4.9 Area Problems
bhester
Posted 2/9/2009 7:43 AM (#2380)
Subject: 4.9 Area Problems
Math

Posts: 19

Location: Tates Creek
I've always dreaded teaching this section because the kids hate it so much. This year, I did something defferent that worked much better and the students actually seemed to like it. Yhe most important type of problem in 4.9 is the "frame" or "border" type of problem, so I concentrated solely on problems of this type. I did 2 examples for the students. Then I had them in groups of 4 solving 2 similar problems. What was very interesting to me, was the fact that 4 of my 6 groups made the exact same mistake. When they were solving for the inside rectangle, they forgot to distribute the "x" to the second term so they got answers like "x squared minus 10" instead of 10x, which messed up the entire problem. We discussed at length this mistake, and I believe that it really helped all of the kids to understand how to solve these problems. Then I assigned 3 of this type for homework. It went very well and was not like pulling teeth because they got to talk about it and discuss what was going on.