Insert Operations

This is a sheet of possibilities. Students are presented with four numbers and a total. They are to insert operations symbols and grouping symbols to obtain the total. See the Insert Worksheet.

Assessment

There are numerous ways to use these student-completed sheets to assess learning in your classroom. Here are a few:

Have each student exchange his paper with another student who will work the problems and decide whether the created expression produces the desired result.
Have a student write his expression on the board and let the class work it to see what they get for an answer. As an alternative, the instructor may write the expression anonymously.
Use scissors to remove the final answers from a students sheet and let him work each problem to see what answer he gets. Have him compare his answers with the answers he intended and, if necessary, correct his expressions.
Have students list all the possibilities they found for a given problem. Then have the entire class work each one to verify the result.