Design a Game Board. Students design their own “Best” and “Worst” game boards as described on the Design Your Own Boards pages in the Student Activity Book.
Have students work with their groups on Question 1. Encourage them to ask questions about each other's numbers for both the “Best” and “Worst” game boards.
Write Explanations. After students have completed their game boards, read through Questions 2–4 with the whole class. Before students start working on these questions, discuss Math Practices Expectation 5.
- MPE5:
- Show my work. I show or tell how I arrived at my answer so someone else can understand my thinking.
- What should you include in your explanation so someone else can understand your thinking? (Students may respond that they should list their steps, explain what makes a “good” number good and a “bad” number bad, use words like “factors” or “primes,” and explain where they put numbers on a board and why.)
Have students work individually on Questions 2–4. Advise them to keep in mind the discussion about showing work and explaining thinking.
Review and Revise. After students have finished writing, review samples of student work from the Tanya's Work and John's Work Masters, or choose appropriate work from your class. See Materials Preparation. Have students work in their groups to evaluate one student's work sample.
Display student work samples and ask:
- How well do you think this student showed his or her work?
- Did the student show or tell how he or she arrived at their answer?
- Can you follow every step so that you could solve the problem the same way?
- Which box (Yes . . .; Yes, but . . .; No, but . . .; or
No . . .) best matches how well the student explained his or her thinking?
- What would you tell the student about his or her work? How can it be improved?
Each group writes a response to the student in the appropriate space in the feedback box on the student work sample.
Students may individually (or working with a partner) revise their own work on Questions 2–4 with a different color pen based on the discussions about Math Practices Expectation 5.
Use the Feedback Box and Check-In: Questions 2–3 on the Design Your Own Boards pages in the Student Activity Book to evaluate students' progress toward the following Math Practices Expectation.
- MPE5.
- Show my work. I show or tell how I arrived at my answer so someone else can understand my thinking.
Figures 2 and 3 show sample student work with completed feedback boxes. For this problem, look for the following:
- Do students use the terms factors, multiples, and primes to explain how and why they chose their numbers for the Best and Worst Boards?
- Do students show that they understand that the Best Board should have numbers with many factors?
- Do students show that they understand that prime numbers work well for the Worst Board because primes have only two factors, one and the number itself, and one is not even on the spinner?
- Do students explain why their Best Board won and their Worst Board lost?
