DIFFERENTIATED STRATEGY 101:

CUBING A LESSON

Barbara Ewing Cockroft, M.Ed. NBCT, presenter

Visit: http://www.cdeducation.org/ocea/handouts/39%20-%20Differentiation%20Strategy%20101-%20Cubing%20a%20Lesson/

For more activities and lessons using cubing

“Be not afraid of going slowly. Be only afraid of standing still.”

-Bertie Kingore

What Is Cubing?

A technique that helps students

consider a subject from six

points of view

Different commands or tasks

appear on each side of a cube

What Is Cubing? (continued)

Cubes may vary with commands or tasks appropriate to the level of readiness of the group.

Cubes may also be constructed with tasks relating to different areas of intelligence, such as verbal/linguistic or bodily/kinesthetic.

What Is Cubing? (continued)

In its most sophisticated form, it is a technique that helps students think at different levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.

Cubing Tied to Bloom’s Taxonomy

1. Knowledge Recall: What is this about?

2.Comprehension Understanding: Why did this

happen?

3. Application Transfer: Use the information to predict.

4. Analysis How many elements are present?

5. Synthesis Combining: Change to a new

scenario.

6. EvaluationRating: Rank solutions in

priority order.

Examples of Cubing Statements

Describe It. Look at the subject closely, perhaps with your physical senses as well as your mind.

Compare It. What is it similar to? What is it different from?

Associate It. What does it make you think of? What comes to your mind when you think of it? People? Places? Things? Feelings? Let your mind go and see what feelings you have for the subject.

Examples of Cubing Statements (continued)

Analyze It. Tell how it is made. What are its traits and attributes?

Apply It. Tell what you can do with it. How can it be used?

Argue For or Against It. Take a stance. Use any kind of reasoning you want: logical, silly, anywhere in between.

Why Do We Use Cubes?

To differentiate learning by readiness (familiarity with content or skill level)

To differentiate learning by interest

Why We Use Cubes

To differentiate learning by student learning profile (visual, auditory, kinesthetic; multiple intelligences)

To add an element of novelty to classroom instruction

Getting Started

Step 1. Identify the general concepts, skills and content, aligned with the state standards, that will be the focus of the activity as it pertains to different learners.

What do you want your students to know, understand, and be able to do?

Getting Started (continued)

Step 2. Provide extended opportunities, materials, and learning situations that are appropriate for a wide range of readiness, interests, and learning styles.

Does what you are teaching align with your short and long-term goals?

Getting Started, continued

Step 3. Pre-assess student readiness, interest, or learning style!

Group students according to their readiness, with different colored cubes or task cards that match students’ level of understanding and ability level.

Getting Started (continued)

Step 4. Make sure the students understand the verbs and directions for each task. Offer choices!

Getting Started (continued)

Step 5. Students complete the tasks according to the directions.

Allow sufficient time. Ask one or two students from

each group to share their group’s findings/project/task with the class.

Helpful Hints:

Design the task cards to look basically the same among all of the groups.

Use the cubing technique sparingly, so that the novelty does not wear off.

Coordinate cubing activities with other teachers if you are in a team-teaching situation.

Helpful Hints (continued)

Use colored paper to indicate various interests or learning styles (not readiness-based grouping).

Students begin by sitting with other students using cubes of the same color.

Helpful Hints (continued)

If the first roll is an activity that the student does not want to do, a second roll is allowed.

After students have worked on their activity individually, have them come together in groups to synthesize.

Variations on Cubing

1. Number the list of tasks to be

completed. Roll the die to select the

item on the list to complete.

2. Write each task on a tongue

depressor and let students select one.

Variations (continued)

3. Incorporate learning styles in the cubed

activity, such as visual/spatial;

bodily/kinesthetic, etc.

4. Design a cube for reading nonfiction (Who?

What? When? Where? Why? How?);

especially powerful in content areas.

Helpful Tools

Knowledge

Knowledge - factual answers, recognition, testing recall

Process Words: who, how why, what, tell, know, where, name, label, omit, when, list, define, select, choose, specify, match, record, identify, numerate, describe, recount, memorize, recall

Products/Outcomes: list, definition, recitation, lecture, worksheet, chart, facts

Comprehension

Comprehension - translating, interpreting, extrapolating

Process Words: cite, tell, infer, report, show, explain, identify, locate, discuss, classify, describe, indicate, translate, recognize, summarize, paraphrase

Products/Outcomes: summary, discussion, explanation, report, review, puzzle, game, lesson

Application

Application - to situations that are new, unfamiliar, or have a new slant; apply rules, laws methods, theories

Process Words: use, solve, select, teach, show, collect, relate, explain, transfer, exhibit, predict, informs, practice, classify, compute, illustrate, determine, produce, establish, develop, simulate, experiment, demonstrate, discover, dramatize

Products/Outcomes: map, model, diagram, illustration, interview, experiment, drawing, collection, chart, timeline, mobile

AnalysisAnalysis - breaking down into parts, forms identifying motives or causes, making inferences, finding evidence to support generalizations; clarifying, concluding

Process Words: probe, survey, dissect, outline, contrast, identify, compare, examine, discover, organize, correlate, illustrate, prioritize, combine, separate, diagram, differentiate, distinguish, categorize, investigate, subdivide

Products/Outcomes: graph, diagram, survey, questionnaire, plan, research paper, outline, attributes, goals/objectives, chart, mind map

Synthesis

Synthesis - combining elements into a pattern not clearly there before, ability to put parts together to form a new whole

Process Words: make, plan, adapt, invent, create, develop, translate, design, initiate, generate, make up, compose, propose, predict, integrate, originate, rearrange, assemble, collaborate, categorize, hypothesize, formulate, incorporate

Products/Outcomes: song, play, newspaper, film, mural, story, advertisement, poem, invention, formula, solution, art product

Evaluation

Evaluation - evaluate according to some set of criteria and state why; ability to judge value for purpose; judging the value of something

Process Words: rate, judge, revise, choose, critique, defend, justify, decide, assess, contrast, support, compare, criticize, support, validate, determine, recommend, appraise, conclude, interpret

Products/Outcomes: panel, discussion, judgment, evaluation, opinion, editorial, verdict, rating scale, debate, court trial, ranking

Examples (refer to this website: http://www.cdeducation.org/ocea/handouts/39%20-%20Differentiation%20Strategy%20101-%20Cubing%20a%20Lesson/

Grade 3 Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes task card

Grades 6-8 Task cards to correspond to The Outsiders (easy and difficult readiness levels)

Grades 6-8 Revising cube (easy and difficult readiness levels)

Grade 10 Stereotyping (English or Social Studies)

Social Studies Level 1

For a blank template of a cube, visit: http://www.cdeducation.org/ocea/handouts/39%20-%20Differentiation%20Strategy%20101-%20Cubing%20a%20Lesson/