ABSTRACT
It is often challenging for students to look at a geometric representation of a growing pattern and write an expression that actually describes how the pattern is growing. Often teachers encourage or require students to write all their expressions in factored form, which does not typically illustrate what is happening in the series visually. For many students, it is helpful to begin with a verbal description before writing a mathematical expression describing how the pattern is growing. The expanded form is often more closely related to what is happening as the pattern is growing. When students are able to leave their representations in the form that they believe best represents how the data are growing, they can typically explain what is happening both in the pattern and in their expressions.
