The purpose of this activity is for students to connect two-step word problems, diagrams, and equations with a symbol for the unknown quantity. Interpreting and relating given representations prepare students to use these as tools for reasoning when they solve two-step word problems. This sorting task gives students opportunities to analyze situations, diagrams, and equations closely and make connections (MP2).
MLR8 Discussion Supports: Students should take turns finding a match and explaining their reasoning to their partner. Display the following sentence frame for all to see: “Observé _____, entonces agrupé . . .” // “I noticed _____ , so I matched . . . .” Encourage students to challenge each other when they disagree.
Advances: Listening, Speaking
Engagement: Develop Effort and Persistence. Chunk this task into more manageable parts. Give students a subset of the cards to start, and introduce the remaining cards once students have completed their initial set of matches.
Supports accessibility for: Visual-Spatial Processing, Attention