MIAA 340 High Yield Routine

By Amy Schmerer
Routine: Mystery Number K-3
I made 9 recordings of Mystery Number. I like this recording because I purposely
called on one of my lower performing students with memory issues. He was actively
participating as usual but came up with a number that didnt match any of the clues:
I have a 7 in the ones place.
I am greater than 57.
I am less than 76.
What number am I?
This child answered 55. I asked him what the first clue was. He couldnt remember. I
had another child repeat the first clue and asked if 55 could work? They said no
because thats not greater than 57 and doesnt have a 7 in the ones place. Students added
that if I said greater than 55 it could be 57 and 67. I love doing this routine with the
students and they love it as well evidencing high engagement. I ask students to show me
a hand signal if they agree or disagree with the students who get called on. Those who
disagree I have repeat the clues and explain to us why or why not they agree and how
they solved it. We come to consensus following discourse. To make this more
accessible, I need to make the clues visual and auditory. Ive just been giving them
auditory thinking I was making them more mental math, but that doesnt reach all
students like Roberto, and it is still mental math if they are figuring it out in their heads. I
will change this for my next Mystery Number.
8th Grade Clues:

I am a four-digit number.
My ones digit is a 4.
My thousands digit is twice the value of the digit in the ones place.
The hundreds digit is one less than my thousands digit.
The sum of the digits is 25.
I thought this was way too easy for 8th grade and that most of my 3rd graders could solve
this. The students were able to repeat the steps. From the recording it seemed that
everyone got the correct answer. I heard students say, It was pretty easy Some
students wrote down a random four-digit number after the first clue and erased as further
clues were given. I have done a lot of pen and paper problems like these so my 3rd grade
students so they would have known to start with a line for each place holder and fill in as
you get clues. The students asked for a harder problem and the teacher did give them a
more difficult problem.
I am a two-digit number.
Both of the digits are even.
The digit in the tens place is greater than the digit in the ones place.
The sum of the 2 digits in a multiple of 4.
When the teacher repeated the clues, she realized she made a mistake. She meant to say,
The sum of the 2 digits is a multiple of 5. The mistake made the students a little
confused but they had way more discourse with this more difficult problem. I am going
to try this with my 3rd graders because I still think this is a simple problem for that age
group. I did hear them saying this is fun. All age groups seem to like this routine and
remain engaged. I liked that there were 2 possible answers for these clues. Some

students didnt think past finding more than one solution. A couple said there are 2
answers and explained. The others agreed. The only way I would change this with 8th
grade is to choose more difficult clues that focused more on their grade appropriate
algebraic standards.
4-7 Grade Span:
I am a two-digit number.
I have a 6 in the tens place.
You say me when you count by 5s.
You do not say me when you count by 10s.
The students were engaged. There was a lot of mathematical discourse on how they
figured this out. They showed a firm grasp of place value and number sense. They knew
that when you count by 5s, you could get a multiple of 10. They knew the ones-digit had
to be a 5. Students remembered and repeated the verbal clues. I again would change the
clues to be more grade level appropriate addressing the standards of the grade level. I
think this too would be easy for most of my 3rd grade students. I am eager to continue
using this high yield routine and will buy the book to implement more of them! They
promote very high engagement and elicit great discourse!