Odd One Out
K-12
Big Idea
Directions
2. Provide students with the four items to analyze.
3. Allow students to have 2-3 min. of first thinking time to record their observations in writing. When time is up, students should not add to or remove anything from their first thinking.
4. Organize students into pairs, triads, or groups of 4.
5. Allow 6-8 min. of Group Thinking Time. Students should take about a minute to share their thoughts and hear other students' ideas. Students will record any new ideas or questions they may still have.
6. When time is up, the group will individually record their final answer and write a statement explaining their justification.
When to use
Strategy Variations
You may be familiar with the site Which One Doesn't Belong? This site offers "thought-provoking puzzles" for Math teachers and students. These puzzles use the strategy Odd One Out and offer students multiple entry points for learning. Check them out!
Another resource teachers may find useful when looking for images to use with the Odd One Out strategy is, the Best Image Search Engine. This site offers a collection of image search engines that surpasses just Google.
Some examples have been included below.
Science: Which rock does not belong? (Sedimentary vs Igneous)
Health & Wellness: Which food does not belong? (Fast Carbohydrates vs Slow Carbohydrates)
Art: Which medium does not belong? (Water color vs Pencil)
Language Arts: Which word does not belong? (Preposition awareness)
These examples have an intended single solution, but you may create examples within your content to allow multiple solutions.