standard_description: Understand that positive and negative numbers are used together to describe quantities having opposite directions or values (e.g., temperature above/below zero, elevation above/below sea level, credits/debits, positive/negative electric charge); use positive and negative numbers to represent quantities in real-world contexts, explaining the meaning of 0 in each situation.
problem_activity: Narrative
This Info Gap activity gives students an opportunity solve problems about data represented on line plots. In both sets of cards, there is a partially complete line plot and some missing data.
For the first set of cards, the problem card has the missing data and the data card has a partially complete line plot. Monitor for students who:
request all the information on the data card and create a complete line plot which they may use to answer the question
only request the information they need to answer the question about the heaviest apricot and the most common weight
For the second set of cards, the problem card has the partially complete line plot and the data card has information to determine the missing data. Here students will likely need to communicate with each other as the information about the most common weight is vital to solve the problem, but the student with the problem card may not think to ask about this.
The Info Gap allows students to refine the language they use and ask increasingly more precise questions until they get the information they need (MP6).
Representation: Access for Perception.
Provide appropriate reading accommodations and supports to ensure student access to written directions, word problems, and other text-based content.
Supports accessibility for: Conceptual Processing, Memory
Required Materials
Materials to Copy
Info Gap: Picking Fruit
Required Preparation
Create a set of cards from the blackline master for each group of 2.
Launch
Groups of 2
MLR4 Information Gap
Recall, if necessary, the steps of the info gap routine.
“I will give you either a problem card or a data card. Silently read your card. Do not read or show your card to your partner.”
Distribute the first set of cards.
Remind students that after the person with the problem card asks for a piece of information, the person with the data card should respond with: “Why do you need to know (restate the information requested)?”
Activity
8–10 minutes: partner work time
After students solve the first problem, distribute the next set of cards. Students switch roles and repeat the process with Problem Card 2 and Data Card 2.
Student Facing
Your teacher will give you either a problem card or a data card. Do not show or read your card to your partner.
Pause here so your teacher can review your work.
Ask your teacher for a new set of cards and repeat the activity, trading roles with your partner.
Student Response
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Activity Synthesis
“What kinds of questions were the most useful to ask?”
(Card 1: I asked for the heaviest apricot and then realized it was one of the ones on my card. Then I asked for the most common weight and could solve the problem.
Card 2: I needed to find out what the rest of the apricot weights were. I tried asking for that but my partner did not have that information. My partner told me she had some information about the heaviest apricot and the most common weight and once I found that out I was able to solve the problem.)
Invite students to share their strategy for solving one of the problems.
Consider asking “Did anyone solve the problem in a different way?”


aligns: no