Explain Your Work Activity

Directions:

Explain Your Work is a three-level writing activity. Use it to explain solutions, justifications, proofs, error analyses, and more! For more help, press the ? Activity Help button on the left side of the activity.

Level 1: Click an Image to Fill in each Blank

1. The activity starts with fill-in-the-blank sentences. It works a lot like the Tall Tales activity.
2. Press Check Your Work when you think you’ve got the answers right.
3. If there’s any mistakes, don’t worry! Just try different answers and press Check Your Work again.
4. Once you pass Level 1, move on to Level 2! The activity will auto-save at this point.

Level 2: Type Into Each Blank to Finish the Sentences

1. In this level there are blanks you can type into instead of choosing words. Press the hand icon for a hint if you are not sure what to write.
2. The Word Bank on the right side has keywords from the unit vocabulary list. Some words might be helpful to fill in some of the blanks. Press a word to insert it into the blank field where your cursor is.
3. Once you are happy with your answers in all of the boxes, press Compare Your Answers (bottom-right).

Compare Your Answers

1. Compare your answers against our example answers. Maybe your answer will even be better!
2. The bolded text compares your answer vs. our answer. What you typed into those empty boxes in Level 2 shows on the left column. Our examples is in the right column.
3. For each answer you compare, please choose a comment like “The answers are exactly the same” or “The answers are very different.”
4. When done, press Done Comparing (bottom-right). The activity will auto-save at this point.

Level 3: Write Your Own Explanation

1. The moment of truth is here! You’ve had two levels to work on the problem. Now you have to explain it in your own words.

1. Answer the question that you see in the top-left. Be sure to explain each step. Your teacher wants to see your reasoning (how you are thinking). 
2. Again, feel free to click the words from the Word Bank to add them. If they don’t seem useful, just ignore them.
3. Press Save if you need to come back to this level later.
4. If you want, you can record your voice to add to your written explanation. Press the Record button (bottom-right) to do this.
5. Press Share with Teacher when you’re ready. This sends your work to their Inbox.
6. Once your teacher approves your work, you are done! The activity will not be marked complete until your teacher approves it.
7. If your teacher gives you feedback, it will pop up a message next time you sign into Speak Agent. Your teacher’s feedback will also show up inside the activity right above the text.