Development of content understanding (key concepts and ideas)

Students will know that balanced equations represent consistent relationships between objects/variables. They will understand that to balance an equation, both sides need to be equal at all times. In addition, they will know that the solution to an equation is the true value of that object/variable.

Enabling students to experience the power of their minds and their capacities as learners and doers (powerful learning)

This unit repeatedly asks students to figure out for themselves how to write and solve a balanced equation from a given scenario either by themselves or with a group. With this structure, students become the constructors of knowledge, rather than the teacher. Students are also frequently asked to share their thinking with the class, which positions them as experts and allows them to solidify their learning through teaching their classmates.

Development of intellectual and academic habits of mind, work, and discourse, including habits of independent or collaborative thinking and doing typical of readers, writers, speakers, creators, researchers and thinkers in the discipline (ways of knowing)

Students will work almost exclusively with word problems in this unit, which will help develop their problem-solving skills. They must learn to pick out the important information from these problems and generate a plan of action; they will use a graphic organizer for one of the word problems to aid with this. Furthermore, they will figure out how to best use numbers, variables, and equations to accurately represent words with real meaning. In terms of collaborative thinking, students will almost always work with small groups or partners to solve problems. They will be asked to think as a team, but also to individually record their thinking. As always, students will be required to show all their thinking along with their answers.