Page 90 - Point 5 Literature Program Option 1 Teachers Guide (2) (1)

Bank of Activities for Teaching HOTS

Although there are activities in the Student’s Coursebook to introduce the various HOTS, we are
including here some other options for you to choose from if you prefer.

Comparing and contrasting
1. Two paintings / styles of dress
• Show two paintings that have something in common, such as style, period, content, etc.,
and ask students to explain what is similar and what is different. Write their responses on
the board under the two headings of Comparing (similarities) and Contrasting (differences).
Elicit typical signal words such as just like, similarly, in contrast.
• This can be repeated with other items such as clothing styles, buildings or anything that can
easily be presented visually.

• This can also be done with ideas or themes such as films and their sequels (Die Hard, Shrek,
Mission Impossible). Responses might indicate the same heroic characteristics of the main character,
the same type of villains, different settings, a different problem to solve, etc.
Encourage students to use a graphic organizer such as a Venn diagram for these activities.

2. Courting / wedding customs
• Have students work in pairs or threes to find information about courting or wedding customs
from different communities or countries, using personal knowledge and Internet sources, and
prepare a chart of common features and differences. Responses might include the color of the
bride’s clothing, the length of the ceremony and celebration, how the participants prepare themselves,
features of the ceremony itself, etc. Elicit typical signal words such as just like, similarly, in contrast.

Explaining patterns
Rhyming patterns
• Choose a short poem of at least three stanzas with a clear rhyming pattern such as abab cdcd.
Ask the students to identify the rhyming pattern in the first two verses, which should be
printed in full. For the remaining verses omit the last word of the last two lines and ask them
to complete them with suitable words in terms of content and rhyme. You can provide a word
bank if you wish.

Explaining cause and effect

1. Choose a historical event from a period students are familiar with. Look at its causes, then at what
the intended consequences were and what actually happened (the unintended consequences).
Encourage students to use a flowchart for this activity.
2. Choose any current event and do the same.
3. Make two columns on the board. In one column write words such as first, next, then, finally, and
in the other column, words such as because, then, as a result, and ask strong students to invent
a story with each group of words. Then ask the students what the difference between the short
stories is. (One gives a chronological sequence of events that may or may not be related. In the
other, subsequent events were caused by the previous ones.) Explain that the latter is what we call
a causal connection, i.e., things didn’t just happen one after another, but because of one another.

4. Set up a long line of dominoes and have a student knock down the first one.

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