Preventing Parentheses Pitfalls
Help your middle school students finally make sense of how parentheses work in math! This interactive activity guides students through hands-on practice so they can correctly interpret parentheses and understand when a minus sign means subtraction versus when it represents a negative number.
What’s Included
- Sorting Activity: Students cut and sort expressions to discover where parentheses belong and why. Perfect for identifying misconceptions and opening discussion.
- Compare & Contrast Activity: Students use Venn diagrams to analyze expressions and explain similarities and differences—great for partner or small-group work.
- Critical Thinking Questions: Students explain their reasoning in writing, reinforcing conceptual understanding and revealing their depth of comprehension.
- Answer Keys for all activities included.
- Suggested Teaching Guide with step-by-step instructions for introducing and discussing parentheses meaningfully in class.
Why Teachers Love It
✔ Builds conceptual understanding—not just procedural skills
✔ Encourages math talk and reasoning
✔ Differentiates easily for remediation or enrichment
✔ Ready to print and go—no prep needed
Perfect For
- 6th–8th Grade Math
- Whole-class lessons, math stations, or partner activities
- Review before order-of-operations or algebra units
Make Sense of Math resources are designed to help students think deeply about math concepts while making learning engaging and accessible.
Michelle,
Make Sense of Math
michelle@makesenseofmath.com
One purchase is for one teacher/family. You may only use this item with students in a single classroom/family.
Copyright © Michelle Sigaran Make Sense of Math, All Rights Reserved.
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