Clip 7/20: Multiplying and Factoring Polynomial Expressions Lesson Part 2A
Overview
Was she continues the lesson, one of Melissa Nix’s eighth-grade students shares that she wants to revise her thinking. The student provides her rationale for changing her representation so that it fits the equation.
Melissa invites other students to critique the reasoning and to challenge the student’s response with their own; some students have written 2z and some had written z squared. Melissa “appreciates the gift and the modification.”
She continues with another problem, asking students to draw a figure with particular dimensions to identify what they know about the figure. She then asks students to share with partners what they think she’s going to ask them about the figure.
Students identify that the area of the figure is written on the inside, whereas quantities that are written outside of the figure represent perimeter or dimensions. Melissa makes explicit the conventions of placing quantities in particular places in visual representations.
Teacher Commentary
Teacher Commentary
Errors are gifts and they are total learning opportunities in the classroom culture — if that's possible. This culture needs to be established, so it's conducive for students to know that there's space to make mistakes, and that it's a learning zone, right? You want them to get out and practice.