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A blog about teaching and learning in a maths classroom.

I need to do this better #1 of ∞: find missing side

Friday, 14 November 2014 | 3 Comments

Students struggle with this:

What is the value of x?

[from Composite Area and Volume]

I need to work out some lead up activities.

Posted in • I need to do this better • Lesson Idea • Measurement • Teach Me | Short URL: http://mths.co/3936

Comments

kay kirkpatrick on  16 November 14  at  03:25 AM #
See what you think of something like this for no. 1, Simon, preceding that step. [img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/lqjw33sdq8wa15v/what_is_the_value.png[/img]?dl=0

author

Simon Job on  16 November 14  at  05:34 AM #
I like that Kay, there are certainly thinking steps in _my_ brain that I could scaffold and gradually remove. Adaptively doing this, or given students the option becomes easier if I do it online too... ala [url=http://mathsclass.net/comments/the-developing-teacher]http://mathsclass.net/comments/the-developing-teacher[/url]
Vai Rasmussen on  11 December 14  at  07:33 PM #
I have the the same issue... I've been thinking over the last term or so (my year 7 did this at the start of the term) and I explain it by getting students to visualise the sides moving out to form a big rectangle. Lots of students have an issue with this, so I've been thinking about a PowerPoint or something where the sides actually move and are different colours, so that students can see that the red and blue sides together are the same length as the black side... Been a busy semester with the fire and all, so it looks like a holiday job!

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Simon Job — eleventh year of teaching maths in a public high school in Western Sydney, Australia.
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