Engaging a vertical, neurodiverse group in Learning

compare and contrast lesson plan

It was like any other day. I was looking forward to a free day as many children were in a craft workshop and only a few were at farmhill.

Then I saw that Akhil did not have anything planned and he was getting bored, so were the little ones in Shishu. Akhil is a 17 year old autistic young man and the two girls in Shishu are six and three and half.

You may think, ‘what can they do together?’, but at farmhill, we do not differentiate with age, gender or in any other way. Everyone calls everyone by name most of the time and that is respectful. Age is actually only a number.

Akhil is extremely skilled with his hands, an artist and a cook by heart. However, he finds it hard to engage with language concepts. We are working with language so that he can share his thoughts and feelings, and eventually, regulate his emotions better. The minute he sees print or hears a question, Akhil ignores us, as he finds it difficult to respond. Even if he makes eye contact, he immediately says ‘I don’t know’ and moves away.

The two girls are very communicative and curious but they do get bored easily.

I decided I would try an activity with them together.

I chose ‘Compare and contrast’ as a concept.

We started with identifying the same and different among similar looking leaves and flowers. They even pointed out that one flower that I drew was different because it had a bigger circle at the center than the rest.

Then I moved on to comparing ‘Cat’ and an ‘Elephant’.

I drew both the pictures on the board and asked what is ‘same’ in both. They all took turns identifying similar features. Akhil was distracted initially, but came back to the conversation and participated.

Kivi tried to draw and write while Anana drew. Akhil wrote in his notebook.

Then we moved on to identify what’s different between a cat and an elephant. Kivi was ready with her point and Akhil chimed in pointing to the trunk. Anana said that the elephant has big ears. When I asked Akhil to look at the size, he was able to identify one as a bigger animal.

Here are Kivi’s notes:

Then I asked them to compare ‘Kivi’ and ‘Anana’. They had so much fun! When I said ‘Anana is a’, Akhil filled in ‘girl’. So we wrote that down as “same”. Anana pointed out that both of them wear ‘coconut tree’ style hair on their head :). See the picture.

We discussed what is different. Kivi said she is wearing a t-shirt while Anana is wearing a frock. Akhil said that Kivi is wearing pants and Anana is …(Anana supplied ‘skirt’). And so on.

Kivi got inspired and drew two birds for me. She asked me to find out what is different. See the beautiful pictures she drew and her phonetic spelling for ‘Different’. She was so happy when I solved her worksheet.

Now Anana had to test me. So, she also drew two flowers and asked me to tell what is same and different. Look at the picture. I found out the answer and then they went off to play. I was amazed at how engaged they were throughout.

Akhil and I continued our discussion. He compared two coffee cups and he noticed that their designs are different. He found it easy when I gave the labels ‘cup 1’ and ‘cup 2’.

Then we compared pictures of two trees. He identified that one had lesser fruits than the other.

Then we finally compared ‘Akhil’ and his brother ‘Abhi’ What is the same? He identified both of them as boys as a fill in to ‘Akhil is a …’ Then I asked who Akhil’s parents were. He said ‘Mommy and nanna’. When I asked the same question about Abhi, he looked at me questioningly. I kept quiet. It felt like he was asking, ‘Really? Do we really share the parents?’ :). He finally relented after a minute and said ‘Mommy and Nanna’. For the third point about glasses, I showed a photograph and asked what is the same, but he kept repeating the question. Then I drew line drawings on the board, and he saw I was drawing the glasses. He did not comment. Then I asked, ‘What are you wearing?’. He said ’I am wearing glasses, Abhi is wearing glasses.

What is different? I asked ‘How old are you? He wrote but he did not know about Abhi. I sent him to his mother to ask. He had to frame a question for the same. Then I showed the picture to ask what else he sees as different. Only when I said look at their size, he said that Akhil is tall. For the third point, we had a little bit of discussion about age words ‘elder’ and ‘younger’.