I love teaching Algebra and Pre-Algebra. This Spring I had a student who was having a difficult time with the concept, and I finally came up with a plan. 5X+3=28 OK, here you go. In this box (on the plate, whatever) are 28 M&M's. Some are loose, some are in baggies. There are 5 baggies, and the same amount of M&M's is in each bag. How many are in each bag? Then we go through the process of removing the loose M&M's. Do we still have 28 M&M's in the box? NO! we took out 3, so we subtract 3 from both sides, the visual image and hands on experience makes processing the formula a no-brainer, now we have 5 baggies and 25 M&M's. The student can easily solve the remaining portion of the equation. We did about half a dozen problems with different candy (with pre-session parent approval) and the conditions are, if you get the answer correct, you can... read more