{"id":3966,"date":"2014-04-07T19:21:35","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T19:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/?p=3966"},"modified":"2018-02-20T16:40:51","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T16:40:51","slug":"math-algebra-tiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/math-algebra-tiles\/","title":{"rendered":"Math: algebra tiles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tutoring math, you might explain algebra tiles a few times a year. \u00a0The math tutor introduces them.<\/h1>\n

\u00a0
\nIf algebra tiles existed when I was in school, I never saw them. Everything back then was symbolic, and teaching didn’t have the directive of making the learning easier.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, attitudes towards teaching and learning couldn’t be more different. Manipulatives, as they are called, are used to explain counting and even variables in a visual, physical way. An abacus could be used thus.<\/p>\n

Algebra tiles are used to depict expressions with variables. A big square means x^2, a rectangle means x, and a small square means 1. Consider the following example:<\/p>\n

Example 1: Show 3x^2 + 4x +5 with algebra tiles.<\/p>\n

Solution: We need three big squares for the 3x^2, then four rectangles to make 4x, and finally five small squares to indicate 5. Like so:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Depending on the situation, you may need to show the rectangles horizontally and\/or group the small squares in various different ways. Here is another depiction of 3x^2 + 4x +5:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How do you show negative values? With color, is the answer. Often, the light coloured tiles are taken to mean positive, while the darker ones mean negative.<\/p>\n

Example 2: Show -2x^2 -x + 3 with algebra tiles.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That’s a pretty good beginning with algebra tiles. In future posts I’ll show some of the math concepts you can illustrate with them:)<\/p>\n

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane,<\/a> Campbell River, BC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tutoring math, you might explain algebra tiles a few times a year. \u00a0The math tutor introduces them. \u00a0 If algebra tiles existed when I was in school, I never saw them. Everything back then was symbolic, and teaching didn’t have …<\/p>\n

Math: algebra tiles<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[124],"class_list":["post-3966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-math","tag-algebra-tiles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3966"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30168,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3966\/revisions\/30168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oracletutoring.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}