How to Use This Lesson
This is meant as a general outline for how to structure a lesson on MULTI. Whether your student is in early elementary, upper elementary, middle school or above, this structure will work to help groups of students pull out the many mathematical concepts connected to playing MULTI. The lesson is also easy to adapt to various in-person or distance learning settings.
Instead of writing a lesson for each grade band such as K-2, and another for 3-5, and another for middle school and beyond, I will describe the mathematics each grade band could potentially get into and leave it to the teacher to decide what concepts to guide their students through.
The lesson could be broken up into several sessions or repeated to dig deeper into a topic.
If you have any questions about how to weave specific topics into a lesson or how to adapt the lesson to your setting, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Potential Topics
Early Elementary (K-2)
Arrays, rectangles, area, square units, etc.
Square Numbers
Recognizing patterns and structure
Symmetry
Strategy in general, and/or for openings and endgame situations
Upper Elementary (3-5)
Arrays, rectangles, area, square units, etc.
Recognizing patterns and structure
Symmetry
Strategy in general, and/or for openings and endgame situations
Square Numbers
Multiples, common multiples
Factors, common factors
Middle School and Beyond
Arrays, rectangles, area, square units, etc.
Recognizing patterns and structure
Symmetry
Strategy in general, and/or for openings and endgame situations
Multiples, common multiples
Factors, common factors
Combinatorial Game Theory
Computer Science, coding, machine learning, etc.
MULTI Lesson
Notice/Wonder (5-15 minutes)
Display the Factor Board, MULTI board, or both to your students. (Depending on your setting, you could also have each student holding a print and play board or pairs of students in front of each board.)
Ask “What do you notice?” and “What do you wonder?”
Consider using a “Think, Pair, Share” model to help generate and record a greater number of student observations.
Record Notice and Wonder on board, document, or chart paper
The Game Reveal (5-15 minutes)
“This is a game called MULTI, here are the rules…”
This could be teacher-led guided reading using a slideshow, or you could just hand out the rules and let them figure it out, or somewhere in between.
Play Time (20-30 minutes)
Give students at least enough time to finish one game which typically can last between 15-30 minutes. If students finish a game earlier than others, have them play again.
Once every pair has completed a game, you can ask everyone to pause and take a moment to think about what they noticed/wonder about the game now and/or what strategies did they and their partner use?
Sharing Strategies (10-20 minutes)
If possible, have students switch partners and share the strategies they used.
Next, have students share out their strategies with the whole group.
Record their strategies in a document, on the board or poster paper.
Reflection
Ask students to consider the strategies shared when deciding how to play in the next game.
You could have students record and/or discuss with a partner a strategy they might try in the next game.
Play Again
Have students play again using what they learned in the first game and strategy talk.
Switch partners if desired
Exit Ticket
There are lots of possible exit tickets depending on the topics discussed in the lesson. Here are a few examples...
Describe a pattern you noticed on the MULTI board
Where on the board do you find the multiples of 5? What about the multiples of 9?
What number comes up the most?
What numbers come up the least?
What’s a good opening move?
Describe your strategy
Describe strategy your opponent used against you
Show students an endgame situation and ask them to describe what they would do and why?
Show students a game situation and ask them to decide who they think will win and why?
How many different possible games are there?