Directed Numbers

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Mathematics Assessment Project

CLASSROOM CHALLENGES
A Formative Assessment Lesson
Adding and
Subtracting Directed
Numbers
Mathematics Assessment Resource Service

University of Nottingham & UC Berkeley
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© 2014 MARS, Shell Center, University of Nottingham
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Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers
MATHEMATICAL GOALS
This lesson unit is intended to help students to:
 Add and subtract directed numbers (positive, negative and zero) with understanding.
 Address common misconceptions about the addition and subtraction of directed numbers.
 Explain their reasoning using diagrams.
COMMON CORE STATE ST ANDARDS

This lesson relates to the following Standards for Mathematical Content in the Common Core State
Standards for Mathematics:
6NS Apply and extend previous understandings of numbers to the system of rational numbers.
This lesson also relates to the following Standards for Mathematical Practice in the Common Core
State Standards for Mathematics:
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
7. Look for and make use of structure
INTRODUCTION
This lesson unit is structured in the following way:
 Before the lesson, students work individually on an assessment task designed to reveal their
current understanding. You then review their responses and create questions for students to
consider when improving their work.
 After a whole-class discussion that introduces the charge model for directed numbers, students
work in small groups on two collaborative discussion tasks in which they match diagrams with
calculations and produce missing diagrams for the remaining calculations.
 In a whole-class discussion, students discuss what they have learned.
 Finally, students revisit their initial work on the assessment task and work alone on a similar task
to the introductory task.
MATERIALS REQUIRED
 Each student will need a mini-whiteboard, pen and eraser, some blank paper and copies of the
assessment tasks Directed Numbers and Directed Numbers (Revisited). Some small plastic
counters of two contrasting colors might be useful if readily available. Glue would be useful but
is not essential.
 Each small group of students will need a copy of the two sheets Calculations (1) and Calculations
(2) and cut-up copies of both Card Sets. The Calculations sheets and the Card Sets should all be
enlarged (by the same amount), if possible, to make the cards easier to handle.
TIME NEEDED
15 minutes before the lesson, a 90-minute lesson and 15 minutes in a subsequent lesson, or for
homework. These timings are not exact. Exact timings will depend on the needs of your students.
Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-1

BEFORE THE LESSON
Assessment task: Directed Numbers (15 minutes)

Have the students complete this task,
in class or for homework, a few days
before the formative assessment
lesson. This will give you an
opportunity to assess the work and to
find out the kinds of difficulties
students have with it. You should
then be able to target your help more
effectively in the follow-up lesson.
Give each student a copy of the
assessment task Directed Numbers
and briefly introduce the task:
Write down the answers to the six
calculations given, without using
a calculator.
Then choose two of your
calculations to explain
underneath. You can explain
them in words or use diagrams,
or both.
I want to see how you think about
these calculations.
It is important that, as far as possible,
students are allowed to answer the
questions without assistance. They
should not have access to calculators.
Students should not worry too much if they cannot understand nor do everything, because in the next
lesson they will work on some tasks that should help them. Explain to students that by the end of the
next lesson they should be able to answer questions such as these, with explanation, confidently. This
is their goal.
Assessing students’ responses

Collect students’ responses to the task. Make some notes on what their work reveals about their
current levels of understanding and their different problem-solving approaches.
We suggest that you do not score students’ work. Research shows that this will be counterproductive,
as it will encourage students to compare their scores and distract their attention from what they can do
to improve their mathematics.
Instead, help students to make further progress by summarizing their difficulties as a series of
questions. Some suggestions for these are given on the next page. These have been drawn from
common difficulties observed in trials of this unit.
We suggest you make a list of your own questions, based on your students’ work. We recommend
you either:

 write one or two questions on each student’s work, or
 give each student a printed version of your list of questions, and highlight appropriate questions
for each student.
If you do not have time to do this, you could select a few questions that will be of help to the majority
of students, and write these on the board when you return the work to the student. Students will
receive their work and your comments at the end of the main lesson.

