Chapter 9: Identifying Similarities and Differences

This chapter reminded me of things that I used to incorporate into all my lessons when teaching students identified as gifted and talented; and often thought ALL students deserved this same type of thinking activities. I can see many uses of word processing to classify and group books much as the examples in the book. One of the Velasco teachers often created simple power point classification activities by having the icons on the side of the page and students would simply drag the icons under the correct headings. She would do these types of activities with Pre-K and with 3rd graders. I also like the idea of teaching students about analogies. After students have some understanding of analogies then they could practice analogies with book characters such as; Grinch is to Seuss as ___________ is to Peggy Parish. (Amelia Bedelia). Another example might be; mean is to Grinch as _________ is to Sam I Am. (happy, funny etc.) This is not only an interesting way to work on vocabulary development but also characteristics. I cannot see how this would be difficult, it could easily be used as a warm-up, review or closure to a book study.

It would be nice if students had access to Kidspiration or Inspiration, but not necessary. As I stated in the previous paragraph classification can be done with Power Point by allowing students to drag different clip art under appropriate headings. It is easy to create Venn Diagrams with Word or Power Point. The benefit of having Kidspiration and Inspiration is having readymade icons and graphic organizers.