Next, ask students how we might write a mathematical
equation for this visual representation.
With some help, students are usually able to come
up with |x – 15| = 8 as a translation of the sentence
“The distance from my house x to house 15 is 8.” In
this way, students have an opportunity to connect
a meaningful context to a visual model, a verbal
description, and a symbolic representation, thus
leading to deeper conceptual understanding (NCTM
2000). The appendix (p. 596) provides practice
with this idea. (These additional problems are also
posted online at www.nctm.org/mt.)