Today I want to share with you a factoring quadratics question stack activity that I created for my Algebra 2 students. This year, we got off to a very rough start with factoring polynomials in Algebra 2. I had the brilliant idea that I would show my students how to factor using algebra tiles before …
Factoring Polynomials
I’ve always taught factoring out the GCF of a polynomial the way I was taught to do it. And, historically, my students have always struggled with this. I think they usually get the gist of what we’re doing, but they usually struggle with the GREATEST part of GCF. Last year, I saw Jan Lichtenberger’s post …
I created this factoring vs distributing card sort activity to show my Algebra 2 students that factoring isn’t something to be afraid of. By the time they get to Algebra 2, the distributive property is something they should hopefully be able to do in their sleep. So, I wanted them to see that factoring out …
I created this factoring quadratics using the box method foldable for my Algebra 2 students to glue in their interactive notebooks. My students (and I) seemed to appreciate the visual nature of this approach. Alternate Version of Factoring Quadratics Using the Box Method Foldable I updated this foldable in 2017 when I used it with …
If you spend much time in my classroom at all, you will quickly realize that I use lots of weird analogies. Some analogies I use once and forget about. Other times I start analogies without really thinking about them and end up regretting my decision. And, sometimes, my analogies actually work and I end up …
I want to highlight this factoring polynomials square puzzle shared by Public Schools of North Carolina in their Resources for Algebra Blackline Masters collection (page 2 of PDF). The file no longer exists online, but an archived version still exists due to the Internet Archive. These square puzzles are often known as “Tarsia puzzles.” Make …
Today I want to share some graphic organizers I created to remind students the steps for factoring quadratics. We filled these out and glued them in our algebra interactive notebooks. This year, I am taking a big risk with my Algebra 1 kiddos. I taught them to factor quadratic trinomials with a leading coefficient greater …