clouds, English to algebra with equations

start with a set of expressions where the 'unknown' is a cloud (John Mason sometimes advocates this)
invite students to read the expressions, in several ways if they can
e.g.
a number, times 2, add 6
6 more than twice a number
twice (a number add 3)

then put all of the expressions = 16 and ask students to try to work out what the (cloud) number is

then solve equations, by undoing

a ppt is here