4 July 2013 version

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  • #2140
    lhwalker
    Participant

    Fraction multiplication and division is tough to visualize and I think the writers did a fantastic job explaining multiple ways to do so. Page 6 seems to make a very subtle y=kx connection. It might be helpful to make the connection stand out more there. On page 7 students see -p as “the opposite of p.” Can’t that idea be used to explain why -5 x -2 = 10? Your explanation on page 10: 5(-2) =….-10 was very clear. It seems to me that “the opposite of 5(-2),” written as -5(-2) would then be a “positive 10.” If that line of thinking is okay, it seems to me that would be easier for the students to wrap their minds around: very quickly recalled and connected. Near the bottom of page 9 there is a repeated word, wrapped to the next line: proved proved. Again, great job and very, very helpful!

    #6086
    Cathy Kessel
    Participant

    Very sorry not to reply to this much earlier!

    I think you’re seeing -5 x -2 as -(5 x -2). They’re not identical expressions. To see that they’re equal, you can use the multiplication rules in grade 7 together with the understanding that -(-a) = a from grade 6.

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