MathsClass

Teaching Equations (or not)

Monday, 02 August 2010 | 1 Comment

It’s that time of year again… that’s right… Year 8 solving equations.

What’s more, this is the toughest Year 8 class I have taught, ever.

We did a quiz today, just to see how a topic that we completed a week ago had fared. For some, great, in fact better than I expected. But, on the other hand, there are others who did not solve b + 7 = 23.

I wandered back to my blog, where I wrote Teaching Equations:

My conclusion from looking at this task – when it comes to assessment, many of these students reverted to prior knowledge gained in primary school rather than a more formal process they’ve seen this year.

My problem this year, for some the prior knowledge required to solve a one-step equation didn’t really exist. The idea of an opposite operation or even reading the equation b + 7 = 23 in a simple way “what plus 7 will equal 23” was lacking.

Another little quiz next week, one-step’s only for the strugglers, trickier stuff for those that got it.

Flummoxed. Again.

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