Homework and Practice
Practice is extremely important in order for a skill to become second nature. However, there needs to be a point to the assignments. Constant drills lose their effectiveness after a while. If homework is to be successful, it needs to build on the learning and expand on the lesson. If students are engaged in the learning they will be more apt to complete the assignments and they will certainly get more out of them.
Similarities and Differences
This is an important skill for students to learn. It is often one of the easiest ways to begin analyzing information. I have used wordle.net as a way to visualize the similarities and differences. Students have put the attributes of one character in a wordle and the attributes of another in a separate wordle. Then we start to reduce the number of words in each. It soon becomes apparent what the similar attributes are, as well as which ones are different.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
I have generally only thought of hypotheses in regards to science classes, but I suppose that it is a skill that you could easily apply to all aspects of learning. Aren't the reading predictions that we ask students to make really just hypotheses by another name? Don't we want students to form questions in order to guide their learning? I know that I will be more careful about getting hung up on terminology in the future.
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