Make Math Moments Academy › Forums › Mini-Course Reflections › The Concept Holding Your Students Back › Lesson 4 – Applying Our Understanding Of The Unit Of Measure – Discussion › Reply To: Lesson 4 – Applying Our Understanding Of The Unit Of Measure – Discussion
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Over the past couple of years it seems I’ve been using unitizing language when talking about like terms. Rather than saying something like “4x plus 2x” I’ve been making a conscious effort to instead same something like “4 x’s plus 2 x’s”. It’s made a huge difference when I look at how few students will now write 4x+2x=6x^2. I always tell them just like you can’t add apples and oranges together, you can’t add apples to apples and get oranges.