Lesson Planning Sheet Title: Solving Equations Learning Objectives: By the end of the lesson: All students should

be able to solve a two-step linear equation where the unknown appears on one side.. Most students should be able to solve a linear equation involving a fraction where the unknown appears on one side. Some students should be able to derive and solve a two-step linear equation where the unknown appears on one side. Key words: Equation, Solve, Solution, Balance Method, Inverse Operation Learning Activities Starter/Introduction The starter activity is intended to demonstrate the need for generating an equation using a letter to represent, what to the teacher is, an unknown value. By adding a sense of magic and wonder to the start of the lesson the students should better appreciate the need for the algebraic methods. Pick a student from the class to think of the number and write it down. Work through the instructions with the student without writing anything down. Tell the student what their original number is once he/she has worked through the instructions. Repeat the task for the instructions written in blue. Now, demonstrate for the students the derivation of the first equation and the use of the balance method to solve for x. Emphasise the unknown could be an infinite number of values. It is therefore given a name in the form of a letter so that the rules of arithmetic could be applied to it. By solving the equation you find the value of the unknown number. Repeat for the second example. Development Work through solving the equations on the second slide using the balance method. To help the students better understand the concept of the balance method the teacher could stand at the front of the class with a metre rule balanced in their hand. The equals part of the equation represents the balancing point and the two expressions represent the weights. Resources: Mini Whiteboards Metre Rule

Once the students have a basic understanding of the balance method have them attempt an example on their mini-whiteboards emphasising the need to show working out. Assess the students progress and feedback on the main board. Some stud ents will need plenty of practice with solving equations in order to work independently through the questions on the

third slide. Encourage the students to check their answers by substituting the value back into to the equation to demonstrate that they have found the only number in the universe that makes the mathematical sentence (the equation) true. Plenary Towards the end of the lesson the students should have become fairly competent and confident in solving equations using the balance method. This plenary allows them to apply this skill to other areas of maths such as geometry and number sequences. Students could work in pairs on a single mini-whiteboard to help make sense of the problem and generate the equation. Have proficient students demonstrate the solutions to the class through working on the main whiteboard. Differentiation More able: Students could solve equations involving powers such as depending on their knowledge of roots and inverse operations. Solving equations where the unknown is a decimal or negative would encourage students to have greater confidence their methods. Less Able Students could keep to solving equations involving one operation. Writing equations using function machines would enable the students to better identify the order of operations so that their inverses can be more easily applied.