Editing Formula (section)

===[[Step 4: Give Students Practice and Feedback|Step 4: Practice and Feedback]]===
An important outcome of decoding is the recognition that students must first master reading and writing mathematical formulas before they can successfully engage with tasks that depend on these skills, such as applying the chain rule or rearranging formulas. Consequently, explicit practice in reading and interpreting mathematical expressions is essential.

A good starting point is "confrontation" exercise: " Paul says to his teacher, "I calculated <math>a</math> plus <math>b</math> ' divided by two times <math>c</math> ." Write a mathematical expression that matches his statement."

Students quickly realise that the Paul's statement is ambiguous because it does not specify how the operations are grouped. That allows to stress the role and importance of structuring and brackets.

One possible exercise for practicing the use of brackets is a "telephone game" (known as ''Chinese whispers'' or in Germany as ''Stille Post'' ). The activity can be carried out in small groups of, for example, three students. The first student sends a neighbour a handwritten mathematical expression, such as <math>{\sqrt{a+b} - {{2c}\over{d+e}}}</math>. The second student is only allowed to pass the expression on in typed form using standard mathematical input syntax, for example: <code>(a+b)^(1/2) - (2*c)/(d+e)</code>

The third student must reconstruct the handwritten mathematical notation from the typed expression and compare it with the original formula. Differences between the original and reconstructed expressions can then be discussed to reinforce the importance of correct notation which mathes the structure of the formula.