Common issues Suggested questions and prompts
Student interprets the brackets as  What is the answer to (+8) x (+3)?

multiplication.
For example: Student writes ‘24’ or ‘-24’ as the
answer to (a).
Student confuses the sign of the numbers with  What is the answer to (+8) + (+3)?
the operation.  Do you think you should obtain the same
For example: Student writes ‘11’ as the answer to answer for (a) and (+8) + (+3)?
(a).
Student subtracts the wrong way round in  Can you explain the difference between the
order to obtain a positive answer. calculations in parts (a) and (b)?
For example: Student writes ‘5’ or ‘+5’ as the  Do you think you should obtain the same
answer to (b). answer for (a) and (b)?
Student interprets ‘addition’ to a negative  What is the answer to (-3) - (+8)?

number as subtraction.
For example: Student writes ‘-11’ as the answer
to (c) or ‘-5’ as the answer to (d).
Student applies ‘two minuses make a plus’  What is the answer to (+8) + (+3)?
inappropriately.
For example: Student writes ‘11’ or ‘+11’ as the
answer to (d) or ‘5’ or ‘+5’ as the answer to (f).
Student interprets subtraction of a negative  What is the answer to (+8) + (-3)?
number as subtraction of a positive number.
For example: Student writes ‘5’ or ‘+5’ as the
answer to (e).
Student does not offer an explanation.  How did you work out the answers?
 How would you convince someone else that
For example: Student leaves the bottom section of
the sheet empty. your answers are correct?
Student uses number lines or writes about  Can you explain your answers in any other
‘journeys’ backwards/forwards or up/down ways?
For example: Student says for (a) that you have to
‘go backwards 3 units’ or ‘go down 3 feet’.
Student uses a charge model or makes  Can you explain your answers in any other
reference to ideas of debit/credit or ways?
temperature.
For example: Student says for (a) the temperature
gets ‘three degrees cooler’ or that somebody
‘gives away three dollars’.

SUGGESTED LESSON OUT LINE
Introduction: Whole-class discussion (20 minutes)

Do not return the pre-assessment work at the beginning of the lesson. Students will receive this at the
end of this lesson.
Begin with slide P-1.
Why is this ‘4’?
4
Can you explain why this diagram is showing 4?
Projector Resources Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers P-1
Students may be confused if they have not encountered anything like this before, as there are 8
objects. If no one has any idea, you could ask:
Can you describe what you see in the picture?
Someone will mention words such as ‘plus’, ‘positive’, ‘minus’ and ‘negative’. If the students are
really stuck you could cover with your hand everything except the right-hand pair of one negative and
one positive, and ask the class:
How much is there here?
They might say ‘two’, but someone will realize that the answer is ‘nothing’. Returning to the original
question (by removing your hand), students may comment on ‘a plus and a minus canceling each
other out’ or on there being four more ‘pluses’ than ‘minuses’.
When a positive charge and a negative charge cancel each other out, this corresponds to the fact that
(+1) + (–1) = 0. You could illustrate this by crossing out a pair of opposite charges, although some
students might find crossing out hard to understand.
You don’t need to wait for everyone to grasp the idea – as soon as a few seem to understand move on
to the next slide, as the model will become clearer with more examples.
Now show Slide P-2.

How much is this?
Slide P-3 shows the answer, which is 3. (If students say ‘plus three’ or ‘positive 3’, that is fine.)
Now show Slide P-4.
Making 3
Show me three more ways of

making 3.
Can you do one using 11

charges altogether?
On your mini-whiteboards, draw me three ways like this of making 3.
If you have small plastic counters of two contrasting colors, students might find these useful to use as
they employ trial and error to find possible answers.
Any answer involving n positives and n – 3 negatives is correct (n > 3). Students might enjoy
discovering that they can use very large numbers of symbols to make a relatively small number like 3.
To use 11 symbols altogether, students will need 7 positives and 4 negatives, because if 2n – 3 = 11
then n = 7. (They are not expected to solve this algebraically, but the algebra does show that any odd
total number of charges is possible.)
Slides P-5 to P-9 are intended to help students see the need for placing a + or – before each number,
and you should stress the importance of this.
Then show Slide P-10 followed by P-11:

