“The rule for the square of a binomial”:  Spotted with a 12th grader Homework on Pearson’s My Math Lab

Should we tell students exactly what to do?
Categorization is one of the most important skills in Math and one of the most important takeaways for future Math classes and in  general.

The question above creates teaching and learning questions:
“Should we tell students what to do based on rules?”
“Can students (even) remember rules?”
“What would be the answer to this problem?”