Strategy: Compare-Contrast Study Matrix

Rationale:

This strategy would be effective because it is an organizational aid when reading or any other means of deciphering information.  Social Studies covers many concepts yet the concepts change depending on the context it’s being used in.  “Developing a sense of a text’s organizational structure enables students to recall information more fully and efficiently” (p. 356)

Procedure:

 The strategy calls for some preparation by the teacher regarding the terms and concepts the students will be looking at.  Once these are accounted for the instructor puts them in grid form and the students jot down key points they discover when reading.

·         Teacher should model the first paragraphs

·         Students should be able to complete most of the rows and columns

·         Student groups should be used to compare what characteristics were written down and what was missed.

ii

Alvermann, Donna, Stephen Phelps, & Victoria Ridgeway.  (2007). Content Area Reading and Literacy: Succeeding in Today's Diverse Classrooms.  Boston: Pearson, p.356.

Other Possible Procedures

Language Arts:

Teachers could create a comparison-contrast matrix for characters in a novel or for parts of speech. Here is a parts of speech example:

Then, as students learn about the parts of speech and their different functions, students could add columns and compare how words can be used.

--contributed by Jennifer Farrell