Clip 10/20: Multiplying and Factoring Polynomial Expressions Lesson Part 2D
Overview
Melissa Nix invites individual eighth- grade students to come up to the board and highlight different dimensions of the problem that are unknown. She then asks students to work on the problem — first individually, then in pairs, then in groups of four: “Work a couple minutes on your own, and just launch into it and see what you can do, and then you'll share with your neighbor and then turn around and share in your groups, so you're going to work on this as a whole, multiple minds put together. No one of us is as smart as all of us together, okay?”
Teacher Commentary
Teacher Commentary
I don't want to be a teacher that's up there just identically teaching everyone. I want to not be just taking the stage, … like the guide on the side. I want our students to be processing and thinking, and there's got to be a little bit of an accordion sometimes, especially for learners for whom that approach to teaching is new to them.
There are many students who come into our school and are just waiting for me to tell them how it goes. I want you to think of this on your own a little bit and tell me what you got, and I'll work with you. Give me a little, I'll give you a little, you give me a little, I'll give you a little more. We're not 100 percent constructive. It's more of a give and take. I'm going to guide you into this.