Beginning Solving Algebraic Equations

Courteney Santa
6th Grade Mathematics

Common Core Standards:

The Number System
-Compute fluently with multi-digit numbers and find common factors and multiples.
Expressions and Equations
-Apply and extend previous understandings of arithmetic to algebraic expressions.
-Reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities.
Lesson Summary:
This lesson is built to make sure students understand how to properly add, subtract, multiply and divide most
numbers and then apply them to solving for algebraic equations that involve variables.
Estimated Duration:
Three 50-minute class periods.
Commentary:
To begin the lesson, we will review basic math facts and rules when it comes to combining like terms, order of
operations, etc. To engage the students, I will have them pick something they want to review or something they
feel they need a little extra help with regarding the subject. After review, I will hand out a guided notes paper
to begin teaching the new material.

Instructional Procedures:
Day 1:
The first 15 minutes I will go over review material and let students ask for certain subjects to go over. The next
25 minutes will be spent doing guided notes. I will hand out a guided notes sheet for them and my guided
notes will be on the smart board to teach and fill in as I go. This first lesson will be about common multiples
with fractions specifically. I will have a series of fractions to add and subtract that will need common

denominators. This will help students become familiar with common factors and let them understand how to
combine more complicated fractions in the future. The last 10 minutes of class will be spent starting on their
homework worksheet. This way they can ask me questions if they do not understand. For that night, I will
assign a game for them to play involving combining fractions that need a common denominator. I will email
parents about this assignment with directions on how to play and access the website.
Day 2:
The first 10 minutes we will go over the homework and answer any questions students may have. The next 25
minutes will be spent doing day 2 of guided notes. These guided notes will be on algebraic equations that
involve variables. Just like the previous lesson plan I will have my notes on the smart board and fill them in as
I teach. I will first explain what an algebraic equation is and why we use variables. Then I will go through and
step by step do example problems. The last 15 minutes I will give students additional problems to practice and
let them work with each other. For homework that night I will have them do another game involving these
same problems and then take a small online quiz over the two sections. This quiz will be graded for
completion.
Day 3:
This is the last day for this lesson plan. I will spend the first 10 minutes of class answering any questions
students have about the notes we have done the past two days. The next 15 minutes I will spend doing extra
practice problems on the smart board for students to write down and keep to review for the post assessment. I
will write down a problem on the smart board and ask if there are any volunteers to complete the problem. I
will do this for multiple practice problems. The last 25 minutes of class will be spent going to the computer lab
to do more games/activities online. I will also hand out a review worksheet for homework that they can work
on in the computer lab if they would rather do that.

Pre-Assessment:
For a pre-assignment I would like to give students a quiz at the beginning of the class that will not be scored
but will have questions from the lesson plan to give me an understanding of exactly where the students are in
math and what I need to go into detail about further before moving on. The quiz will be divided into sections
based on what we are learning. (order of operations, variables, expressions, etc.)
Scoring Guidelines:
For grading the quiz, I will grade it like any other quiz. They will get a certain score out of how ever many
points it will be out of and I will go over it in class. I will take the average of each section and if it is below an
80%, I feel that this is something I need to go over in class more. I dont think any sections will be over that
percentage considering the students should not have learned all this material at this point.
Post-Assessment:
The post assessment will be a test. This test, much like the quiz will be divided into certain sections only this
time it will be for a real grade. It will include everything in the lesson plan that will thoroughly be reviewed
and taught in class.

Scoring Guidelines:
The scoring will be much like any other class assessment. 100-90% will be an A, 89-80% B, 79-70% C, 6960% D, 59% and below is failing. I will give partial credit on problems for showing work and being in the
right direction of the problem only making simple mistakes, and I will give full credit to those who get the
right answer and correctly show their work.

Differentiated Instructional Support

Discuss additional activities you could do to meet the needs of students who might be struggling with the
material:
If there are students who I feel are behind and dont fully understand the material we are learning, I would do a
couple things. During the extra time at the end of class spent working on homework, I would have them come
up to my desk and sit with me and go through the worksheet and explain more one on one. I would also send
an email to their parents giving helpful websites that have good things to practice or even suggestion playing
more math related games. I do not however like the idea of more accelerated students helping these struggling
students out because for me, I did not like being taught or helped by someone in my class who was smarter
than me. I feel that this makes students feel worse about not understanding material.

Extension
[Link]
This website is great for students to get on and practice more math skills. Its also helpful for parents who are
struggling to help their kids understand. It has a variety of games and lessons for the students to do and a lot of
practice problems and worksheets to print off if needed as well.

Homework Options and Home Connections

Homework for the students would mostly be worksheets with a variation of math problems reviewing what we
just learned in the lesson. Other homework assignments I may give are online quizzes to test their skills and
comprehension for these math problems. I would like to make it available for myself to access so I can get a
good idea of where students are and what they need more help with. I may also assign games to make learning
and practicing easier for them.

Interdisciplinary Connections
English can help with math because in a lot of math problems there are describing words that tell you how to
go bout a problem and or what its asking for that students will need to know that meaning of.

Materials and Resources:

For teachers

Smart board, internet capable computers, worksheets, pens/pencils

For students

Any internet capable device for online activities, pencil, paper for notes

Key Vocabulary
Equations, inequalities, variables, expressions, common factors/multiples

Additional Notes
Its hard to incorporate a lot of technology for math students because learning math through a computer can be
challenging. From my own experience I have found it a lot easier to learn from pencil and paper because I can
easily show my work and by doing problems by hand over and over, it helped me better understand how to do
them.