Solving Equations = Battlefield

So, in tutoring the other day, I was helping my 9th grade student in solving equations.  He was having trouble seeing that he needed to combine like-terms before flipping things across the equal sign.  I told him that he needs to “draw his boundary line” down from the equal sign, so he can see both sides of the equal sign.  Then, I used the analogy of having a water balloon fight across the creek (boundary line) and that you need to get all of the “teammates” (like terms) onto the correct side of the boundary line (equal sign). He seemed to understand it better after that!

 

draft started in October 2013, finished August 2022.