Matched Pairs

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost

OVERVIEW

This activity employs a survey instrument that prompts students to rate their actions, levels of understanding, or opinions. Students are presented with sets of two polar opposite statements or concepts and asked to chart where they fall along the various continua.

IMPLEMENTING THIS ACTIVITY

Create a set of topic related, paired statements.
Distribute the survey to the class. Explain your directions and make your expectations clear to students.
Once the students have completed the worksheet, discuss the statements and the experience with the students.
- An interesting way to process the results is to ask them to identify areas where their actual responses were most different from where they would prefer them to be.
- “Outlier” data is often the most interesting to discuss.
After gathering and reviewing student responses, you will be able to make the appropriate adjustments to your instruction.

CONTENT AREA APPLICATIONS

English – Matched Pairs can be used to assess students’ level of understanding about various punctuation rules.

Science – This activity can be used to assess students’ perceived ability to conduct common laboratory procedures.

ASSESSING THIS ACTIVITY

This activity assesses students’ prior knowledge or opinions and is used mostly to inform your instruction.

MANAGING THIS ACTIVITY

- To ensure honest responses, inform your students that their responses will not being graded.
- Before beginning, check with students to be sure that they are clear about how the Matched Pairs process works.