finding the mini-lessons - speak agent

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Finding the Mini-Lessons 1. Go to teach.speakagent.com and sign in.

2. Click on the left-hand menu.

3. Make sure you are on the Organization tab.

4. Type "mini-lesson" into the search box:

5. Press the blue Search button. You will see a mini-lesson for each course.

6. Click on the name of the lesson that matches your course, e.g., Math 6 Mini-Lesson.

7. Click the phrase Senior Agent:

8. This will load a preview of the lesson. Click an activity to run it:

Tips and TricksHow to adjust the size of an

activity in Speak Agent:

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press the plus key (+) or the

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‣ Press Share Screen.

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‣ Pick a window to share.

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How to chat with students in

Zoom:

‣ Press Chat.

‣ It's just to the left of Share Screen:

‣ Have students Chat their

questions and answers!

Teacher's Guide

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Summary Word Gallery introduces new math concepts at the start of a unit. It includes two views: word wall and image gallery. Each word in the gallery comes with photos and illustrations that display well on a big screen. Word Gallery supports both guided and independent practice.

Learning Objective • This Math 6 mini-lesson focuses on showing how positive and negative numbers describe

quantities having opposite values and on imparting the meaning of 0 in real contexts.

• Word Gallery introduces concepts through multimodal exposure and repeated practice.

Present new words and concepts by sharing your screen with the class.

Start this as a whole class activity. Then students can review the words independently.

The last page of this document provides examples you can use for guided practice.

Activity Guide

BUILDINTRO APPLY


Math 6 and Accelerated 1



Using Word Gallery Guided Practice • Start with the word wall view (at right). • Read the words aloud. • Click an image to enter the gallery (below). • Use the arrows to cycle through word

images. Talk about each visual. • You can use the examples on the next page

of this guide to introduce the key concepts needed for this mini-lesson.

Independent Practice Students can navigate through the words and images at their own pace and listen to narrations. It is ideal to do this briefly on a daily or frequent basis for fluent recall. Each word includes a brief learner's definition. Some words may also include a caption to provide context for how the word may be applied.

Key Learning Strategies


Multimodal ExposureFor ELLs and marginalized learners, 16 to 20 exposures are needed to gain familiarity with a new word or concept!

Listening RepetitionNarration with visual aids supports decoding and phonological awareness. It uses the verbal working memory path to map visual stimuli to speech sounds.

Daily ReviewJust 5 to 8 minutes of review strengthens previous learning and can lead to fluent recall. Frequent practice allows students to see words as a unit rather than individual letters, increasing sight recognition — they can use working memory to focus on comprehension.

Gallery View:

Word Wall View:



Key Concepts and Examples


integer

We are going to begin today by learning about some of the terms we're going to use in this unit. Let's start with "integer." What differences do you see between the two columns? What do the numbers on the right have that the ones on the left do not? If it's a Zoom class, have students use the Chat to share ideas! For a number to be an integer it has to be a WHOLE number with no fractions or decimals. Is zero an integer? How about a negative number? Click “rational number” at top-right to move to the next word.

rational number

The definition says a rational number results from dividing two integers. Why is the number 3 rational? What two integers can you divide to make 3? Use Zoom Chat to get answers! What other rational numbers can you think of? Students share rational numbers. Note any that are irrational and why. Why is Pi not? Next word.

fraction

A fraction is part of a whole. When you write a fraction you have one number over the total number of items. Click the arrow to the right of the image to move to the next image. You can see that one block is shaded out of four total blocks. The fraction is 1/4. Next image. How many total pieces of cake were there? 3. How many pieces are left? 4. So if we wanted to say how many pieces remain as a fraction, what would that look like? ¾. Next word.

number line

Let's take a look at number lines. Next image. You can see here that the line shows both positive and negative numbers. What's that in the middle of the positive and negative numbers? Zero! Zero is the boundary between the positive and negative numbers. Let's take a closer look… Next word.

positiveA positive number is greater than 0. This image shows that positive numbers will be on the right side of the number line after the zero. What kind of number will be to the left of 0 on the number line? Negative numbers! Next word.

negativeA negative number is one that is less than 0. Next image. Look at the four quadrants. You can have negative numbers on the X-axis and Y-axis. Which quadrant has negative numbers along the X-axis? Solicit answers… Next word.

oppositeWhat does it mean when something is opposite? Generally, not just in math. Okay, now what does "opposite" mean for numbers? It means that they are equal distances away from 0 on the number line. Can you give an example? Next word.

equalWe all know the equal sign. But what does it really mean? What does it tell you about both sides? Solicit answers that mention the same amount is on both sides of the sign. Next image. Is this equal? How can you tell? Next word.

absolute value

This is the symbol for “absolute value”. What do you think that means? If we changed the “X” to a “-3” what do you think the absolute value would be. Give other examples to test comprehension of the idea. Next word.

zero pairs Well done! Now it's your turn…Try giving your own explanation of this word using the images provided.



Summary Tall Tales builds math concept knowledge in the context of a brief story or problem example. To complete the activity, students choose words and phrases to insert into the blanks.

Learning Objective • This activity demonstrates examples of how positive and negative numbers describe

quantities that have opposite values.

• This Tall Tales also explores the meaning of 0 in an authentic context.

• Students select from a bank of math terms using audiovisual aids. They may also listen to the full story narrated. After all blanks are filled in, Tall Tales provides corrective feedback.

Students can use this activity on a Chromebook, laptop, tablet, or desktop.

Start this as a whole class activity. You can pick on one student helper per story blank.

After the whole class activity, students can complete this activity independently.

Activity Guide


BUILDINTRO APPLY

Math 6 and Accelerated 1



How to Use Tall Tales Guided Practice Your class can gap-fill the story by choosing a word for each blank using the current unit's vocabulary. We suggest asking one student to fill each blank. There's no need to correct wrong answers at this stage. After all blanks are filled, press "Check My Work" to see whether each answer fits into the sentence correctly. Then the class can correct any mistakes. These will have a dotted red line border.

Individual Practice When students do this activity on their own, they just click or press a word to insert it into a blank. Each word has a visual and an audio play button as supports. Students can also listen to the story read aloud before checking their answers. This helps to reinforce context and provides decoding support. After all blanks are filled, students press "Check My Work" to get corrective feedback. Then they can fix any mistakes and re-check until they get all answers correct. The Lesson Report keeps a tally of how they do.

Key Learning Strategies

Audiovisual StoriesStudents complete sentences by choosing words that match categories like parts of speech. They can also listen to fluent reading and experience texts above their reading level.

Dialogic ReadingTargeted prompting, listening, and decision-making during reading helps students grow academic language and their narrative, attention and syntax skills.

Visual AidsVisuals make words more accessible and help students to recognize relationships among words and sentences, develop reading skills, and to retrieve content/meaning from memory.


Note: This is a sample story just to illustrate how the Tall Tales activity works.



finding the mini-lessons - speak agent

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