Purpose
This activity gives students an opportunity to try new structures and vocabulary in a small-group situation. Used at the end of a topic, it allows them to express the mathematical language and explain the maths concepts that they have been learning.
Procedure
Create a grid with up to nine boxes. In each box, write a simple maths problem that is based on the mathematical topic the group is studying.
Allocate the first student a cell reference (for example, A2). The student works out the answer and then chooses someone from the group to go next, allocating a new cell reference to that student.
This strategy gives students opportunities to use mathematical language in a supported and scaffolded way to describe their reasoning. They also have opportunities to practise describing position using mathematical language.
Example of a Say it! grid
A | B | C | |
1 |
There are 6 apples and 3 people. Everyone gets the same number of apples.
Tell us how many they should get each and how you worked it out.
|
There are 24 children in the class. 10 are boys.
Tell us how many are girls and how you worked it out.
|
There are 10 balls and 5 kittens. Every kitten has the same number of balls.
Tell us how many balls each kitten gets and how you worked it out.
|
2
|
There are 48 people on a bus. 20 of them are children.
Tell us how many are not children and how you worked it out.
|
There are 16 chocolates in the box and 4 people wanting to eat them. Everyone gets the same number of chocolates.
Tell us how many they get each and how you worked it out.
|
There are 63 people waiting to buy a ticket to see a movie.
There are 30 seats for the movie.
Tell us how many people won’t get tickets for the movie and how you worked it out.
|
You may need to provide a speaking frame for students to describe their reasoning. An example of this could be:
They will get .
I to get the answer.
What to look for:
- Which students can find the answer but can’t explain their reasoning?
- Which students are able to work out the answer and explain their reasoning but in grammatically incorrect ways?
- Which students are able to work out the answer and explain their reasoning using grammatically correct mathematical language that has been taught during the topic?
- Which terms do the students confuse with one another?
- Which language structures did students have difficulty articulating or constructing?
- Who needed a speaking frame to describe their reasoning? What will I have to do to teach them how to explain their reasoning without a speaking frame?
- What do I need to teach next, and to whom do I need to teach it?
Back to Resource 4: Strategies for teaching mathematical language to English language learners