Math / 7th Grade / Unit 3: Numerical and Algebraic Expressions
Students manipulate expressions into different equivalent forms as they expand, factor, add, and subtract numerical and algebraic expressions and face authentic real-world, multi-step problems.
Math
Unit 3
7th Grade
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In Unit 3, seventh-grade students bring several prior skills together to manipulate expressions into different equivalent forms. In the preceding unit, students operated and reasoned with positive and negative rational numbers. In this unit, they use these new skills to expand, factor, add, and subtract numerical and algebraic expressions. Students pay particular attention to the structure of expressions in order to better understand what an expression means and how it can be manipulated (Standard for Mathematical Practice 7). Students also face authentic real-world, multi-step problems that require strategic use of rational numbers and estimation where appropriate.
In sixth grade, students learned how the same rules that govern arithmetic also apply to algebraic expressions. They learned to expand and factor expressions using the distributive property, and they combined terms where variables are the same. With new knowledge of the number system, students go from working with expressions like $${5(6x+3y)}$$ in sixth grade to those with rational numbers such as $${-(a+b)-\frac{3}{2}(a-b)}$$ in the seventh grade.
The next seventh-grade unit, Unit 4, Equations and Inequalities, will continue to engage students in working with expressions with rational numbers. In eighth grade, students will work with expressions and equations in both one variable and two variables, solving single linear equations and systems of linear equations. Throughout all of their future work with expressions, students’ ability to look for and make use of the structure in expressions will be as important as their ability to work with them procedurally.
Pacing: 15 instructional days (11 lessons, 3 flex days, 1 assessment day)
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The following assessments accompany Unit 3.
Have students complete the Pre-Unit Assessment and Pre-Unit Student Self-Assessment before starting the unit. Use the Pre-Unit Assessment Analysis Guide to identify gaps in foundational understanding and map out a plan for learning acceleration throughout the unit.
Pre-Unit Student Self-Assessment
Have students complete the Mid-Unit Assessment after lesson 6.
Use the resources below to assess student mastery of the unit content and action plan for future units.
Post-Unit Assessment
Post-Unit Assessment Answer Key
Post-Unit Self-Assessment
Use student data to drive your planning with an expanded suite of unit assessments to help gauge students’ facility with foundational skills and concepts, as well as their progress with unit content.
Suggestions for how to prepare to teach this unit
Unit Launch
Prepare to teach this unit by immersing yourself in the standards, big ideas, and connections to prior and future content. Unit Launches include a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning.
$$\frac{1}{3}(9x-12y-18)=3x-4y-6$$
The central mathematical concepts that students will come to understand in this unit
Terms and notation that students learn or use in the unit
algebraic expression
combine like terms
coefficient
commutative property
constant term
distributive property
expand an expression
factor an expression
greatest common factor (gcf)
numerical expression
order of operations
To see all the vocabulary for Unit 3, view our 7th Grade Vocabulary Glossary.
Topic A: Evaluating Numerical and Algebraic Expressions
Evaluate numerical expressions with rational numbers using the order of operations.
7.EE.A.1 7.NS.A.3
Write and evaluate expressions for mathematical and contextual situations.
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Topic B: Generating Equivalent Expressions
Expand and factor expressions using the distributive property and the greatest common factor.
7.EE.A.1
Expand and factor expressions with negative rational numbers.
Add and simplify expressions by combining like terms.
Subtract and simplify expressions.
Simplify expressions by combining like terms and using the distributive property and properties of operations (Part 1).
Simplify expressions by combining like terms and using the distributive property and properties of operations (Part 2).
Write and interpret expressions in different ways to shed new meaning on a context.
7.EE.A.2
Topic C: Solving Multi-Step Problems using Expressions
Solve multi-step real-world problems with rational numbers.
7.EE.B.3 7.NS.A.3
Model real-world problems involving rational numbers using reasoned estimates.
Key
Major Cluster
Supporting Cluster
Additional Cluster
The content standards covered in this unit
7.EE.A.1 — Apply properties of operations as strategies to add, subtract, factor, and expand linear expressions with rational coefficients.
7.EE.A.2 — Understand that rewriting an expression in different forms in a problem context can shed light on the problem and how the quantities in it are related. For example, a + 0.05a = 1.05a means that "increase by 5%" is the same as "multiply by 1.05."
7.EE.B.3 — Solve multi-step real-life and mathematical problems posed with positive and negative rational numbers in any form (whole numbers, fractions, and decimals), using tools strategically. Apply properties of operations to calculate with numbers in any form; convert between forms as appropriate; and assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies. For example: If a woman making $25 an hour gets a 10% raise, she will make an additional 1/10 of her salary an hour, or $2.50, for a new salary of $27.50. If you want to place a towel bar 9 3/4 inches long in the center of a door that is 27 1/2 inches wide, you will need to place the bar about 9 inches from each edge; this estimate can be used as a check on the exact computation.
7.NS.A.3 — Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving the four operations with rational numbers. Computations with rational numbers extend the rules for manipulating fractions to complex fractions.
Standards covered in previous units or grades that are important background for the current unit
6.EE.A.2 — Write, read, and evaluate expressions in which letters stand for numbers.
6.EE.A.2.C — Evaluate expressions at specific values of their variables. Include expressions that arise from formulas used in real-world problems. Perform arithmetic operations, including those involving whole-number exponents, in the conventional order when there are no parentheses to specify a particular order (Order of Operations). For example, use the formulas V = s³ and A = 6 s² to find the volume and surface area of a cube with sides of length s = 1/2.
6.EE.A.3 — Apply the properties of operations to generate equivalent expressions. For example, apply the distributive property to the expression 3 (2 + x) to produce the equivalent expression 6 + 3x; apply the distributive property to the expression 24x + 18y to produce the equivalent expression 6 (4x + 3y); apply properties of operations to y + y + y to produce the equivalent expression 3y.
6.EE.A.4 — Identify when two expressions are equivalent (i.e., when the two expressions name the same number regardless of which value is substituted into them). For example, the expressions y + y + y and 3y are equivalent because they name the same number regardless of which number y stands for.
7.NS.A.1 — Apply and extend previous understandings of addition and subtraction to add and subtract rational numbers; represent addition and subtraction on a horizontal or vertical number line diagram.
7.NS.A.2 — Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division and of fractions to multiply and divide rational numbers.
Standards in future grades or units that connect to the content in this unit
7.EE.B.4 — Use variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem, and construct simple equations and inequalities to solve problems by reasoning about the quantities.
8.EE.C.7 — Solve linear equations in one variable.
8.EE.C.8 — Analyze and solve pairs of simultaneous linear equations.
7.G.B.4 — Know the formulas for the area and circumference of a circle and use them to solve problems; give an informal derivation of the relationship between the circumference and area of a circle.
7.G.B.5 — Use facts about supplementary, complementary, vertical, and adjacent angles in a multi-step problem to write and solve simple equations for an unknown angle in a figure.
7.G.B.6 — Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, volume and surface area of two- and three-dimensional objects composed of triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons, cubes, and right prisms.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1 — Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2 — Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP3 — Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4 — Model with mathematics.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP5 — Use appropriate tools strategically.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP6 — Attend to precision.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP7 — Look for and make use of structure.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP8 — Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Unit 2
Operations with Rational Numbers
Unit 4
Equations and Inequalities