Information Gap Samples

by Christine King

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What is an ‘Information Gap’?

An ‘Information Gap’ requires provides the opportunity for student to question each other and seek information. This structures promotes questioning, justification, elaboration and clarification thinking and discourse skills.

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Research Connection:

• https://jeffzwiers.org/tools

How does an ‘Information Gap’ work?

Students work in pairs. Each partner has some information. Partner A might have a word problem situation that has some missing information, while Partner B has some data or the missing information. Base upon the word problem situation, Partner A has to ask Partner B for information needed to solve the problem.

Information Gap

Data Card

• Has information that could be useful in solving the word problem.
• Cannot see the “Problem Card”
• Has to ask their partner, why they need the information.
• Cannot calculate for their partner.
• Has to solve the problem based upon information from the “Data Card” and information inferred.

Problem Card

• Has a word problem that presents a situation, but some information is missing.
• Cannot see the “Data Card”
• Has to ask for the information that they think would be useful in helping to answer the question.
• Has to explain why they need the information.
• Has to solve the problem based upon the data obtained from the “Data Card” and the “Problem Card”

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Information Gap - Student Version

Data Card

• Has useful information.
• Cannot see the “Problem Card”
• Ask: Why they need the information?
• Cannot calculate for their partner.
• Solves the problem.

Problem Card

• Has a word problem.
• Cannot see the “Data Card”
• Has to ask for information.
• Has to explain why they need the information.
• Solves the problem.

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Prompts Used by the Data Card Person

What information do you need?

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Why do you need to know that?

Grade 1 Sample - Problem Card

Problem Card

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Cherry has some apples in a bag. She gives a few apples to her friend. Cherry eats an apple. How many apples does Cherry have now?

Grade 1 Sample

Data Card

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• There are 7 apples in a bag.
• 5 apples were given to a friend.
• 1 apple is eaten.
• 3 apples were red and 4 apples were green.

Problem Card

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Cherry has some apples in a bag. She gives a few apples to her friend. Cherry eats an apple. How many apples does Cherry have now?

Grade 3 Sample - Problem Card

Problem Card

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Twenty adults and some children were waiting in line to pay for tickets for the first showing of the school play. The adult tickets cost more than the children’s tickets. How much money did the school make from the tickets sales from the first show?

Grade 3 Sample

Data Card

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• 10 students waiting in line to buy tickets
• Adult tickets cost $8
• Children tickets cost $4
• The show started at 5:30 PM
• The show ended at 7:00 PM

Problem Card

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Twenty adults and some children were waiting in line to pay for tickets for the first showing of the school play. The adult tickets cost more than the children’s tickets. How much money did the school make from the tickets sales from the first show?

Grade 5 Sample - Problem Card

Problem Card

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Ariel painted some of her room. While painting she spent some of her time kneeling, standing, and climbing a ladder. What portion of the job was painted while kneeling?

Grade 5 Sample

Data Card

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• Half the room was painted.
• The painter spent an equal amount of time kneeling, standing, and climbing a ladder.
• The painter painted the room blue.

Problem Card

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Ariel painted some of her room. While painting she spent some of her time kneeling, standing, and climbing a ladder. What portion of the job was painted while kneeling?

Information Gap How To:

1. Select a word problem from NYS Released Items.
2. Turn it into a number less word problem (or almost numberless).
3. Use numbers from the problem to create the Data Card.
4. Have-a-Go