(contributor: Anna Cox)
- Anna explains why she developed this resource
How do my students solve equations?
In the stories below, I took four very different students that each represent the extremes of my year 10 class. When I first inherited this group of students, I found that most relied on ‘guess and check’ for solving equations. This year was the turning point, where tasks became too complicated to falling back on relying on mental arithmetic to produce the desired solution. I asked a student, L to interview them, asking amongst other things, how would they solve for x in this question:
x + 7 = 3x + 2
Student-H’s solution:
Student-M’s solution:
Student-O’s solution:
Student-C’s solution:
What did I notice about each student’s solution?
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A description of Students Solving Equations
4.015 SSE Teacher notes and student work samples
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From the Algebra Programme Overview, Level 5 Quadratics