Running head: MIAA 340 High Yield

High Yield Resolution: Alike and Different

Christina L Hambleton
Teachers College of San Joaquin
February 10th, 2015

HighYieldRoutines

For this activity, I chose to incorporate my 8th grade classs current studies on transversals. I
displayed the following information up on the board (TV):

Students had five minutes to write down their findings. They were allowed to work with the
person next to them. As it was their first activity, they started slow. While walking around the
room, I assisted them by provided open ended sentences such as, How many alternate interior
angles and How many parallel lines? Once they understand what I was asking, their lists
quickly grew. The following is a snapshot of their comparisons:

I was extremely impressed with the students responses. I was anticipating responses
which were minimalistic in content. What I received were answers which showed me that my
students clearly understand the concept of transversals, alternate angles, and parallel lines. To
ensure comprehension, I had students explain their short answers to me and the students in detail.
Again, I was highly impressed. As this activity was well liked, and greatly encouraged critical
thinking, comparative and abstract skills, I will definitely incorporate this routine into my lessons
as often as possible.
The second high-yield routine activity I presented was to a combination 4th/5th grade
class. Students were just beginning to add and subtract fractions with common denominators so I
chose that as my subject. After a brief explanation of why I was there and discussion as to what
alike and different mean, I wrote the following on the whiteboard:

Students were instructed to write the similarities and differences on their personal
whiteboards. As expected, since was a new activity, they started slow. With a few prompts from
me what type of numbers do you see? they began to write their thoughts. After five minutes, I
had them stop and asked for students to read their observations. I didnt use the word answers
because I didnt want them to think this was a graded activity. Here are some high, medium and
low examples of what I received:

As with my 8th grade class, I was very impressed with the responses I received from this
group. Students surprised me with their in-depth written and verbal responses. Their teacher, who
observed the activity, was also very happy that students demonstrated comprehensive knowledge
of the displayed terms. He especially liked the inclusion of their vocabulary words as part of the
activity. He indicated to me that he will continue to utilize this task in both formal and informal
(game centered) manners.
Lastly, I introduced the alike and different routine to a group of five Kindergarteners. The
teacher provided me with a heterogeneous group for my observations. I gathered the students
together, had them get their whiteboards and pen, and explained to them the difference between
alike and different. This took much longer that I anticipated. Some had a hard time understanding
that the words same and alike are similar in meaning. I then drew the following picture on
my whiteboard and instructed the students to do the same on theirs:

I asked the students to look at their drawings for two minutes. After which, I began asking for
similarities and differences. These are some of the responses I received:

Alike

Different

Both have a triangle and a square

One has two dots, one has 3 dots (dots created

by me when I was counting the shapes with
students)

Both have a triangle

One is a circle, one is a square (outside)

There are three shapes

One has a triangle in the middle, one has a

square in the middle

One has a square in the middle, one has a

triangle in the middle

There was definitely some confusion as to what alike and different mean for some; as
some said the same answer for both comparisons. Also, prepositions were difficult for students. I

had to finish their sentences when they were trying to describe where the triangles, squares and
circles were. The inclusion of my counting dots threw me off, as it was not intended to be
incorporated in the diagrams. They definitely enjoyed the activity and asked to play again.
Overall, both I and their teacher thought the students did very well at determining the differences
and similarities.