To solidify students’ ability to make generalizations about patterns, we also
play games and do activities that have different contexts and representations. For
example, we do an activity called Patterns on the Pocket Chart in which a pocket
chart is used to display a 100 chart (Russell et al. 2008n). I make a linear pattern
along the first row, and I cover up the last half of the pattern, similar to the What
Comes Next? game. Students name the pattern and tell me what comes next.
This is a routine that we continue for the entire school year. Students then use
what they learned about naming and extending a pattern in the whole group
when they do similar activities on their own or with partners. Although Rashid
wasn’t always successful at the beginning, he was engaged in this activity and of-
ten took the risk to volunteer an answer.
Identifying the Repeating Unit
Once Rashid began to have more success identifying what comes next in a pat-
tern, I worked with him on identifying the unit that repeats. When students name
patterns, often their voices pause naturally at the end of the unit of a pattern, but
some children, such as Rashid, have difficulty identifying where the breaks occur.
Sometimes simply asking these students to say the pattern a few times helps them
identify the unit. However, I often need to be more explicit. One strategy that
sometimes helps is to ask them to say one part of the pattern and ask, “Has any
part repeated yet?” For instance, the following is the exchange we had when Rashid
was trying to find the unit of a cube pattern train with the unit red, blue, blue.
TEACHER: What’s the first cube?
RASHID: Red.
TEACHER: What’s the next cube?
RASHID: Blue.
TEACHER: Has the pattern started to repeat?
RASHID: No.
TEACHER: Let’s keep going.
RASHID: Red, blue, blue.
TEACHER: Have you started repeating yet?
RASHID: Yes. There are two blues in a row.
TEACHER: But have you repeated the first cube yet? Have you said red yet?
RASHID: No, that’s what comes next?
TEACHER: OK. So is it repeating now?
RASHID: Yes.
TEACHER: Then let’s break it here and see if it keeps repeating this part.
RASHID: Red, blue, blue—here’s another part like the first one we broke off!What Comes Next?