1. NZ Maths
  2. Supporting professional practice
  3. Accelerating learning
  4. ALiM resources
  5. Resource 4
  6. Say it!

Say it!

The Ministry is migrating nzmaths content to Tāhurangi.           
Relevant and up-to-date teaching resources are being moved to Tāhūrangi (tahurangi.education.govt.nz). 
When all identified resources have been successfully moved, this website will close. We expect this to be in June 2024. 
e-ako maths, e-ako Pāngarau, and e-ako PLD 360 will continue to be available. 

For more information visit https://tahurangi.education.govt.nz/updates-to-nzmaths

Purpose

This activity gives students an opportunity to try new structures and vocabulary in a small-group situation. Used at the end of a topic, it allows them to express the mathematical language and explain the maths concepts that they have been learning.

Procedure

Create a grid with up to nine boxes. In each box, write a simple maths problem that is based on the mathematical topic the group is studying.

Allocate the first student a cell reference (for example, A2). The student works out the answer and then chooses someone from the group to go next, allocating a new cell reference to that student.

This strategy gives students opportunities to use mathematical language in a supported and scaffolded way to describe their reasoning. They also have opportunities to practise describing position using mathematical language.

Example of a Say it! grid 

  A B C
1
There are 6 apples and 3 people. Everyone gets the same number of apples.
Tell us how many they should get each and how you worked it out.
There are 24 children in the class. 10 are boys.
Tell us how many are girls and how you worked it out.
There are 10 balls and 5 kittens. Every kitten has the same number of balls.
Tell us how many balls each kitten gets and how you worked it out.
  2  
There are 48 people on a bus. 20 of them are children.
Tell us how many are not children and how you worked it out.
There are 16 chocolates in the box and 4 people wanting to eat them. Everyone gets the same number of chocolates.
Tell us how many they get each and how you worked it out.
There are 63 people waiting to buy a ticket to see a movie.
There are 30 seats for the movie.
Tell us how many people won’t get tickets for the movie and how you worked it out.

You may need to provide a speaking frame for students to describe their reasoning. An example of this could be:

They will get                     .

I                      to get the answer.

What to look for:

  • Which students can find the answer but can’t explain their reasoning?
  • Which students are able to work out the answer and explain their reasoning but in grammatically incorrect ways?
  • Which students are able to work out the answer and explain their reasoning using grammatically correct mathematical language that has been taught during the topic?
  • Which terms do the students confuse with one another?
  • Which language structures did students have difficulty articulating or constructing?
  • Who needed a speaking frame to describe their reasoning? What will I have to do to teach them how to explain their reasoning without a speaking frame?
  • What do I need to teach next, and to whom do I need to teach it?

Back to Resource 4: Strategies for teaching mathematical language to English language learners