Teaching exponents in Algebra can be a challenge.
Here are FOUR Google Forms mini formative assessments already done for you!
They cover basic exponent rules…quotient rule, zero rule, power rule, product rule, and negative exponents.
See the actual assessments here…
Creating specific skills assessments helps you to pinpoint where your students are struggling.
Students need to understand the barebones basic idea of each exponent rule first, such as…
- product (they have to add the exponents)
- power (they have to multiply the exponents)
- zero (everything equals 1!😂)
- quotient (they have to subtract the exponents)
- negative (move the variable to the “opposite” part–numerator or denominator–of the fraction and change the exponent to positive)
For some classes, groups, or individual students, that could be one assessment (here’s the one I made for that).
Then students need to apply those rules in more involved types of problems…often applying multiple rules in a single problem.
Finally, you need to know if students can handle problems with all the rules in a single problem, like these.
Consider working backwards…assess with all the rules combined first.
Then, back up with those who need it and keep on working on the more complex problems with the rest.
I hope this has sparked some ideas for you!
Check out my post and YouTube video on teaching factoring in Algebra 1.
Here’s one on teaching leading coefficients and descending order.
You’ve got this!
