Numerical Translation Stations

The teacher will prepare for this lesson by putting students into six groups. The teacher also needs to set up six stations; the six stations will be different ways to practice turning numerical expressions into verbal expressions and verbal expressions into numerical expressions. Groups will receive a star for every correctly answered problem, and the group with the most stars win. 

(35 minutes): The teacher will take 5 minutes to explain the stations to the students, and then will put the six groups into their stations. Students will spend 5 minutes in each station. The teacher should set a timer to let students know when it is time to switch stations. Three stations will have activities for students to turn numerical expressions into verbal phrases and three stations will have activities to turn verbal phrases into numerical expressions. 

Groups will have five minutes each to share an expression. This will be the chance for the teacher to take notes as a formative assessment. 

For station 2, the group will need to partner up. For station 6, the teacher will need to create number and symbol cards. The teacher will also need to create stars. These stars can be printed, or they can be pulled up on the Smartboard. The attatched station files were created at www.cava.com, which is a free resource. More  documents can be created on this website. 

Differentiate: If needed, provide students with "numberless" expressions by swapping numbers out with emojis or pictures. Work in a small group to verbalize these without the pressure of numbers. Consider heterogeneous vs. homogeneous student ability groupings. Pull students and groups for remediation if necessary.

Extend: Give students a number and have them create a corresponding expression. Have students create word problems to illustrate scenarios for the numeric expressions.

Annecdotal notes