How would you describe what happens here?
Slide P-10 shows (+4) and then two negatives are added in Slide P-11. Slides P-12 to P-14 formalize
this as (+4) + (–2) = (+2). Invite several students to explain the connection between the picture and
the calculation in their own words.
Then show Slides P-15 and P-16:
+2
What do we get when we take away a negative?
What does the crossing out take away? How would we write that?
[Positive two ‘take away’ negative one leaves positive three.]

Slides P-17 to P-19 develop symbols for this: (+2)-(-1)=(+3)
This is difficult and may be worth allowing students time to explain to each other in pairs.
Explain the story that this slide represents.

Slides P-20 to P-22 offer a further example. If not everyone understands the subtraction of negatives
at this stage, that is fine, as the first collaborative task does not involve this and students will have
opportunity later to think about this more.
Collaborative small-group work 1 (20 minutes)

If you are a bit confused about these
positives and negatives at the Calculations (1)
moment, don’t worry. You will learn
more about this in the group tasks
that we are going to do.
Ask students to work in groups of two or
three. Give each group some blank
paper, a copy of Calculations (1), and (+5) + (+2) = (+5) – (+2) = (+5) + (–2) =
the three cut-out cards from Card Set 1
only. If you have small plastic counters
in two contrasting colors, students might
also find these useful to move around on
the table as they think about this task.
I want you to decide where the three (–5) + (+2) = (–5) + (–2) = (–5) – (–2) =
cards go on the grid.
DO NOT CUT OUT ANYTHING ON THIS PAGE
Fill in the answers to those three
calculations after the “equals” signs. Student Materials Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers
S-2
Make sure that your answers match what you see in the pictures.
Then you need to make up drawings to go with the other three calculations and write in the
answers to those calculations as well.
Explain how students are to work together, using slide P-23.
Students may use their blank paper for rough calculations and to explain their thinking to each other.
They should not use calculators.
Confident students may want to go through writing in all the answers before thinking about the
diagrams and cards. There is no harm in them doing that, but you could ask them how they know
whether their answers are correct or incorrect. They will need to use the cards and make drawings
afterwards in order to convince someone else that they are right, and in the process they may realize
that they have made some mistakes and find that they need to change some of their answers.

If they are sure that they will not need to make any changes, then students could glue down their
answers if they wish.
Whole-class discussion (15 minutes)

If students carry out the previous collaborative task quickly and confidently, you might choose to
omit this plenary and go straight on to the second collaborative task.
Which calculations did you find easiest/hardest? Why?
What drawing did you make for this calculation? Why?
Can you explain what your drawing shows?
Did anyone else do the same or something different?
Which drawing do we prefer? Why?
What answer did you obtain for this calculation? Why?
Did anyone obtain a different answer? Why?
Slide P-24 shows the completed Calculations (1) sheet with the correct answers and possible
diagrams, although slightly different diagrams would also be correct:
Calculations (1)
You could ask students what they notice from the finished sheet. For example:
Is there a difference between the calculations (+5) – (+2) and (+5) + (-2)?
These calculations give the same answer but have different diagrams and students could talk about
how they envisage the two processes differently. They may also comment on the fact that two of the
other calculations give the same answer and talk about why. There are interesting patterns here to
discuss.
Now show Slide P-25, which poses a more difficult calculation, where the thing that is being
subtracted does not appear to be present.
How can I draw (+2) – (+5)?

