Let’s look at our final grade level for fraction work this week - 8th grade with MA.8.NSO.1.7!
Before students see this problem:
Once students enter middle school, they start to see the fraction bar as more than just a fraction bar; it represents division.
New learning for grade 8 includes square and cube roots, students should be exposed to this new concept before this problem.
A review of exponents through MA.8.NSO.1.3 will also help warm students up to this problem.
Give students this problem:
If students seem overwhelmed, give them time to explore all of the different operations in the problem to see that they have worked with each before and can work on the problem as a whole.
Give students 2 minutes to work on the problem on their own; then have students compare answers with a partner.
Have pairs of students share out their answers, if answers differ, have students share our their strategies and ask students to critique these strategies
It’s important for students to remember that we still follow our hierarchy for solving problems through the order of operations. Exponents are multiplication problems, so in the radical we should evaluate the square of 5 before multiplying by 4.
If students struggle with any aspect of the problem, consider incorporating some problems with less steps to get them comfortable with multi-step problems once again!
After students see this problem:
Give students a few more problems to practice; you can post these around the room for students to get up and move to or have them on index cards for students to pick up one at a time for practice. Encourage students to work together to help each other.
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