by Francie Kugelman
I place the students in groups of 4, with one strong math student in each group. The directions are passed out, along with the two charts the students are to round to the nearest whole number. The students are given the directions and chart paper to write their answers.
This project is a bit difficult to do, and the students are told that EVERYONE must participate, so there is a lot of annoyed and stressed voices as the team members try to correctly finish the activity first.
After a winning team is selected, we talk about the experience. The students make a circle concept map to write about their frustrations and/or positive experiences they had working on a team.
When all the students have written down their successes and frustrations of this project, I say to the students that this week’s writing prompt deals with some of the issues they just experienced. I remind them that they can write about any subject they want for the prompt, but they might want to consider writing about this experience. If everything worked out in the end, I advise them they can change the story a bit, so that it address the prompt.
I like the idea of this game for the firsthand experience in cooperation and competition which it undoubtedly provides. I would like to try it this year, for sure.
I am still a bit troubled by the instructions to “round to the nearest whole number.” Aren’t all of the figures listed in the charts already whole numbers? Do you mean that the students are to round to the nearest ten, hundred, or thousand? I am going to change that part of the instructions to eliminate confusion.
I agree the directions on the rounding was confusing. I changed mine to say round to the largest whole number.