Math Language Routine 5: Reversal

Speaker 1: Reversal is a nudge that encourages students to co-craft problems within a relevant context, allowing them to engage in algebraic thinking by doing and undoing.

Here’s how you do it:

For a given problem set, choose one problem. This could be one that is a typical example of the types of problems included. Have students solve the problem.

Then, ask them to create another problem that would have the same solution. The twist is that the problem they create should be a contextualized math problem–what’s commonly referred to as a story problem. Also, the problem should involve the same mathematical focus as the original problem.

In order to create the reversal, students have to engage in doing as they solve the original problem and undoing as they reverse-engineer it, which is an important part of algebraic thinking. Also, they get to flex their creative muscles.

Now go ahead and give Reversal a try!