If you want to improve students' flexible thinking or attention to detail
Teach It!
Objective: Observing and analyzing similarities and differences between objects exercises a student's ability to consider varying characteristics and adjust thinking as necessary based on the information.
Class Activity: a) Have students observe a group of people, objects, or for older students, ideas that are categorized by a shared characteristic. Then pick out and create a list of something within that group that is unique or different. For example, within a bookshelf of all fiction books, place one math textbook. Have students scan the shelf and notice which one does not fit in and explain why. Depending on the students' ages and ability levels, the anomaly can become increasingly subtle, such as picking out a non-fiction book from a group of fiction books.
Ongoing Reinforcement: As students learn to identify and analyze these anomalies, encourage them in their everyday experiences to ask themselves, "What about this is different?" and "What about this is the same?"