This idea was inspired by an idea originally shared by IN Teacher of the Year Flew Flewelling at the 2018 Indiana AdvancEd conference.

Gist: Students expand answers by adding, subtracting, or dividing their answers.

Why Do It?  This activity leads students to think deeply about their answers in out-of-the-box ways.

 

Materials:

-one question per student OR one worksheet per student

-"math operations" as outlined below

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Set Up:

1.Students complete their question OR their worksheet, depending on preferred gameplay.

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To Play:

1. Students pass their work one student to the right.  Then you call out a math operation (see below).  Students perform that operation on the original student's original answer OR the first problem on the worksheet (again, depending on whether preferred gameplay is with individual questions or entire worksheets).

2. Repeat, passing again, and continue with any operation.

3.  At the end of designated play time, students get their original work back and review the thoughts of their classmates, discussing as appropriate.

 

Operations

Addition: Add something to their answer to make their answer stronger

Subtraction: Take something away from their answer to make their answer stronger

Division: Re-arrange their answer (or steps) to make their answer (or process) stronger

Greatest Common Factor: Analyze all the input students have provided on this problem so far.  What do they all have in common?

*Come up with additional operations?  Submit them so we can share them with other educators!*

 

Caution and Tips:

-Any deep thinking like this can take practice.  Perhaps have the whole class try each operation on the same problem to familiarize the students with them before actually playing.

-What is added, subtracted, or re-arranged can be evidence, details, steps, etc.

-This activity is best suited for problems that are open-ended or may have more than one way to solve.

 

Variations:

-Can be used with one worksheet per student, revising a different problem on each pass.

-Can be used on open-ended, essay, or multi-step problems.  Again, students can work the same problem and consider multiple students' thinking by passing or work different problems and consider many different problems by passing.

-"Operations" can be customized to your content or teaching style.

-Operations can be pre-planned or randomized.  Consider writing them on a die, putting them on a random spinner, or drawing them out of a bag.  Random spinner available here .