Evaluating Expressions Interactive Notebook Pages

We kicked off our lesson on evaluating expressions amongst the parenthetical promise. Every year, I forcefulness my students to brand the next hope to me: I, _____________, create hereby hope that I volition ever role parentheses whenever I substitute values into an algebraic expression. I brand them sign the hope in addition to engagement it.

Every year, I appear to receive got a few who don't desire to play along. This year, I didn't receive got whatsoever of those because I told them that the students who didn't play along amongst the hope terminal yr ended upwards failing the quiz. I retrieve this year's freshman cast may withal endure scared of me...

Though I've done this for multiple years now, I'm embarrassed to tell that this is the commencement yr that I've made a indicate of showing my students the importance of using parentheses when evaluating expressions. Can yous believe that?!? In the past, I've but assumed that students would accept my give-and-take that it was important. No wonder some students didn't desire to play along...

As a class, nosotros worked out the same occupation 2 ways: amongst parentheses in addition to without parentheses. Look, nosotros got 2 dissimilar answers! See, class, I told yous that parentheses are important!

But, instantly nosotros receive got 2 dissimilar answers. How create my students know that three actually is the wrong reply in addition to eleven is the right answer? Should they but blindly trust me amongst this too? To reassure my students that Mrs. Carter actually does know what she is talking about, I had my cast leave of absence their calculators (TI-30XS) in addition to thence that I could learn them a dandy estimator trick. I walked them through the steps of storing -2 for x inwards their calculators. Then, I challenged them each to type x^2 - 2x + three inwards their calculators. Every educatee inwards the cast got their estimator to read 11. That agency that when our calculators substitute inwards values for variables, they role parentheses, too! See, Mrs. Carter is telling the truth!

Next, nosotros glued inwards our commencement steal of the year. I pre-printed the steps for evaluating expressions on the pocket. Super proud of how it turned out!

Inside the pocket, nosotros seat iv practise problems that nosotros completed. See all those lovely parentheses?!?

Finally, I gave my students a "One Incorrect" puzzle from Greta Bergman to solve. Students had to evaluate expressions until they flora the 1 that didn't equal 36. Students are ever eager to learn their operate checked when they learn an reply that isn't 36. Usually, I honor some fault inwards their work, indicate it out to them, in addition to mail them dorsum to re-work the problem. So, they halt upwards getting LOTS of practice!