Solving One-Step Equations With Negative Numbers

If we wish we can do this at the same time as Solving One-Step Equations With Positive
Numbers. We can also introduce this as follow-ups from the previous work, where we always
subtracted positives. If so, then this lesson can just be clarifying work for what students have
already done. If students understand signed numbers well, there is really nothing new here.

Prerequisites:
Solving One-Step Equations With Positive Numbers

Materials:
Algebra Tiles, paper and pencil, possibly Special Math Symbols.

Presentation:
• Review solving an equation with the Algebra Tiles such as x + 5 = 8 .
• Clear the mat and place the Tiles for x + 4 = −9 .

• We could ask students to symbolize this, or to go directly to the writing.

• SAY: “What can we do to isolate the x piece? We could take away four positive Units from the
left side, but we cannot do the same thing to the right. What can we do?”
• Students may suggest adding some zero pairs.

• SAY: “Now we can take away our 4 positive Units from each side. We are left with x = −13 .”

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• Follow up with the writing and checking.
• SAY: “How else can we make the 4 positives go away? We could add 4 negative Units to each
side.”
• Do this and symbolize in writing.

• We can discuss why this is the same result.

• Clear the mat.
• SAY: “Let’s represent this situation: Jan had some gumdrops in a bag. After she ate 4, there
were 12 left. How many gumdrops were in the bag? Let’s let x represent the amount in the
bag that she started with.”
• Place the x piece on the left side of the mat,
• SAY: “Now she ate 4. We can’t subtract 4 from this x , as we can’t break it up. How else can
we show that we have 4 less of something? We can use negative Units.”
• Place 4 negative Units on the same side.
• SAY: “So this can be written in two ways, as all expressions with negatives can. We can see it
as x + (−4) because we see an x and negative 4 Units. But we can also think of this as x − 4 .
How much is this equal to; that is, after 4 were gone from her bag, how many were there left?
There were 12. So we will put 12 positive Units on the right.”

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• Students can symbolize and/or do the writing.
• SAY: “Now we need to once again isolate the x . We have two ways to do this. We can either
take them away or add the opposite.”
• Try both ways with the students as in the previous example.

• We can do further examples such as x − 3 = −9 and 5 = −2 + x .

Follow-Ups:
• Students can represent equations with Algebra Tiles, solve, do the writing, and check.
• They can solve by drawing pictures and doing the writing.
• They can describe the process in writing, including how subtracting is the same as adding
negatives.
• We could give equations to the students and ask them to represent these equations with the
Algebra Tiles and vice-versa.
• They can solve in abstraction.
• They can represent story problems as equations and then solve.
• They can solve equations that go beyond the limit of the material.
• They can make up their own equations and solve them.
• Students can try and solve equations with a negative x.

Notes:
• Students will find that it is easier to subtract when the Units have the same sign on both sides
of the equal sign, and easier to add the opposite when they are different. Essentially this is
what they did in the Chapter of Signed Numbers (Ch. 2), so this should not be unusual.
Though we are showing two ways to get rid of our Units, this is important to show. Students

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 will find the quickest and simplest way to write when they work in abstraction, just as they did
when they worked with Signed Numbers.
• We can do examples with a negative x. If students make up their own problems, they may run
into this, or we could provide these examples as follow-up exercises. Here, we would have to
see how much the Unit gets, so we will have to take the opposite of both sides. This is just the
same as we did when we learned division of signed numbers. We could also wait until we do
integer multiples of x, as we can then formalize the work a little more, but this is not necessary.

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