options: Operations & Algebra: students learn to solve problems using algebraic thinking and operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They may learn to identify and explain arithmetic patterns, evaluate or manipulate numerical expressions, and reason with equations and inequalities.

Number & Operations in Base Ten: students learn to work with the base-ten system and build place value understanding.

Statistics & Probability: students learn to analyze and produce data distributions, and build understanding of univariate and bivariate data. They learn to interpret data, make statistical inferences, justify conclusions, understand rules of probability, and use probability to make decisions.

Measurement & Data: students learn to work with data and measure attributes such as time, money, length, area, and volume. They may learn to compare measurements to operations and convert between different units of measure.

Counting & Cardinality: students learn to know number names and the count sequence, count to tell the number of objects, and compare numbers.

Number & Operations - Fractions: students learn to understand fractions as numbers and may work with them using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Number Systems and Quantity: students learn to understand the complex number system and reason quantitatively.

Ratios & Proportional Relationships: students learn to recognize, describe, represent, and reason with ratios, rates, proportional relationships, and percent.

Functions: students learn to define, use, and evaluate functions to model relationships between quantities.

Modeling: students learn to choose and use appropriate mathematics and statistics to analyze real-world empirical situations, improve decisions, and report on their conclusions and the reasoning behind them.

Geometry: students learn to classify geometric figures by their properties, and understand and compare the relationships between them. Students develop and use formulas to compute lengths, areas, and volumes, and they use transformations to generate new shapes and compare existing ones. Geometry can be studied with and without coordinates.
problem_activity: Narrative
The goal of this activity is to use the distributive property to explain why multiplying a number by a fraction greater than one increases the size of the number while multiplying by a fraction less than one decreases the size of the number. Expressions are particularly useful here because they show explicitly how the size of the number relates to the product. For example writing
\(\frac{3}{5}\)
as
\(1 - \frac{2}{5}\)
and then multiplying by
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
gives:
\(\displaystyle \left(1 - \frac{2}{5}\right) \times \frac{4}{7} = \frac{4}{7} - \left(\frac{2}{5} \times \frac{4}{7}\right)\)
The revealing part of this calculation is that the structure of the right hand side shows that it is less than
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
without calculating the exact value (MP7). It must be less than
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
because it is
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
minus some other number.
Engagement: Internalize Self-Regulation.
Provide students an opportunity to self-assess and reflect on their own progress. For example, provide students with questions that relate to the size of the factors for them to reflect on once the activity is complete.
Supports accessibility for: Conceptual Processing, Attention, Memory
Launch
Groups of 2
Activity
1–2 minutes: quiet think time
8–10 minutes: partner work time
Monitor for students who use the expressions in the first problem to make the comparisons and then generalize about what happens when you multiply a number by any fraction greater than 1 or less than 1.
Student Facing
Rewrite each expression as a sum or difference of 2 products.
\(\left(1 - \frac{2}{5}\right) \times \frac{4}{7}\)
\(\left(1 + \frac{1}{5}\right)\times \frac{4}{7}\)
\(\left(1 - \frac{3}{8}\right)\times \frac{4}{7}\)
\(\left(1 + \frac{1}{8}\right)\times \frac{4}{7}\)
Fill in each blank with
\(<\)
or
\(>\)
to make the inequality true.
\(\left(1 - \frac{2}{5}\right)\times \frac{4}{7} \,\underline{\hspace{0.9cm}} \,\frac{4}{7}\)
\(\left(1 + \frac{1}{5}\right)\times \frac{4}{7} \,\underline{\hspace{0.9cm}}\, \frac{4}{7}\)
\(\left(1 - \frac{3}{8}\right)\times \frac{4}{7} \,\underline{\hspace{0.9cm}} \,\frac{4}{7}\)
\(\left(1 + \frac{1}{8}\right)\times \frac{4}{7} \,\underline{\hspace{0.9cm}} \,\frac{4}{7}\)
Describe the value of the product when
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
is multiplied by a fraction greater than 1. Explain your reasoning.
Describe the value of the product when
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
is multiplied by a fraction less than 1. Explain your reasoning.
Student Response
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Activity Synthesis
Invite students to share their expressions for the products in the first problem.
Display the equation:
\(\left(1 - \frac{2}{5}\right)\times \frac{4}{7} = \frac{4}{7} - \left(\frac{2}{5} \times \frac{4}{7}\right)\)
“How can you see that the value of the expression is less than
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
?” (It’s
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
minus something.)
“Does this reasoning also work for
\(\left(1 - \frac{3}{8}\right)\times \frac{4}{7}\)
?” (Yes, it’s again
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
minus some other number.)
“Will this reasoning work whenever you multiply a number less than 1 by
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
?” (Yes, I’ll always get
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
minus an amount so that’s less than
\(\frac{4}{7}\)
.)


correct_option_index: 5