Absolute Value and the Coordinate Plane

Every summer I like to analyze how I taught the concepts over the past year. This year we implemented a new curriculum, as well, as the Common Core State Standards. It was a lot of work but I love the challenge that change brings!

I have been reviewing how I have taught absolute value to my 7^th graders last year and I wanted to find more ways that my students could apply absolute value. I scoured worksheets, my textbook, other textbooks and the Internet on my search.

As I was looking, I got the idea from a high school geometry book to have students work on the coordinate plane, versus just a horizontal number line or a vertical number line.  In this activity that I created, students use colored pencils for fun and, also, because I believe color stimulates their brains more!

In this activity, students will graph 6 colored lines. For each line, they will write two different absolute value expressions and simplify to determine the distance between the endpoints of each line. There is also a writing activity because students need to practice expressing their mathematical reasoning and procedures in writing clearly.

I think my students will enjoy this activity and it will really help them gain a deeper understanding of how absolute value is useful for finding distance when working with integers. I also believe it is a great foundational activity for future concepts, particularly using the slope formula and the distance formula.

Click any picture above for a link to my TPT store.