prior knowledge
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Simplify Rational Monomial Expressions
This post provides details about a handout for simplifying rational monomial expressions. It incorporates a couple strategies to make the simplification of rational monomial expressions more accessible. The strategies include address prerequisites skills ahead of time, chunking, and scaffolding. This incrementally walks the students through the steps. The Pages of the Handout The handout has…
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Intro to Concept of Functions
Functions are perhaps the most prevalent and important topic covered in secondary math, aside from maybe 1 variable linear equations. The concept of a mathematical function is challenging for many students. This post provides details about a meaning making approach to introducing functions. Overview The introduction is presented on a Google Jamboard, to allow for…
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Prerequisite Skills and Current Content
The effort to provide intervention to fill in gaps is challenging for different reasons. One reason is the effort to balance support for current content while filling in gaps. This post shows an example of how to fill in gaps while working through the current topic. Overview Various rubrics used to assess teacher instruction includes…
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Fraction Multiplication with Cookies
Fractions are challenging. Multiplying fractions is really challenging! This post presents a Google Jamboard to introduce students to the concept of multiplication of fractions. Overview The artifact is chunked to incrementally move from multiplication of whole numbers to whole number and fraction to multiplication of fractions. The representation of multiplication as number of objects in…
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Skip Counting Scaffolded
I work with students from elementary school to college. At all levels there are many students who struggle with multiplication. When I work with a student on multiplication I focus on skip counting as opposed to multiplication facts. Skip counting connects to multiplication as repeated addition, which is the foundation for scale and proportion. To…
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Intro to Decimals
Tenths vs Tens…Hundredths vs Hundreds. Problematic for many students. I believe this is a conceptual problem. This post provides an approach to unpack the concepts through money in a scaffolded handout. Overview Money is likely prior knowledge for many if not most students, and is a relevant context. This handout attempts to leverage interest or…
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Introduction to Division
My focus is on working with students with special needs. Many struggle with rote memorization, including for multiplication facts. I find that skip counting, with scaffolded support in the learning process, provides them access to multiplication and therefore division. To access division, I use an approach of skip counting to find a missing factor and…
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Solving Absolute Value Equations Scaffolded
Absolute value is a challenging for many students. Absolute value equations add an extra layer of challenge. This post presents a scaffolded handout. It starts with an initiation addressing absolute value and then is followed by scaffolded steps for solving that address written and mental steps. The Scaffolding The scaffolding walks students through mental steps…
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Intro to Solving Proportions
Solving division equation proportions is challenging for two reasons. First, it involves fractions. Second, for some reason, many students struggle with solving division equations and a proportion is a more complex version. This post outlines a scaffolded handout to guide students through solving by multiplying both sides. Overview The handout provides support in two ways.…
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Word Problems with Unit Rates
Word problems are challenging. In middle school and high school, word problems for proportional relationships and linear functions are particularly challenging. This post shows an visualization approach to unpacking the unit rate component of such word problems. Visualizing Unit Rate Below is an excerpt from a handout used to introduce such word problems. It starts…