Adding Rational Expressions with Like Denominators

Objectives:

• Students will review adding rational numbers.

• Students will review combining like terms.

• Students will learn how to add rational expressions with like denominators.

• Students will practice these skills in their independent work.

Suggested Grades:

Seventh Grade - Eighth Grade - Ninth Grade - Tenth Grade - including special education students

Lesson Procedure:

Print the classroom lesson plan and worksheet questions (see below).

Lesson Excerpt:

Introduction and Review

- "Today, we are going to be adding rational expressions with like denominators. A rational expression is written in fraction form with a polynomial as the numerator and a polynomial as the denominator. The denominator can never be 0. Here is an example of a rational expression."

- On Board: 12xy
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2x + 7

- "This rational expression has a monomial- meaning one term for the numerator. It has a binomial, two monomials connected by addition or subtraction for its denominator."

- "Today we are going to work on adding these. We are going to add them in the same way that we added rational numbers. Let's take a few minutes to review adding rational numbers."

Continued...