Notes & FAQs

There are no development notes for this Target; see below for response types, stimulus materials, vocabulary & calculator use instead.

There are no development notes for this Target; see below for response types, stimulus materials, vocabulary & calculator use instead.

There are no development notes for this Target; see below for response types, stimulus materials, vocabulary & calculator use instead.

After students have learned (but may not have yet mastered) operations with rational numbers, students will have the ability to continue to develop those skills while working with expressions & equations as the expressions & equations in 7th grade mandate the use of rational coefficients. Students should have had instruction in expressions and solving one step equations in 6th grade using whole number coefficients. Beginning with adding, subtracting, factoring and expanding linear expressions with rational coefficients give students the opportunity to continue their mastery of rational number operations.

7.EE.2 focuses on combining and expanding linear expressions to shed light on a problem; it does not focus on evaluating them at this point.  This standard can be embedded with 7.EE.1 as long as the proper context is involved.

Teaching moves into 7.EE.4 constructing expressions and equations from familiar word problems and context before moving into solving equations without context. In doing so, it gives students another way to access and connect the procedure of solving a standard word problem to constructing (and ultimately solving) an equation and/or inequality. Instruction should use the construction of simple equations and inequalities in context as a way to distinguish between equality and inequality before focusing on the procedural solving of an equation.  Procedural fluency from conceptual understanding (EMTP).

The inclusion of the geometry standards in the latter part of the unit allows students to practice constructing and solving equations in a geometry context focusing on supplementary, complementary, vertical, and adjacent angles. Students can then move into the formulas for the area and circumference of a circle, problems involving area, volume, and surface area which can all be approached from evaluating an expression or solving an equation lens (such as finding the radius or height). In a circumference formula, solving for C,d or r is a 6th grade level equation. In an area of a circle formula, solving for A is a sixth grade level equation as well (they evaluate expressions with powers).  Square roots are eighth grade; however, solving for r conceptually without square roots in some simplistic problems would provide a chance for greater depth, Level 4 type thinking, and prepare them for 8th grade.