Opener: As students enter the room, they will immediately pick up and begin working on the opener – Instructional Strategy - Process for openers. This method of working and going over the opener lends itself to allow students to construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, which is mathematical practice 3.
Learning Target: After completion of the opener, I will address the day’s learning targets to the students. For today's lesson, the intended target is “I can set up and solve equations for real world problems.” Students will jot the learning target down in their agendas (our version of a student planner, there is a place to write the learning target for every day).
Applications of Equations Notes: Real World Equations Explore Narrative In this lesson, students will explore equations through application - requiring that they read a problem (sometimes several times), determine the variable and the actions being performed on that variable (mathematical practice 2 and 4). It will be very important that students check for reasonableness of their answers, persevere with the harder problems, and talk out their thought processes with their peers (mathematical practice 1 and 3). Once students solve a few of the problems, they will be able to pick up on the patterns of how the problems are set up, and the work will become easier (mathematical practice 7).
Instructional Strategy - Table Discussion: To summarize this lesson, I am going to ask that students have a table discussion considering the question – What should you identify first in a word problem to help you set up an equation? The purpose of this discussion question is to remind students that it is important to seek out the variable – what does it stand for, what are we looking for? I want students to be reminded that seeking out the variable is the best way to set up an equation.