3. Co-Construct and Instruct

I thought this lesson went really well. The students had already used this routine previously and were able to remember each section of it. At first, I was worried about them being able to remember details from the movie to help carry the discussion and find enough differences because it had been about two weeks since they had seen the movie. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of specifics they were able to recall. As a result, they found it quite easy to fill in each of the sections with just a bit of prompting from us.

This lesson went well with our class.  The students had already used the Concept Comparison Routine in a previous lesson so they had no difficulties remember what to do in each section.  The students had watched the latest movie version a couple of weeks prior to actually having to use the details to compare/contrast to the book.  The students had no difficulties remembering details in order to complete the table after reading the book, which was a pleasant surprise.  The students actually recalled very specific details, with little prompting from us.  

Dana and I have taught this process throughout the year. Attached is a sample of a student in another class different from our co-taught class seen in our video. This student showed a fairly decent mastery of the CCR template at this point in the year without any teacher cues. We use these typically as exit tickets and instead of writing the summary in on the big dry erase template each individual student reads aloud from their own paper template. 

The Concept Comparison Routine was a good Introduction review to Area and Perimeter.  It was a good way for the students to show what they remembered about the concepts, as well as reinforce the usage of the new formula sheet.  The students were able to go over the formulas and look for similarities and differences as they were completing the routine.  This helped them to "dissect" the formulas. 
What went well?The students were engaged during the process of completing the Concept Comparison Routine.  They were eager to look for similarities and differences between area and perimeter even though the concepts are simple for pre-algebra students.  By completing the routine, the students were able to dig deeper and look at the concepts from a different perspective and actually look for commonalities and differences.
What went wrong?By spending so much time on the Concept Comparison Routine, it took longer to get to the 8th grade part of the SOL, calculating area and perimeter of composite figures.  The students will know the difference between area and perimeter, and this will help them when solving word problems, but they had difficulty with the actual solving of the math problems themselves.
What to Improve?This routine might be better served to be used with a concept that is more abstract in math, like sets of numbers in the real number system.  Students have a hard time grasping this because they cannot see how the sets relate to one another.  A Concept Comparison Chart might help to clear up the confusion.