new categories.

21. Classifying: Graphic Organizers

22. Classroom Practice in Identifying Similarities and Differences
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.

23. Metaphors: Teacher-Directed Tasks
Identify for students the first element of the metaphor and the abstract relationship or non-literal relationship.
This provides the “scaffold” on which the students can build.

24. Metaphors: Teacher-Directed Task Example
This graph tells the story of Jane’s Journey. Tell the story.

25. Metaphors: Student-Directed Tasks
Students are given one element of a metaphor and asked to identify the second element and describe the abstract relationship.

26. Metaphors: Student-Directed Task Example
Integer operations as the element of a metaphor.
Students asked to identify the second element and describe the abstract relationship (i.e., emotional moods)

27. Metaphors: Student-Directed Task Example
Integer operations as the element of a metaphor.
Students asked to identify the second element and describe the abstract relationship (i.e., emotional moods). or
The major structures of the cell as the element of a metaphor.
Students are asked to identify the second element and describe the functions of each cell structure using an abstract relationship (i.e., factory).

28. Classroom Practice in Identifying Similarities and Differences
Creating Analogies
The process of identifying relationships between pairs of concepts – in other words, identifying relationships between relationships.

29. Analogies: Teacher-Directed Tasks
Analogies help us see how seemingly dissimilar things are similar, increasing our understanding of new information.
Take the form of A:B::C:D (read as, “A is to B as C is to D”).
Ex: “hot is to cold as day is to night”
Most complex strategy.

30. Analogies: Teacher-Directed Tasks
Students are provided a great deal of structure.
Teachers could provide the analogy (consisting of all four parts) and ask the students to explain the relationship. or
Teachers could present students with one element missing within the four parts of the analogy.

31. Analogies: Teacher-Directed Task Examples
Oxygen is to humans as
carbon dioxide is to plants
Eighty is to eight
dime is to ___________

32. Analogies: Student-Directed Tasks
Students provide more elements of an analogy than do teacher-directed analogy tasks.

33. Analogies: Student-Directed Task Examples
transit is to city as
_______ is to _______
_______ is to _______ in the novel 1984
_______ is to _______ in the Scarlet Letter

34. Metaphors: Graphic Organizers
is to as
Relationship