Expand, Cancel, and Combine
My second strategy was more procedural than my first but allowed students to see many more examples of simplifying exponents. In order for this strategy to aid in student's conceptual understanding of exponents, I made sure that the connection between exponents and repeated multiplication was clear. Students first re-wrote the exponential expression as repeated multiplication of bases. From here, students canceled and combined terms to simplify the exponential expression. Once simplified, students re-wrote what was left using exponents.
Brian's Notes
Multiplication and Division |
Power to a Power
|
Jeff's Notes
- Participated and answered questions during guided practice but made a few minor mistakes in his work
- Took longer to simplify expressions during independent practice and was unable to complete the multiplication and division worksheet
- Struggled with power to a power expressions due to lack of conceptual understanding of exponents
- I used visuals, stars and boxes, to represent power to a power problems to help Jeff visualize how to simplify these expressions