Teaching Analysis to Students in Grades 1-3
Working with older buddies, primary students become experts on the eight species of bears. Students engage in a variety of comparison activities, including estimating then measuring the differences between themselves and bears. They also compare the habitats, size, and needs of two species. Finally, students dig deeper to learn all they can about one bear, and apply their expertise as they make a guide for children who visit the local zoo. For more information about this Unit Plan go to Meet the Bears.

Matching: Students compare two different types of bears and record their differences and similarities.

Classification: Students classify books about bears as fiction or non-fiction.

Error Analysis: As they read fictional books about bears, students look for characteristics and behaviors that are not true of real bears in the wild.
 
Generalizing: Students write a statement that is true about all bears.

Specifying: After studying different kinds of bears, students look at pictures of different kinds of bears and label what kinds of bears they are.

Teaching Analysis to Students in Grades 6-8
In this immigration simulation, students travel back in time and experience life through the eyes of a nineteenth-century European immigrant. They study the push-and-pull factors of migration, and write multimedia "letters" to the "old country" describing their impressions of their new home in America and the challenges and opportunities it has to offer. This is one phase in a unit of instruction about waves of immigration, and includes a look at Asian and Hispanic migrations as well. See Destination America: Our Hope, Our Future for more information on this unit.

Matching:  Students compare the America they live in with the one that new immigrants found in the nineteenth century.
 
Classification: After studying the different groups of people who immigrated to the United States, students classify them according to their reasons for immigrating.
 
Error Analysis: Students critically read stories and articles written at the turn of the century about immigrants, identifying incorrect assumptions and conclusions.

Generalizing: Students generate principles about current immigration policy.

Specifying: Students use principles they have generated to make recommendations about what course of action should be taken in specific current immigration issues.

Teaching Analysis to Grades 9-12 Students
Using Jim Brandenburg's article "North Woods Journal" from 1997's November issue of National Geographic as inspiration, students venture into nature and record their experiences in words and photographs. They develop a lecture in which they compare their reactions to nature with the perceptions and attitudes of writers such as Emerson, Fuller, and Thoreau. Journal entries and photographs are combined in an electronic slideshow, and serve as a multimedia "backdrop" for each student's presentation.

Matching: Students observe a variety of places in their communities and compare what they see, hear, and feel there.

Classification: Using the information recorded in their journals, students categorize the data they have collected.

Error Analysis: As part of the creation of their multimedia presentations, students review each other’s work and look for errors in consistency and reasoning.

Generalizing: Students use the categorized date from their journals to develop statements about their awareness of their surroundings.

Specifying:  To make their multimedia presentation, students find concrete images and language to demonstrate their principles.

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