Session 5 - Equality and Inequality

Grade Band 6-8 - Equality and Inequality (Grade 6)

Directions for Giving the Task:

(Continued from Session 4)

If students get stuck understanding, here are some questions or ideas for providing support. These will intentionally lead them through the supported practice of the skill to grasp the learning and guide their thinking:
- Have students refer back to the “Big Ideas” slide (posted above - slides 2 and 14).
- If you’re working on a real-world problem you can ask them what information they know and what they think the answer would be.
- If they’re stuck on an operation, you can ask them a question: “What is the opposite of multiplication?” (division). This could be a good time to introduce the concept/vocabulary of an inverse operation (see word bank).
- You can ask students to explain how they know to choose an open or closed circle when they are graphing their answers.
- For the next problem in the slides: You can ask them how to check their answer once they’ve solved the inequality to see if they should have “flipped” the inequality (have them substitute a solution value into the original inequality and see if it is true (makes sense) when they simplify it).
Continue with the Inequalities Practice & Big Ideas Presentation (slides 10-15), which provides an activity about a Negative Bank Balance that practices the meaning of “flipping” the inequality sign.
You can project the slides for the group to see. There are questions to pose and answers for each slide in the “notes” section of the slides (the section under the slide when viewing electronically). (For individuals, slides can be printed).
There are additional practice problems (slides 17-19) for students to work on. These problems give them additional work with “flipping” and graphing the inequality.

Focus: MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively and MP6: Attend to precision.

Please Note

STOP! If this activity seems to be taking a long time, this would be a good breaking point.

Collaborative Activity 1: (25 - 30 minutes)

Activity: Inequality Matching Card Set and Answers

Directions:

1. This activity practices the concepts of solving inequalities in variables and graphing them on the number line.
2. Working in pairs, students will complete the Inequality Matching Card Set + Answers activity to match the number line, solution, and inequality sentence.
3. Each pair of students should have a full set of these cards cut out. If a student is working alone, then they will match the cards on their own.
4. Detailed directions are included on the worksheet.
5. When students are satisfied with their matches they should have a row where the inequality, solution, and graph match up (I, S, G on the cards).

6. They can leave these solutions out for display on their desk or glue them to a poster board or paper. Students will use these for a collaborative and visual activity in the closing step.
7. Here are some prompts to offer students for consideration:
- How do you know whether to use a closed or open circle?
- What operations are inverses of each other?
8. The answer key is included in the card set.
9. Continued in Step 4: Closing the Lesson!

Focus: MP6: Attend to precision

Decorative question mark:

Why are students doing this/what are they getting out of it?

This part of the lesson intends to practice the skill of solving inequality sentences, finding the set of solutions, and graphing the answer on a number line. Since Inequalities have more than one answer it is important for students to visually understand that x=3 is different from x>3, which is why we graph it on a number line.

Please Note

If you are working with a student and they want more practice, this is a helpful website.

Non-Endorsement Statement: Site/s contains information and content supplied by third parties. The information provided here does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and CDE and its employees are not liable for any improper or incorrect use of third-party information. All information is provided for informative purposes only and does not constitute a legal contract or other covenant or agreement of any kind between CDE and any person or entity unless otherwise expressly specified.

Progress Monitoring

Directions:

As students are working through problems in the activity Inequality Matching Card Set + Answers, be sure that they can accurately match up all three representations of the problem (inequality, graph, and solution).
If students are struggling with these, you may want to note if their difficulties center around a particular representation (e.g., are their solutions correct but number lines incorrect?).

Visit the Resource Bank to learn more about Grouping Students.