Mathematics

Advanced

50 mins

Teacher/Student led

Learning Goals

Learning Outcomes

Lesson Files

+80 XP

What you need:
IWB/Projector/Large Screen

Forming an Equation from a Story

Learn to turn everyday stories into equations by naming an unknown letter and spotting signal words that tell you which operation to use. Then solve to find the missing number.

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Try It Together
4 Write the Equation in Your Copy
5 Class Challenge
6 What Did We Notice?
7 What's Next
Pupil practice

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

Example

Here is a story: Niamh has some books. Her sister gives her 4 more. Niamh now has 11 books.

Illustration for Getting Started How could we write this story using a letter for the number of books Niamh started with?

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

Look at the illustration. Notice how a story's words become an operation, a number, and a letter for the unknown. The letter marks the missing number that goes into the machine, and we work back from the output to find it.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Try It Together ~8 mins

First we feed Conor's story through the machine together, then we talk through two more stories on the board:

Conor had some sweets, ate 3, and has 9 left. We feed this one through the machine.
Saoirse saved €5 a week for w weeks and has €40. We work this one out on the board.
A shelf holds 6 books; the library has 48 books, so how many shelves? We work this one out on the board too.

Key point

For Conor's story we name the letter, feed it through the machine, and read off the unknown. For the other two we write the equation on the board and solve it together.

Feed Conor's story through the machine

+15 XP

4 - Write the Equation in Your Copy ~4 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

In your maths copy, write a three-line solution for each story. First name the unknown letter. Then write the equation. Then solve for the unknown.

Here are two worked layouts to follow.

Conor's sweets (take away):

Let s = the sweets Conor started with
s − 3 = 9
s = 12

Saoirse's savings (multiply):

Let w = the number of weeks
5 × w = 40
w = 8

Now write the same three lines for the shelf story on your own.

+10 XP

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Today we work through these stories together, spotting the operation each time before we solve it. They step up in difficulty, and the last one hides its operation inside a sharing story.

Stories into equations

+15 XP

Pupil practice

Module 8 · Algebra: Patterns, Expressions and Equations Algebra

Lesson 115 · Forming an Equation from a Story

Download Activity Book page (PDF)

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