If you said YES, there are lots of different ways that you can approach the subject in a meaningful way to bring your students' conceptual knowledge to mastery. My favorites ways to introduce the concept of Expressions and Equations are with Card Sort Activity Lessons. I first give the pre-assessment, then do the Card Sort activity with the class. (I save the assessment data for data meetings or conferences). The Card Sort activities are cut & paste. The students have to figure out how the pieces go together, if something is missing that they have to conclude to solve, and then prove to the teacher (me) how they solved the problems. After a successful Card Sort Activity Lesson, the extension activity can be used to further learning or just end with the Post Assessment to see what the students learned from the activity. This is a great way to assess and engage ALL students in your classroom!
The next activity that gets students thinking is their Interactive Notebook activities. Laying the groundwork for what are expressions and equations? Having the students interact with the concepts and write about it in their notebooks. Practicing and applying is a big piece of what Interactive Math Notebooks are about. Students are creating and showing their knowledge of the concepts in their Notebooks and building upon prior Math knowledge.
Then after some time going over the concepts, use the Math Stations activity as reinforcement for the Math and review for those who have mastered the concepts. It's easy to help keep the students on task with the 7 different station cards by using groups of 2-4 students. Simply PRINT & GO! These Math stations are easy to implement and facilitate in the classroom. Students LOVE Math stations and keep them busy and engaged the entire time. This usually takes 1-2 days to complete depending on the schedule. Math Stations are great to have students practice the Math and extend their learning.
This math station activity is intended to help students understand how to apply properties of operations as strategies to add, subtract, factor, and expand linear expressions. Students will use variables to represent quantities in a real-world mathematical problem, construct simple equations, and solve word problems leading to equations and compare algebraic solutions.
Included are:
-7 different stations to engage students
-Teacher facilitated activity for 60-90 minutes of classroom time
-Stations include:
1. Vocabulary
2. Technology (Need classroom computers & internet access to ixl.com)
3. Practice of Expressions & Equations
4. Additional Practice of Expressions & Equations
5. Real World applications of Expressions & Equations
6. Word problems of Expressions & Equations
7. Teacher Station
-Student Station Guide helps students record their answers
-Blank Student Station Guide for students to record their answers
-Student Station Guide helps students record their answers
-ALL ANSWER KEYS included
These interactive notebook activities are intended to help students understand how to apply properties of operations as strategies to add, subtract, factor, and expand linear expressions. Students will use variables to represent quantities in a real-world mathematical problem, construct simple equations, and solve word problems leading to equations and compare algebraic solutions.
Included are:
-4 different Expressions & Equations activities to engage students
-Teacher facilitated activity for 60-90 minutes of classroom time
-Activities include: Vocabulary, Simplifying Algebraic Expressions, Solving One-Step Equations and Solving Two-Step Equations
-Examples of Completed Interactive Math Notebook Activities are included
Included in this lesson are:
-one formative assessment (pre-test) task
-card sort activity with concept development of variables and expressions
-one extension activity for students to deepen their conception of expressions
-one summative assessment (post-test) task
-answer keys for all the assessments and activities
-how the lesson is tied to common core and mathematical practices
I hope these activities for Expressions and Equations are helpful in your classroom too. Remember to keep your students at the center of your lessons and watch them shine!
Happy Teaching!