The two lessons in this section take a qualitatively different approach to students' thinking about patterns. The types of questions asked in the Math in Context patterns problem allow students to use the physical representation to make conjectures about the pattern's rule. In the first problem from Gateways, students are simply asked to supply a specific term in the sequence. In the framework developed on patterns, we were careful to include habits of mind that extend beyond finding a specific term. How do you know there are a specific number of dots or blocks in the sequence? If you know one term in the sequence, how could you get the next? Can you find a rule that will give you the number of dots or blocks for any term? These kinds of questions extend students' thinking about predicting with patterns.
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