This is a fun, quiet, game
reminiscent of the "whisper chain" game that people play
in elementary school, although it will work well for all grades
(K-12). Groups of students silently do problems while sitting in straight
columns. When the teacher calls "PUFF", the person at the
front of the column passes her paper to the person behind her. The
second person then compares her work with the work on the paper that
has been passed. She decides which one is correct and then passes
the best paper to the person behind her. This silent work/evaluation
and passing continues until the last person in the column is reached.
When the teacher says, "POWER PUFF", the last person must
make the final decision and place the problem and all the work on
the board.
Each "pod" or group
has their own space at the board, and the last person must cover their
work with their body until everyone is finished and the teacher says,
"Sit down." Each pod with the correct answer gets a point.
The thing that makes this game challenging is that this is all done
in complete SILENCE. If any pod member talks or even whispers
during the round, the pod loses a point. This forces
the students to communicate through their writing.
Showing correct mathematics becomes vital because they can't explain
verbally what they mean to the person behind them.