What suggestion can you offer for enhancing a specific lesson of a Glencoe mathematics text? Ideas may include using concrete objects to illustrate concepts, working with cooperative groups, incorporating ongoing assessment, or any other strategy that you have used successfully in your classroom.

Example: This activity was written by a teacher using the 2001 edition of Glencoe Mathematics: Applications and Connections, Course 2, lesson 6-1, page 228. The lesson is entitled "Solving Addition and Subtraction Equations."

"To reinforce the Addition and Subtraction Properties of Equality, I use the example of a teeter-totter. You and a friend are perfectly balanced on a teeter-tooter. What happens if your friend jumps off? Or what happens if someone else jumps on with your friend?"

Algebra 1/Lesson 1-4: Nancy K.
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
"I use a version of stem-and-leaf plots all the time to show grades from each test."

Algebra 1/Lesson 2-9b: Barbara L.
Clarksburg, West Virginia
"I liken 'translating' into Algebra to translating from English to French. I encourage students to literally translate statements such as '5 less than a number is 7' to an algebraic equation. In this case, '5 less than' means 'subtract 5 from something,' x represents 'a number,' and 'is' means 'equals.' Therefore, the statement is x - 5 = 7."

Algebra 1/Lesson 3-1: Donna R.
Cincinnati, Ohio
"I ask one student to represent a parent and two other students to represent children. The parent stands between the two children and acts like an equals sign. The parent then divides a box or bag of candy between the two children. Whatever the parent does to one side, he or she must do to the other side to keep things fair."

Algebra 1/Lesson 4-4: Lara D.
St. George, Kansas
"We looked at the Nutritional Information on food boxes and used proportions to find the percentage of fat calories in one serving. For example, a muffin mix has 2 grams of fat and 140 calories in one serving. One gram of fat is about 9 calories.

Algebra 1/Lesson 4-5: Emma Lou C.
Robersonville, North Carolina
"I have students make a sign or display to advertise a percent-off sale in their imaginary store. We put the displays up in the classroom and then, as a review each day, we make an imaginary purchase at each store, calculating how much is saved. We used play money to illustrate the purchase and how much change is received."

Algebra 1/Lesson 4-7: William B.
Paynesville, Minnesota
"For Example 4, have two students stand back to back, headed away from each other. Start them walking at the same time. Clap loudly when they are '60 miles' apart. They will quickly come up with the fact that the time is the same and that the eastbound distance + westbound distance = total distance."

Algebra 1/Lesson 4-8: John C.
Greenfield, Indiana
"I actually bring a 12-foot board to the classroom. I allow students to find the center of the board and then move on the board until they are balanced. The students measure the distances and weights to find the constant of variation."

Algebra 1/Lesson 5-1a: Stan M.
Rochester, Indiana
"I give each student a slip of paper as he or she enters the room. The paper has a coordinate pair written on it. The abscissa is a letter and the ordinate is a whole number. The room is laid out like a coordinate grid. They use the coordinates to locate their new seats."

Algebra 1/Lesson 5-1b: Deborah P.
Akron, Ohio
"I use the idea in Exercise 43 every fall to make up my seating chart. I arrange the desks in rows and columns, and as the students enter the class, I hand them a card with an ordered pair on it--then they find their seats!"

Algebra 1/Lesson 5-3: Deborah P.
Akron, Ohio
"When I teach my students to solve for y, I like the x value to be first, in slope-intercept form. So, in Example 2, when we solve for y, we would write y = -2x + 6. That way, when we get to that, the students do not have to relearn how to solve for y. It's already in the correct form."

Algebra 1/Lesson 7-6: Linda W.
Rochester, Indiana
"I compare absolute value inequalities to the amount of gas in the tank of a student's truck and the direction the student can travel (left or right) out of the driveway. For example, if they have $5 worth of gas, they can drive a certain distance wither way until the gas is gone (that is, |x| = 5). If they have more than $5 worth, they can drive farther either way (|x| > 5)."

Algebra 1/Lesson 9-3: Frank A.
Croton-on-Hudson, New York
"My students use the TI-82 graphing calculator throughout the year. I have the students write their earth science problems in standard scientific notation and then in TI-82 notation and compare the answers."

Algebra 1/Lesson 13-2: Barbara O.
North Carolina
"In expressions such as the one in Example 7, I remind my students that is a binomial and they cannot simplify it as follows: