Description
What our Rational Number Word Problems lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Rational Number Word Problems teaches students strategies for solving word problems with rational numbers. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to apply a four-step method to solving word problems with rational numbers. This lesson is for students in 6th 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. One optional addition to the lesson activity is to have your students create their own word problems for another group to solve. Another optional addition to the lesson is to have your students ask their parents how they use math in their jobs. Finally, for an additional activity, you can have your students research a career that they want and create word problems based on the theme of that career; students can then share their word problems with the class or post them on a bulletin board highlighting a different job or career for each week.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
RATIONAL NUMBER WORD PROBLEMS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Rational Number Word Problems
The Rational Number Word Problems lesson plan includes two content pages. You encounter word problems every single day—at the grocery store, at home, at restaurants, with friends, and in many more places. When solving word problems, there are a few steps and strategies you can use.
Example 1
Let’s take a look at some of these steps and strategies using an example. Carolina delivers newspapers each Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday. If Carolina works for a one whole year, how many days does she work?
The first step to solving this word problem is to explore. Ask yourself what you already know, what important information that problem provides to you, what you need to find out, and what questions are being asked.
The second step is to plan. Decide which strategy you’re going to use to solve the problem. Some strategies that you can use include guessing and checking, using a graph, looking for a pattern, working backwards, making an organized list, eliminating possibilities, drawing a diagram, estimating reasonable answers, acting it out, using logical reasoning, solving a simpler problem, and making a model.
The third step is to solve. This is when you put your plan into action and complete all of the mathematical work. Before solving, remember to identify the key words to tell you which operation you need to use.
Some key words for addition include combined, increased, total of, sum, added to, together, and plus. For subtraction, they include minus, less than, less, fewer than, difference, decreased, take away, and more than. For multiplication, they include multiplied, product of, times, and of. Finally, for division, they include divided by, into, per, quotient of, percent, out of, and ratio of.
The fourth and final step is to examine. Go back and re-read the question. Ask yourself if your answer makes sense and check your work. If your answer doesn’t make sense, choose another strategy and try again.
Example 2
Let’s take a look at another example, following the same steps. Carolina delivers newspapers each Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday. If Carolina works for a one whole year, how many days does she work?
First, explore! For this example, you know that newspapers are delivered on three days each week and a year has 52 weeks.
Second, plan. For this problem, you might want to use the “look for a pattern” strategy. Try creating a table that shows the weeks and number of days worked.
Third, solve. Each week, the number of days worked increases by 3. Therefore, to solve, we can simply multiply 52 weeks by 3 days worked to get a total of 156 days worked.
Fourth, examine. An answer of 156 days worked makes sense, because 156 is less than 365. Also, 3 out of 7 is a little less than half and 156 is a little less than half of 365 days.
Example 3
Let’s look at one final example. Your grandmother is serving an oven roasted turkey at 1pm for Thanksgiving. The 20 lb turkey has to cook at 325o for 5 ½ hours. The turkey’s internal temperature must reach 185 o and cool for 15 minutes before eating. What is the latest time that your grandmother can start cooking?
First, explore. For this example, you know that the turkey must be done by 1:00 pm, it cooks for 5 ½ hours, and it must cool for 15 minutes.
Second, plan. For this problem, you might want to use the “work backwards” strategy. Start from 1:00 and go back 5 hours to get to 8:00. Next, go back 30 minutes to get to 7:30. Finally, go back 15 more minutes to get to 7:15.
Third, solve. Using the “work backwards” strategy, 7:15am is the answer. Fourth, examine. An answer of 7:15am makes sense, because 7:00 to 1:00 is 6 hours.
RATIONAL NUMBER WORD PROBLEMS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Rational Number Word Problems lesson plan includes four worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, a homework assignment, and a quiz. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
GROUP ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
Students will work in groups to complete the lesson activity and solve word problems. Each group will move clockwise around the group, with each person completing one step and passing it clockwise to the next person. Once each person has completed their step, a different person will start the next round. Each person must start one round. When the group has finished all four rounds, they will turn in their worksheets stapled with each person’s name on the front page.
The first person will read the card and complete the explore section. The second person will plan and choose a strategy. Next, the third person will solve using that plan. Finally, the fourth person will examine the answer to make sure it makes sense.
WORD PROBLEMS PRACTICE WORKSHEET
For the practice worksheet, students will solve four word problems step-by-step (explore, plan, solve, and examine).
RATIONAL NUMBER WORD PROBLEMS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
The homework assignment asks students to solve four word problems, showing their work.
QUIZ
This lesson also includes a quiz that you can use to test students’ understanding of the lesson material. For the quiz, students will list the four steps to solve a word problem.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the activity worksheet, the practice worksheet, the homework assignment, and the quiz. 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.
