Identifying+Similarities+&+Differences

=__Identifying Similarities & Differences __=

//**  [] Technology 1:**// [|SMARTBoard] //Rationale//: SMART Boards or Whiteboards are best noted for being an interactive tool that is useful to teachers and students in a classroom. It allows them to interact with the information projected by using the electronic tools that comes with it to draw, erase, write, or mark anyway that is needed to convey ideas on the screen. It even has the capabilities to save and share the work that was done. So a teacher could post it that night on her web page to help the students with homework. Not only can a teacher use the software on her computer to teach an idea or concept but she can also access internet resources. The teacher or student can control the software or web site directly from the displayed image on the SMART Board. This tool would lend itself to many teaching strategies including identifying similarities and differences. You could make Venn diagrams to compare and contrast (people, places, settings, story lines etc...) Access pictures or artists prints and find similarities or differences in styles. The power this tool has is only as limited as what you think to create in a lesson //Resources needed://
 * Smart Boards: Which are already permanently in place in every classroom
 * Software: Already on computers (ex: Excel, Word, and PowerPoint)
 * Computer: Already set-up
 * Projector: Already connected to computer and suspended from ceiling.

[] //Rationale//: This technology is an overhead camera that lends itself best to showing tangible items such as books, art work, objects or items, and projects them onto a screen so you can magnify it if you want. Even though the SMART Board can compare artist prints or pictures sometimes you have physical pictures to show and this is a quick way to show and enlarge them for all to see or you can display several to compare. It is very important in the classroom to allow all students the same opportunity to view what is being show as it is being shown and this is a great way to do that. Not everything we use to teach similarities and differences are in the form of digital viewing. Not only can these items be projected to be viewed but they can also be passed around to be felt if that is what the lesson calls for. //Resources needed//:
 * //Technology 2://** [|ELMO Document Camera]
 * Smart Boards: Which is already permanently in place in every classroom. Since it is there no need for a screen.
 * Elmo: on a cart in classroom

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**//Technology 3://** [|Flip Cameras] //Rationale//: The Digital Camera is another good technology to teach the strategy of similarities and differences because you can capture a moment in time and record it. It can be used to study the weather and record the sky at different conditions or pictures of students can be compared to younger pictures of themselves to see changes. It gives the students another tool to learn this strategy which is engaging and interactive. Not only does this piece of equipment capture a moment but it can take a video too. Students can perform in groups their idea of how the earth revolves on its axis and how it revolves around the sun. These can be videoed and then compared as to how each group interpreted the motions. //Resources needed//: In a world where there is a lot of information at your finger tips it is important to be able to organize this information. The educational challenge literacy development goes hand in hand with the learning strategy of similarities and differences because together they create students’ higher-order thinking skills. Identifying similarities and differences of the information you are finding whether it is to buy a computer, write an essay on comparing two story lines or comparing artist styles you need to organize that information you are going to use. Words alone don’t always make it clear for all students that is why including various activates can help the student see patterns and make connections. Use of visual charts, images, or other visuals help the students in the world of technology understand and comprehend the information they are reading. Using a SMART board in the classroom gives all the ability to grasp the information being compared, analyzed, contrasted, and classified, by interacting with it. Not only are the analytical learners being stimulated but so are the visual learners and kinetic learners.
 * FlipCameras to be borrowed from the school library-media center
 * Classroom Computer to view pictures or video
 * Software: Adobe Premiere or Premiere Elements $65.00 (or other commercial editing program) on computer
 * // Educational Challenge: Literacy Development and SMART Boards //**

= Introduction < = = Cues, Questions & Advance Organizers <  = = Generating & Testing Hypothesis <  = = Homework & Practice <  = = = =  = =  Nonlinguistic Representation >  = = Providing Feedback >  = = Reinforcing Effort >  = = Simulations & Games >  = = Summarizing & Notetaking >  = = Summary >  = = Reflections >  =