Day 110 Division Equations

6th Grade Math Standards: Solve real-world and mathematical problems by writing and solving equations of the form x + p = q and px = q for cases in which p, q, and x are all nonnegative rational numbers.

The Learning Objective: Isolate a variable in a division problem by isolating the variable.

Agenda:

1. Weight balance jumpstart challenge
2. Review the homework
3. Division equations my favorite no 
4. Division equation notes
5. Multiplication and division combined homework worksheet (word problems included) 

The Assessment: If I was teaching this for the first time, I'd assume all the students knew to cancel out whatever number is with the operation by doing the inverse operation. By year six of teaching equations, I know though that despite practicing with the other three operations there is still a lot of this:

It's what makes My Favorite No so useful as a pre-assessment. Kids see their own mistakes and can actually learn before taking notes.

Homework: Instead of focusing on giving just division, we combined the division and subtraction equations. It could have been harder if we completely mixed the problems but instead just division was on one side and just multiplication equations on the other. That said, word problems with division are still a great struggle. It's like in baseball when you tell a hitter a fastball is coming, that doesn't mean they can hit it.

My Glass Half-Full Take: I enjoy my classes enthusiasm and competitive edge in my favorite no. I always set out a random number such as "10 students in this class will make an error on this problem." It captivates them and gets them to think. When I display the wrong answer students are so quick to want to tell me what is wrong, but I always ask what is right first and it leads to great conversation.

One Thing to Do Differently: In terms of the more basic problems, I'd like to get the two operations mixed up. I also think that doing division word problems as a whole class is a good idea because the division word problems are a headache for many. So often students ask why they can't just multiply to solve. It's a fair question. I always say that they need to learn how to set up and solve one step equations because bigger things await.

Link of the Day: For math teachers who want to know more about teachers who blog and tweet.