Clip 6/20: Multiplying and Factoring Polynomial Expressions Lesson Part 1D
Overview
Melissa Nix continues the lesson, asking her eighth-grade students to connect their initial work with learning they had done before. One student compares to the first number talk: to the area model of multiplication broken down into component numbers. Melissa records the student’s idea, challenging the whole group to “say it in a full sentence.”
She asks students in pairs to write on their whiteboards an expression for the area of the displayed figure.
Teacher Commentary
Teacher Commentary
When you're multiplying polynomials, understanding the difference between a 2x and an x squared, you want kids to make sense of that on their own without necessarily telling them how to do it, but also getting them enough visuals so that they can connect it to the work later on.
I love, as much as I possibly can, anchoring things in concrete models. I think that's such a really important visual for learners to have. Not everything in math can be related to a concrete model, but I try as best I can to show them why the exponent is x squared and not 2x and why a squared number, for example, is even called a squared number.