Teaching Students to Notice What Matters
Spot the Difference Teaching uses “same but different” visual and text experiences to help students notice meaningful details before they compare, analyze, and create.
Mission
Spot the Difference Teaching is about using "same but different" visuals and text material to teach noticing details in two versions of the same entity.
Spot the Difference Teaching...
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curates visual resources such as re.photos and
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creates text material through its Spot the Difference Text Analysis Strategy.
This text analysis strategy invented by Lea Maryanow takes the visual concept of the popular Spot the Difference games and applies it to text whether that be a word problem in 2nd grade math, a literature passage in 7th grade ELA, or a text prompt in 10th grade Science. By comparing two different versions of the same text, students notice and experience which words are the key ones in a sentence or passage, practicing their attention to details.
Through practicing their understanding of word choice in two different versions of one text, students will be more successful comparing and analyzing different texts, and, ultimately, producing their own text.
Vision
Our vision for Spot the Difference Teaching is to make comparing and contrasting a minimum of two different texts, images, media, etc. easier.
The Person behind Spot the Difference Teaching
Lea Maryanow is the founder and creator of the Spot the Difference Text Analysis Strategy and curates resources for Spot the Difference Teaching. She is a credentialed single-subject teacher and has been an educator for 10+ years. She started her teaching career with English and ESL at the college level, went on to teaching middle school for several years, and now has found her passion for teaching high school English. When she is not teaching, she loves sharing with and learning from other educators across the nation.
To date, the Spot the Difference Strategy has reached thousands of educators across the United States. What first started as an ELA strategy has now evolved into a text strategy for students and educators in all subjects of all ages.
Join the Spot the Difference Movement here and come see us in person at the next NCTE Conference in Philadelphia.
