Connect students directly to the concept in a personal way. Capture students' attention by initiating a group problem-solving activity before delivery of instruction. Begin with a situation that is familiar to students and builds on what they already know. Construct a learning experience that allows diverse and personal student responses. Facilitate the work of cooperative teams of students.

Teacher invites students to recall everyday things that are classified or organized.

Objective: To have students actively realize that many things in their everyday experience are classified or organized so that they may be used/found more readily and then to create a class experience in which the students devise a scheme to classify a common object.

Activity: The students begin this concept by surfacing as many things in their everyday experiences as they can which are classified or organized. They are usually very good at contributing items such as: dictionaries, supermarkets, libraries, department stores, class schedules, etc. Then they are asked to make a large circle around the periphery of the room; remove their left shoe and push it into the center of the circle. (At this point, they're not sure what is going to happen.) The teacher asks for three volunteers, one to go to the board and two to separate the shoes. The task is to devise a scheme, based on similarity of structure, by which the shoes can be broken down into smaller and smaller piles until each student receives her/his own shoe.

Assessment: Participation of the students in contributing examples of everyday things which are classified and their cooperation in joining in the show activity.