When we factor something, we take a single expression and rewrite its equivalent as a multiplication problem. We are trying to determine what was multiplied to make what we see in the expression. The general process that I try to follow is to identify any common factors and pull those out of the expression. I then look for like terms that can be removed and anything that may be combined. The more practice you get with this, the easier it will be for you. All of the expressions you will be given can be rewriting in a different mathematical form. We do this to provide our readers with a more clearly workable solution. In most cases, you start with a binomial and you will explain this to at least a trinomial. You should know the significance of each piece of an expression. That includes every variable, component, and exponent. The opposite of this would be called expanding, just for future reference.

Your students will use the following activity sheets to practice converting given expressions into their multiplicative factors. These worksheets offer problem sets at both the basic and intermediate levels. These worksheets explain how to rewrite mathematical expressions by factoring. This is a slightly advanced skill that will serve them well when faced with algebraic expressions.