Developmental Math Workshop

January 20, 2005 (held at UW Fox Valley)

Teaching Algebra through Stories

Jan Cain, UW Marshfield/Wood County

Jan shared her approach to teaching algebra by attaching memorable “stories” to algebraic concepts and procedures. These often amusing names and titles help students remember what they have to do in different situations, and it helps to keep students interested in class. Jan reported that her students often remember the “stories” long after leaving her class. Some examples are listed below:

Like terms become “families”. You can only add and subtract within a family group. You can write a series of monomials on separate index cards, and then use these to split a class into groups (students have to find their own family members). This also works for fractions and radicals.

Solving x Equations. x = “Jose”, an obnoxious fellow who no one wants to sit by, so everyone tries to move away from x.

Rules of Exponents. Negative exponents are “illegal aliens in the wrong country”. The fraction bar is like the US-Mexico border. Anyone with a negative exponent gets deported to the other country.

Solving Absolute Value Equations and Inequalities

|x| < 5 means a child (x) on a bike can’t go more than 5 houses away from home.

|x| >5 refers to an “abusive ex” with a restraining order—can’t come anywhere near (must stay more than 5 houses away).

Jan had many more stories to share. Hopefully these few that I wrote down will give you an idea of the creative words she uses to help students make connections to different algebraic tasks.