Formative Assessment: Integer War

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Formative Assessment:  Integer War


The instructional activity, Integer War, worked as both a timely practice for my students and a formative assessment as well.  As students played, I was free to move from group to group, listening to the math answers and reasoning they discussed with their peers, and encourage, correct misconceptions, and interact mathematically with students as needed.

Integer War
  • Take out the Joker cards. You won’t be using them.
  • Clubs and Spades (black cards) represent positive numbers.
  • Diamonds and Hearts (red cards) represent negative numbers.
  • Aces = 1  or -1; Face cards (Jacks, Queens, Kings) = 10  or -10.
  1. Divide cards into equal piles for each player.
  2. Each player turns over 2 cards in their pile and records the value of each of these cards (positive or negative) in Player #’s Cards column.
  3. Combine the values of your 2 cards, finding the sum, and record under your Sums column.  [Remember . . . whichever group (positive or negative) has the highest absolute value will determine if the sign of the final sum is positive or negative.
  4. Players determine if Player 1’s sum is >, <, or = Player 2’s sum, and if Player 2’s sum is >, <, or = Player 3’s sum.
  5.  Players MUST check each other’s work and write the Winner’s Name.
  6. Winner of each round gets to keep all cards from that round.
  7. Play continues until one player has all of the cards or the teacher calls time.
  8. In case of a tie (same sum), each player turns over 2 cards.  The 2nd card’s value is used to determine the winner of the cards played.  Place a * by the winner’s name of that round.
Variation:  Each player turns over 3 cards in their pile, instead of 2.  Group your positive and negative numbers separately, record your cards, and determine sum.

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