Discuss with the students the idea that in many books, as well as in most testing situations, they have been given problems that they were asked to solve. Here they will also get a chance to become the problem writers.
The students will become reporters at the Super Bowl. One job of a reporter is to write about what he or she sees. Explain that in this activity they will look at some pictures taken at the game and will write some problems to go along with what they see in the pictures.
Distribute a copy of the Get the Picture—Get the Story Activity Sheet to each student.
Explain to the class that for each of the four pictures, the pair of students is to create a problem and write it in the spaces below the pictures.
Encourage the class to be creative in formulating their problems by not necessarily writing down the first and easiest problem that comes to minds.
Also, encourage them to use a different operation, or an operation in a different way, for each picture. This restriction will help avoid having every group write a simple addition problem for each picture.
This goal can also be accomplished by asking the students to write two different problems for each of the pictures. as an optional activity, depending on the abilities of the class.
After everyone has finished writing four problems, have each pair of students get together with another pair (if even pairings do not result, then you may need to form one group of six) to share responses.
Once the students have compared their problems, ask, "How many of you discovered that the other pair in your group wrote a different problem for the picture than you did?"
Take this opportunity to discuss how a picture, a diagram, a graph, and the like, are often perceived differently by different people.
As a conclusion to the activity, go around the room and have the students read their problems and count how many different types of problems were formulated from each picture.