Slides P-26 to P-28 show how other ways of writing (+2) are more useful here:
And another…
Do you agree that this is still (+2)?
Then Slides P-29 to P-31 show how (+5) can now be subtracted:

And another…
(+2) – (+5) = (–3)
Students will have opportunities to think more about this approach in the second collaborative
activity.
Collaborative small-group work 2 (20 minutes)

Ask students to return to their groups Calculations (2)
of two or three. Give each group
some blank paper, a copy of
Calculations (2), and the three cut-up
cards from Card Set 2. If you have
small plastic counters in two
contrasting colors, students might
(+2) – (+5) = (+2) – (–5) = (–2) – (–5) =
also find these useful to move around
on the table as they think about this
work.
Now I want you to see whether
you can do the harder
subtraction calculations using,
(–2) – (+5) = (+5) – (–2) = (–5) – (+2) =
when you need to, diagrams like
the one you have just seen. DO NOT CUT OUT ANYTHING ON THIS PAGE
Go through the same process as before with the Calculations (2) sheet.
Student Materials Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers S-3

Remind students how you would like them to work together, using slide P-32.
Again, students may use their blank paper for rough thinking and to explain their thinking to each
other. They should not use calculators.
While students are working you have two tasks: to note different student approaches to the task and to
support student problem solving.
Note different student approaches
Listen to, and watch, students carefully. Notice how students make a start on the task, where they get
stuck, and how they overcome any difficulties. Which calculations do they find it easiest/hardest to
make diagrams for? Which do they find easiest/hardest to interpret to find the answer to the
calculation? Where are their explanations strong/weak? What misconceptions are manifest? What
disagreements are common?
In particular, notice whether students are addressing the difficulties they experienced in the
assessment task. Also note any common mistakes. For example, some students might think that ‘two
minuses make a plus’ means that is the same as , which is wrong. Two negatives don’t
cancel out – it is a negative and a positive that cancel out.
You might wish to make a distinction in your use of language between the words ‘positive’ and
‘negative’ as adjectives relating to a single number and ‘plus’ and ‘minus’ as verbs relating to
operations; e.g., ‘positive 3 minus negative 2 equals positive 5’.
Support student problem solving
Help students to work constructively together. Remind them to look at the slide for instructions on
how to work. Check that students listen to each other and encourage them to show their ideas with
counters or by doing rough drawings on their blank paper.
Try not to solve students’ problems or do the reasoning for them. Instead, you might offer strategic
advice or ask strategic questions to suggest ways of moving forward.
If you’re stuck with that card, you could put it to one side and place one of the others first.
What do you think the answer is going to be to the calculation? Does that help you to make the
diagram?
If you need to subtract (+2) then you need to have a (+2) to start with. But you still need to start
with a total of (-5), so you need to make a picture that has (+2) in it but is equal to (-5)
altogether. How can you draw that?
If a group of students finish placing all the cards and completing all the blank spaces, ask them to
choose two different numbers (positive integers less than 10) and make a new table showing all the

possible addition and subtraction calculations if either number could be positive or negative. (There
should be 16 of these calculations.) They could then try to work out the answers, using diagrams
when they are unsure.
Whole-class discussion (15 minutes)

Conduct a whole-class discussion about what has been learned and explore the different diagrams that
have been drawn. Have you noticed some interesting misconceptions as you circulated among the
groups? If so, you may want to focus the discussion on these.
Which calculations were easiest/hardest this time? Why?
What drawing did you make for this calculation? Why?
Can you explain in words what your drawing shows?
Does anyone have a different way of explaining it?
Did anyone else do the same or something different?
Which drawing do you prefer? Why?
Who agrees/disagrees? Why?
What answer did you obtain for this calculation? Why?
Did anyone obtain a different answer? Why?
What do other people think?
Slide P-33 shows the completed Calculations (2) sheet with the correct answers and possible
diagrams, although, again, slightly different diagrams would also be correct:
Calculations (2)
You could ask students to compare calculations from the finished sheet. For example: P-32
Projector Resources Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers
There are two pairs of calculations with the same answer. Can you explain why this happens?
What else is the same about some of the diagrams? What is different?
There are interesting patterns here to discuss. Students might comment on the fact that each time all
of one sign of charge are crossed out (i.e., all of the positives or all of the negatives). This is efficient
but is not the only possibility. Any number of additional pairs of positives and negatives would also
give the correct result.
If the class has managed the task successfully you could use mini-whiteboards to ask questions
involving larger numbers. Where there are too many charges to draw them all, can students
nevertheless use what they have learned to visualize the answer? This might be a next step for some.

