Making Math Accessible for All Students
I have found simplying expressions to be one of the most challenging Algebra 1 topics. This post shows a scaffolded handout approach to simplifying. Scaffolding Like Terms I have attempted to provide a deeper understanding of “like terms” in this post. This handout may be a useful follow up or it may be the entry …
Many teachers shared that long division is one of the hardest math topics to teach. A major factor is likely related to a lack of mastery of multiplication facts. I have posted about some strategies related to multiplication. Here is a handout my initial attempt at scaffolding long division (WORD, PDF). There are 4 versions: …
Several elementary teachers shared that elapsed time was the hardest topic to teach. Here is a scaffolded handout to help compute elapsed time. The elapsed time setting is presented with two clocks, starting and stopping time. Below is an image for one of the more advanced pages of the handout. Here is how the strategy …
This post shows an approach to teach rounding to the nearest 10 and is presented on a handout. Multiple strategies are used. This includes scaffolding, chunking with supports incrementally faded, and a visual. Overview A visual of the hand releasing the balloon draws upon prior knowledge and provides a mnemonic for when to round up. …
I previously posted scaffolded handouts for solving 1 step linear equations. I added a couple steps to create a new handout. In it I flesh out ALL of the steps, including identifying the inverse, the number to eliminate, simplifying the expressions to get the identity (0 or 1) and then simplifying again to eliminate the …
Here is a link to a scaffolded handout with all the steps, including the step to convert the lead coefficient to 1. The scaffolding is complex because the math topic is complex. There is an example showing how to use the document.
I created scaffolded handouts for 3-digit divided by 1-digit as a follow up to the previous scaffolded handout of 4-digit divided by 1-digit. Here are links (Word, PDF).
Here is a document that guides students through graphing one, then the other inequality. On the second page both are graphed on the same coordinate plane.
Here is a scaffolded handout. The first problem has additional scaffolding to convert from addition to subtraction and vise versa. The first problem does not require the transformation of the operations but the second one does.
Solving the variable on both sides is the Cerberus of 1 variable linear equations. It has multiple steps, simplifying expressions, and eliminating a variable expression. The later is a new step, added on to all the other steps. This post describes a scaffolded handout to guide students through the mental steps and the written steps. …
