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4 The Difference of Two Squares and Some Perfect Square Trinomials

This is a set of guiding questions and materials for creating your own lesson plan on factoring
the difference of two squares and some perfect square trinomials.

Common Core State Standards: A.SSE.2

Learning Objectives
 To factor the difference of two squares.
 To factor trinomials of the form x2 + 2ax + a2 = (x + a)2.

Guiding Questions
 What do you notice in these four products?
o (x + 1)(x – 1)
o (x + 2)(x – 2)
o (x + 3)(x – 3)
o (x + 4)(x – 4)
 What is x2 – 25?
 What about 9x2 – 4?
 What do both terms have in common?
 What should we call this process?
o The difference of two perfect squares: x2 – b2 = (x + b)(x – b)
 Does this property hold if we change to addition the operation in the second factor?
o What is (x + 1)(x + 1)?
o What is (x + 2)(x + 2)?
o What is (x + 3)(x + 3)?
 What can we infer?
o (x + a)2 = x2 + 2ax + a2

Notes for Teachers

 Be patient when letting students identify the patterns in these problems. The more they
can discover on their own, as opposed to just giving them the results, the more they’

Video of the Day

 7.4.1 The Difference of Two Squares
o Description: Factoring the difference of two perfect squares
o Tags: factoring, difference of two squares, A.SSE.2
 7.4.2 Some Perfect Square Trinomials
o Description: (x + a)2 = x2 + 2ax + a2
o Tags: factoring, perfect square trinomials, A.SSE.2

Exercises and Problems

 North Carolina Common Core Math 1 Item Bank, Nagy-Lup, p.18
 Factor (x – 3)2 – 16.

Online Resources
 Khan Academy: Factoring perfect squares