Reviewing the assessment task (15 minutes)
Give each student a copy of the
review task, Directed Numbers
(Revisited), and their original scripts
from the assessment task, Directed
Numbers. If you have not added
questions to individual pieces of
work then write your list of questions
on the board. Students should select
from this list only those questions
they think are appropriate to their
own work.
Look at your original responses
and the questions [on the
board/written on your script].
Think about what you have
learned.
Now look at the new task sheet,
Directed Numbers (Revisited).
Can you use what you have
learned to answer these
questions?
Some teachers give this as
homework.

SOLUTIONS
Assessment task: Directed Numbers

(a) +5; (b) -5; (c) +5; (d) -11; (e) +11, (f) -5
Collaborative tasks
Calculations (1)
(+5) + (+2) = (+7) (+5) – (+2) = (+3) (+5) + (–2) = (+3)
(–5) + (+2) = (–3) (–5) + (–2) = (–7) (–5) – (–2) = (–3)
Calculations (2)
(+2) – (+5) = (–3) (+2) – (–5) = (+7) (–2) – (–5) = (+3)
(–2) – (+5) = (–7) (+5) – (–2) = (+7) (–5) – (+2) = (–7)
Assessment task: Directed Numbers (Revisited)

(a) +2; (b) -2; (c) +2; (d) -10; (e) +10; (f) -2

Directed Numbers
Work these out without using a calculator.
(a) (+8) – (+3)
(b) (+3) – (+8)
(c) (–3) + (+8)
(d) (–8) + (–3)
(e) (+8) – (–3)
(f) (–8) – (–3)
Choose two of the questions and explain your answers below using words or diagrams or both.
Explanation for question

Calculations (1)
(+5) + (+2) = (+5) – (+2) = (+5) + (–2) =
(–5) + (+2) = (–5) + (–2) = (–5) – (–2) =

Calculations (2)
(+2) – (+5) = (+2) – (–5) = (–2) – (–5) =
(–2) – (+5) = (+5) – (–2) = (–5) – (+2) =

Card Set (1)
CUT OUT THESE THREE CARDS FOR ‘CALCULATIONS (1)’
Card Set (2)
THEN CUT OUT THESE THREE CARDS FOR ‘CALCULATIONS (2)’

Directed Numbers (Revisited)
Work these out without using a calculator.
(a) (+6) – (+4)
(b) (+4) – (+6)
(c) (–4) + (+6)
(d) (–6) + (–4)
(e) (+6) – (–4)
(f) (–6) – (–4)
Choose two of the questions and explain your answers below using words or diagrams or both.

Why is this ‘4’?
4
How much is this?

How much is this?
3
Making 3
Show me three more ways of

making 3.
Can you do one using 11

charges altogether?

How much is this?

How much is this?
–2
How much is this?

How much is this?
0
How much is this?
+3


(+4) +
(+4) + (–2) =
(+4) + (–2) = (+2)

+2
What do we get when we take away a negative?

(+2) –
(+2) – (–1) =
(+2) – (–1) = (+3)

What’s the story here?

What’s the answer?
1 – (–2) =
What’s the answer?
1 – (–2) = 3
Working Together 1
1. Choose one of the three cards and match it with one of the
calculations.
2. Write the answer to the calculation after the equals sign.
3. Check that the answer matches what you see in the drawing.
4. Do the same with the other two cards.
5. Make up drawings to fit the remaining three calculations and

write down the answers to those three calculations.
6. The answers should match the drawings.
7. Everyone in the group should agree.

Calculations (1)


Another way of thinking of (+2)…

And another…

And another…
Do you agree that this is still (+2)?

And another…
How can I take away (+5)?

