Comments on: How I teach 2 step equations.

By: maria

maria — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:39:34 +0000

The 2 step equations are very easy and I can do these equations without any problems when i have to take tests. This is and example i like to give you:

2x+6 =20 i first do this
-6 -6then you have to cross out the 6 and you subtract
__________ 20 by 6 which equal -4.
2x 14 then you put the 14 over 2 and put 2x over 2
___ ___ and then you cross out the 2x over 2.
2 2 Then you divide 14 by 2 which equals 7 so x=7. so the equation would look like this 2(7)+6=20

By: maz

maz — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:20:39 +0000

this is very easy and you should try my technique that i got my from my tutor this is very cool and easy after i learned.

By: Elaine Y.

Elaine Y. — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:02:09 +0000

I love it! I was trying to find an easy way to explain this to my nephew. This is it! He is really struggling with Algebra I and this is why. You explained the problem to a tee. I'm going to try this out tonight. I would love to see the templates Ms. Hughey came up with as well.
Also I need to know how the transition works. What do I do?
I teach Kindergarten so please explain in detail.

Thanks for your help!!

By: killa

killa — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:39:27 +0000

This stuff is so hard i cant even do it. show some examples

By: ivon trejo

ivon trejo — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:13:00 +0000

mrs terri is my math teacher and she is so nice this days we are see equations and it so fun i like mrs terri because she is so nice my name is ivon trejo 11/4/09

By: David Cox

David Cox — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:43:29 +0000

I really like this method. I am going to pass it on to the other teachers in my department. The method will work if you subtract x as long as you consider something like "3 - x = 5" to actually mean
"3 + -1x = 5."

By: brian hadar

brian hadar — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:13:58 +0000

i whant to lor how to do two step equation...

By: Stephanie Lewis

Stephanie Lewis — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:10:47 +0000

I think this might just work. My students are struggling a bit, so I am going to show this to them tomorrow. Thanks.

By: Corey Kibzey

Corey Kibzey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:51:28 +0000

Hey, i was trying to help my gf in her pre calculus class and i was just wondering how to add and multiply linear functions.

By: Mr. K

Mr. K — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:06:11 +0000

Let me know how it goes - I just had that same situation.

I ended up asking the kids who already knew how to do it properly to follow along and see if they could figure out why this worked. I also sped up the process to fit into two days. It's going to take a while to wean the kids have just recently gotten it, but I didn't want to bore the heck out of the other kids.

By: H.

H. — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:53:44 +0000

Trying this next week. About half the class already knows how to solve equations, though, and I'll have to think of something sensible to do for those students who are repeating the course due to not knowing second-semester material while being fine with simple equations.

By: Mr. K

Mr. K — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:16:32 +0000

It didn't take long before EVERY single student

That's part of what i find great about this - it really does get every single student to do it. The tricky part is transitioning to leave it behind, and it sounds like that worked well for you too.

I'd love to see your templates - you can contact me here

By: Kim Hughey

Kim Hughey — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:33:02 +0000

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I tried this method with my summer school class this week. The first lesson, we used just the box method. I gave lots of examples like
3x + 2 = 8
-5x - 7 = 13
12 = 8 - 4x
8 = 12 - x

I really liked using different examples. It didn't take long before EVERY single student could set up even the trickiest of equations.

In the second lesson we solved two-step equations using the box method and algebraically. I forced them to use both methods. By the third lesson (solving multi-step equations), I had broken them away from the box, but it seemed they had a really good grip on problems like 4 = -7 + 2x. In the past, I have found many students just don't know how to get started when the problem is arranged "backwards". After using the box method, they seemed to be very comfortable knowing that the first step was to add 7.

I worked up a template with sample problems and an assignment if you are interested. I am going to include it in my curriculum next year. I actually worked up two templates. In the second one I used columns to separate the algebraic column and the box column.

I will be glad to email them to you if you are interested in seeing how your post inspired me!

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:02:07 +0000

this is AMAZING!!! im from seattle but this made things so much easier than what my teacher does not explain!

hope it works,
LAURA

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:38:26 +0000

I am definitely going to try doing this next year. I don't think I provided enough training wheels this year. Students were so immediate in knowing the answer to one-step equations (without knowing what they did), but by the time we got to three-step equations I couldn't motivate them to try because "that problem looks hard."