Teaching Exponents In Eighth Grade, Part 1: [Old To The Now] | The Jose Vilson

Teaching Exponents In Eighth Grade, Part 1: [Old To The Now] | The Jose Vilson:

Teaching Exponents In Eighth Grade, Part 1: [Old To The Now]

by Jose

India Power Outage

Every so often, I’m inserting some posts on pedagogy, especially for those of us who aren’t as math-inclined. If you find this helpful, just let me know in the comments.
Today, I’m differentiating between the old way I used to prepare the students for a lesson on exponents and the way I do it now.
Old Way
1. Ask “What’s an exponent?”
2. Here are the five mail rules you need to know.
3. Apply them.
New Way
1. Ask “What’s an exponent?”
2. Use their definitions with a bit of refinement.
3. Get their thinking about a few cases involving exponential, expanded, and standard form