In this lesson, expressions representing areas of adjoining rectangles are used to illustrate the distributive property. Conversely, the area of a rectangle can provide a visual tool for students to factor out common monomial factors from algebraic expressions. Activity sheets, suggestions for assessment, and lesson extensions are included at the site. ORC reviewers noted that the discussion questions for students was blank, but they felt that the reciprocal nature of distributivity and factoring was so creatively illustrated that they recommended the lesson in spite of a missing section. (author/sw)