Spelling Bee

I've ever loved spelling bees.  I won the school-wide spelling bee inwards the 4th grade.  To win, I had to spell, "macaroni."  Winning my schoolhouse spelling bee gained me entrance to the regional spelling bee.  Winners from that regional bee would larn on to the dry reason bee, together with the winner of the dry reason bee would larn to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.  Alas, I never made it past times the regional spelling bee.  I misspelled "martian."  I've ever avoided anything to create amongst scientific discipline fiction, together with it proved to endure my downfall that day.

So, why am I telling you lot this?  Well, for the end 2 years, I've had this consider of having a spelling bee inwards my math class.  I gauge I would ask to telephone band it a math bee since it genuinely won't involve whatever spelling.  

Here's how it would work.  Display an algebraic expression, equation, or inequality on the board.  Have a few students stand upward inwards a row, spelling bee style.  Ask the outset pupil inwards the row to read what is written on the board.  If they read it correctly, they larn to rest standing.  If they read it incorrectly, they must sit down down.  

Why?  Well, I've establish that my students haven't genuinely ever been taught to read mathematics.  Mathematics is a linguistic communication of precision.  3(2) + v is non the same every moment 3(2 + 5).  I tell myself every twelvemonth that this is going to endure the twelvemonth that I am super picky close how nosotros utter math inwards my classroom.  And, every year, I am super picky close a few things.  But, I fifty-fifty discovery myself sometimes slipping upward together with reading a work aloud inwards a less than precise manner.  I justify it inwards my heed past times saying, "Well, students know I genuinely meant 'times the quantity of' instead of but 'times' because at that topographic point are clearly parentheses inwards the work every moment it is shown on the SMARTBoard."  It's genuinely but me existence sloppy, though.

Would this work?  Or am I but having crazy thoughts?

This genuinely is but a half-formed idea.  Hoping mortal inwards the #MTBoS tin larn far better.  

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