Description

What our Multi-Step Word Problems Using Equations lesson plan includes

Lesson Objectives and Overview: Multi-Step Word Problems Using Equations teaches students how to solve multi-step word problems with equations and how to identify the best equation to use for specific word problems. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to solve multistep word problems with whole numbers using the four operations and be able to represent problems using equations with a letter standing for the unknown quantity. This lesson is for students in 4th grade.

Classroom Procedure

Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the blue box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.

Options for Lesson

Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. An optional addition to this lesson is to have your students write their own multistep word problem and make a poster for the class to see and then use the activity problem as an in-class example for students to understand the process. You could also have your students practice with one step equations in writing variables before embarking on this lesson. If you have more advanced students, you can ask them to create a problem that uses three or more operations.

Teacher Notes

The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.

MULTI-STEP WORD PROBLEMS USING EQUATIONS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES

Multi-Step Word Problems Using Equations

The Multi-Step Word Problems Using Equations lesson plan includes two content pages. To solve multi-step word problems, you solve one step at a time. There are five steps: 1. Question: read the problem to figure out what you want to find; 2. Information: highlight the important information; 3. Clue Words: find words that tell which operations to use; 4. Equation: write an equation or expression and solve; and 5. Check your work: Does your answer make sense?

Solving an Example

Let’s solve an example problem using these steps. Say Travon wants to buy a new game system for $240. He’s saved $32 and needs a plan to save the rest of the money. He decides to save the same amount of money, x dollars, every month for the next four months. How much does he need to save each month?

Let’s go step-by-step to solve this problem. Step 1—Question: read the problem and determine what you need to figure out. In this case, we need to figure out how much money Travon needs to save each money to afford the game system. Step 2—Information: highlight the important information. In this problem, the important information is that the game system costs $240, Travon has saved $32 already, and he wants to save the same amount for 4 months. Step 3—Clue Words: find words that tell which operations to use. In this problem, the clue words are total (which tells us that we need to use addition) and each (which tells us we need to use division). 

Step 4—Equation: write an equation or expression and solve. In this problem, the equation we need to create is 32 + 4x = 240. We solve: 4x = 208, so x = 52. Step 5—Check your work: Does your answer make sense? In this case, we check our work by solving the following equation: 32 + 52(4) = 240. It makes sense! Therefore, Travon will need to save $52 each month.

The lesson walks through another example, showing how to solve the problem using the five steps. With a little practice, you’ll be able to solve multi-step word problems using equations easily!

MULTI-STEP WORD PROBLEMS USING EQUATIONS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS

The Multi-Step Word Problems Using Equations lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.

FILL IN THE BLANKS ACTIVITY WORKSHEET

The activity worksheet asks students to fill in the blanks in the provided word problem and then draw draw a poster showing how they solved each step.

WORD PROBLEMS PRACTICE WORKSHEET

For the practice worksheet, students will solve a word problem using pictures, numbers, or words. They will also write an equation to match the problem and write a real-world problem for the equation 4 • x = 32.

MULTI-STEP WORD PROBLEMS USING EQUATIONS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

The homework assignment asks students to solve four multiple-choice word problems.

Worksheet Answer Keys

This lesson plan includes answer keys for the activity worksheet, the practice worksheet, and the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.