And another…
(+2) – (+5) =

And another…
(+2) – (+5) = (–3)

Working Together 2
1. Choose one of the three cards and match it with one of the
calculations.
2. Write the answer to the calculation after the equals sign.
3. Check that the answer matches what you see in the drawing.
4. Do the same with the other two cards.
5. Make up drawings to fit the remaining three calculations and

write down the answers to those three calculations.
6. The answers should match the drawings.
7. Everyone in the group should agree.

Calculations (2)

Mathematics Assessment Project
CLASSROOM CHALLENGES
This lesson was designed and developed by the

Shell Center Team
at the
University of Nottingham
Malcolm Swan, Clare Dawson, Sheila Evans,
Marie Joubert and Colin Foster
with
Hugh Burkhardt, Rita Crust, Andy Noyes, and Daniel Pead
It was refined on the basis of reports from teams of observers led by

David Foster, Mary Bouck, and Diane Schaefer
based on their observation of trials in US classrooms
along with comments from teachers and other users.
This project was conceived and directed for

MARS: Mathematics Assessment Resource Service
by
Alan Schoenfeld, Hugh Burkhardt, Daniel Pead, and Malcolm Swan
and based at the University of California, Berkeley
We are grateful to the many teachers, in the UK and the US, who trialed earlier versions
of these materials in their classrooms, to their students, and to
Judith Mills, Mathew Crosier, Nick Orchard and Alvaro Villanueva who contributed to the design.
This development would not have been possible without the support of
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
We are particularly grateful to
Carina Wong, Melissa Chabran, and Jamie McKee

This material may be reproduced and distributed, without modification, for non-commercial purposes,
under the Creative Commons License detailed at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
All other rights reserved.
Please contact [email protected] if this license does not meet your needs.

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CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Mathematics Assessment Project

Mathematics Assessment Resource Service

For more details, visit: http://map.mathshell.org

COMMON CORE STATE ST ANDARDS

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-1

Assessment task: Directed Numbers (15 minutes)

Assessing students’ responses

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-2

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-3

Student interprets the brackets as  What is the answer to (+8) x (+3)?

Student interprets ‘addition’ to a negative  What is the answer to (-3) - (+8)?

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-4

Introduction: Whole-class discussion (20 minutes)

Why is this ‘4’?

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-5

Show me three more ways of

Can you do one using 11

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-6

How would you describe what happens here?

How would you describe what happens here?

What do we get when we take away a negative?

[Positive two ‘take away’ negative one leaves positive three.]

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-7

Collaborative small-group work 1 (20 minutes)

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-8

Whole-class discussion (15 minutes)

How can I draw (+2) – (+5)?

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-9

How can I draw (+2) – (+5)?

Do you agree that this is still (+2)?

How can I draw (+2) – (+5)?

(+2) – (+5) = (–3)

Collaborative small-group work 2 (20 minutes)

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-10

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-11

Whole-class discussion (15 minutes)

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-12

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-13

Assessment task: Directed Numbers

(+5) + (+2) = (+7) (+5) – (+2) = (+3) (+5) + (–2) = (+3)

(–5) + (+2) = (–3) (–5) + (–2) = (–7) (–5) – (–2) = (–3)

(+2) – (+5) = (–3) (+2) – (–5) = (+7) (–2) – (–5) = (+3)

(–2) – (+5) = (–7) (+5) – (–2) = (+7) (–5) – (+2) = (–7)

Assessment task: Directed Numbers (Revisited)

Teacher guide Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers T-14

(b) (+3) – (+8)

(c) (–3) + (+8)

(d) (–8) + (–3)

(e) (+8) – (–3)

(f) (–8) – (–3)

Explanation for question

Explanation for question

Student Materials Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers S-1

(+5) + (+2) = (+5) – (+2) = (+5) + (–2) =

(–5) + (+2) = (–5) + (–2) = (–5) – (–2) =

DO NOT CUT OUT ANYTHING ON THIS PAGE

Student Materials Adding and Subtracting Directed Numbers S-2

(+2) – (+5) = (+2) – (–5) = (–2) – (–5) =

(–2) – (+5) = (+5) – (–2) = (–5) – (+2) =