A Few Cards, A Little Time

Goal: make the model cards easy to find. Materials: checked word cards, two labelled boxes, a list, a pencil, and a few used sheets of paper. 1. Ask permission to use the materials. 2. Check each word against the list. Put unclear cards aside for the teacher. 3. Sort the checked cards by topic. 4. Put each group in the box with the matching label. 5. Count the cards in each box and write the totals on the model list. 6. Return the tools and tell the teacher about any unclear card. Do not write on an original card without permission. You do not have to buy new paper for this model. If the boxes are unavailable, draw two boxes on paper and explain the procedure with paper cards instead.

For this paper model, imagine a sheet that is twenty centimetres wide and thirty centimetres long. Fold the thirty-centimetre side in half, so the two parts each measure twenty by fifteen centimetres. The drawing shows the fold line; it is not a cutting instruction. You need a little time to check the fold and a few cards to test the label. Draw a line ten centimetres long on a separate practice sheet. Write the unit next to the number. In a model trial, three out of four readers chose the intended box. One reader said that “put them there” was unclear. The writer replaced it with “put the checked cards in the blue box”. The new sentence has not been tested yet. We expect it to help, but we cannot report a new result before another trial.