Lesson 5
One- and Two-step Comparison Problems
Lesson Purpose
The purpose of this lesson is for students to solve multiplicative comparison word problems with one or two steps.
Lesson Narrative
In this lesson, students apply what they learned about interpreting and representing multiplicative comparison situations to problems in context. The numbers students encounter here are larger, encouraging them to transition from discrete diagrams to more-abstract tape diagrams in which each section is labeled to represent a quantity (MP2).
Students continue to write equations with symbols representing the unknown and to describe the meaning of their equations in the context of the word problems. In both activities, they extend their understanding of multiplicative comparison and tape diagrams to solve a two-step problem.
- Representation
Learning Goals
Teacher Facing
- Multiply or divide to solve one- and two-step problems involving multiplicative comparison.
Student Facing
- Let’s solve multiplicative comparison word problems.
Required Preparation
Lesson Timeline
| Warm-up | 10 min |
| Activity 1 | 20 min |
| Activity 2 | 15 min |
| Lesson Synthesis | 10 min |
| Cool-down | 5 min |
Teacher Reflection Questions
What idea were students grappling with most in this lesson? What question do you wish you had asked to best support students in working through these ideas?
Suggested Centers
- How Close? (1–5), Stage 6: Multiply to 3,000 (Addressing)
- Five in a Row: Multiplication (3–5), Stage 2: Factors 1–9 (Supporting)