Put expressions, equations, and inequalities to work! Young scholars solve problems using various strategies. Meant as a snapshot of the Smarter Balanced Assessment, a set of seven questions includes topics from writing expressions to...

When US citizens travel throughout the world, they often need to know how to convert temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Young mathematicians practice applying the formula as well as other algebraic equations as part of a...

If you have two bags with an unknown number of tiles, represented by x, and you add three tiles to get seven total, you can set up a linear equation to represent the problem. Use this example and a few others to demonstrate how to solve...

Making money and saving money turn into high interest topics for sixth graders. Grade 6 Claim 1 Item Slide Shows use these topics in a presentation with math practice problems. The questions require applying knowledge of algebraic...

Tackle a common misconception using a performance task. Dividing by a variable to eliminate a variable may seem like a good idea, but simplifying the variable eliminates solutions as well. Learners develop algebraic and graphical support...

Learning how a bank account works is a useful tool. The exercise in the resource is to deduct rent from a checking account and create an equation from a description. Participants then graph the balance of the bank account versus months...

Why does one person need 58 peaches; isn't that a bit excessive? This classic math dilemma offers pupils a chance to turn a word problem into an algebraic equation. Grade 6 Claim 1 Item Slide Shows includes this problem as part of a...

Communication is the key. A presentation provides 25 sample items for Claim 3, Communicating Reasoning, for the Smarter Balanced High School Math assessment. Items require pupils to answer the question and provide logical reasoning to...

To solve or not to solve that is the problem. A slide presentation of 17 items show different ways that Smarter Balanced assesses Claim 2, problem solving. The items span from sixth and seventh grade concepts to highlight the...

What's in a triangle? Just 180 degrees worth of angles! Young learners use given angle relationships in a triangle to write an algebraic representation. Using a system of equations, they simplify the equation to a linear representation.

Round and round and round we go. Given a diagram of three circles, two of which share a point with the third circle, learners identify the radius of each circle. Doing so requires setting up and solving a system of equations based on the...

We use debt often to describe negative numbers and your learners will be able to see how it translates into math. They will be asked to go through a series of transactions and make simple equations for each one, following it with a...

Sometimes young algebra learners don't understand why they need to create an equation when they can just figure out the answer with it. This activity tries to encourage creating simple equations by balancing the use of more complicated...

What if a coordinate plane becomes a slope-intercept plane? What does the graph of a linear function look like? Learners explore these questions by graphing the y-intercept of a linear equation as a function of its slope. The result is a...

Find the area as it slides. Pupils derive an equation to find the painted area of a section of a trapezoidal-shaped stage The section depends upon the sliding distance the edge of the painted section is from a vertex of the trapezoid....

Rewriting expressions in different forms is an essential algebra skill. Support the development of this skill by using a task that asks scholars to begin with a linear, quadratic, and rational expression and then manipulate...

Ask your algebra learners to write an equation that has unit constraints. This commentary talks about the constraints, but does not show them in the equation. It is important that your mathematicians understand that the units apply to...

Weight is a function of the distance from sea level. Learners explore the many implications of this fact in an inquiry-based task. Given the function, pupils answer questions before manipulating the function to rewrite the distance...

Learners are asked to advise a fuel oil dealer on a possible investment. They must use two different rates to set up an equation and solve to determine how much oil he should sell now to break even after selling the remainder the next...

Your algebra students double their money monthly in this task based on a checking account balance. Learners write an equation to model the situation and then use their model to answer contextual questions.

Math is all about finding patterns. In this ask, scholars first investigate a sequence formed by squaring the sum of the digits in the previous term. They go on to investigate a second sequence and write an algebraic expression for this...

Your algebra learners become bankers for a day as they explore compounding interest and the formula used to calculate the balance in a savings account. Questions guide the learners as they analyze the formula's parts and their connection...

Teach your class to think outside the box. Scholars use the concept of equality to solve a problem in the assessment task. They determine how to use a scale to identify the one box out of a set of nine boxes that is heavier than the others.

A seven-question assessment determines how well your learners understand the procedures to add, subtract, multiply, and divide signed rational numbers. Pupils show their understanding through problem-solving situations.