SED 513 - Similarities and Differences

Texas A & M University – Commerce
Master’s of Education in Secondary Education – MED
MISD & A&M – Commerce Partnership Cohort 2010
SED 513 Secondary School Curriculum – 3 SH
Carlos Soliz


Similarities and Differences

What?

The strategy used in my World Geography class was Similarities and Differences. I have used this strategy in my class for many years on many different subjects to help students identify how the United States and other countries of the world are alike and how they are different.

So What?

Similarities and Differences works because the students can see that the whole world has many of the same landforms, people are the same, and it helps some of them see how privileged they are to live in the United States. It is always a challenge the first time the students do it because they are not sure what they are suppose to write down. The same old question is asked “how many of each do we need to write down?” The countries we used recently were Europe and the United States. It has opened the students’ eyes, especially to our system of government, to how similar Europe and the United States really are. The students found out how Europe has impacted the United States that we have today. Food, traditions, the names of some of the eastern states, government, and our laws that we have today are some of the things the students were surprised that we received from Europe. One of the things that I will do different next time is to first have them write down what they already know, what they want to know, and what they learned.

Now What?

I really like this strategy and continue to use it, I don’t always use a Venn diagram because I don’t want it to be a routine thing that the students do. I have the student list items or draw pictures of items that are similar or different. Letting students have a choice how they represent the similarities and differences works very well. It allows for some creativity by the student.