“YOU ADDITIVE INVERSED ME!”

 

Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

 

Materials

Paper and pencils, or devices, for writing

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

• • Model for students a basic mirror activity: Have a student volunteer come to the front; have the student become a mirror; slowly do simple movements (waving, shrugging, tilting head, smiling, frowning, tapping knees, etc.) facing the “mirror” for the student volunteer to copy.
    • Move slowly so that the volunteer can follow. 
    • Trade roles; have the student initiate the movement, and follow the student’s movement.  

• Note: in mirroring, one partner’s right arm is mirrored by the other’s left arm.

 

Work Session

• • Discuss absolute value and additive Inverse.
    • Explain that a number and its additive inverse add up to 0, and that a number and its additive inverse have the same absolute value.  
    • Confirm comprehension by posing numbers and asking students to reply with each number’s additive inverse.
  • Introduce improvisation – ‘acting without a script’ or ‘making it up as you go’.
    • Explain that in improvisation, actors go along with other actors’ ideas, listen and respond as in a real conversation, and add details and build conflict between the characters to keep the scene interesting.
      • Define a scene as continuous action in a single place.
  • Model an improvised scene with a student, or have two students model an improvised scene, of two characters who know each other (parent/child, siblings, friends), with a specific conflict (child wants permission to go somewhere, parent says “No”; or parent wants child to clean their room, but child is resisting; or child wants sibling to stay out of their room; or child wants friend to play basketball; etc.).
    • Reflect on how the scene was improvised, and how the actors improvised effectively to create an interesting scene.
  • Brainstorm verbs that convey opposite/reversible, measurable actions (not simple binaries of on/off, in/out, etc.) such as push/pull, buy/sell, earn/spend, stretch/contract, wrap/unwrap, produce/consume, build/dismantle, inflate/deflate, etc.  
  • Discuss additive inverse and how it can be represented in opposite actions conveyed in the verb pairs.
    • If needed, provide examples of additive inverse relationships in real world situations from the Georgia standard: “temperature above/below zero, elevation above/below sea level, debits/credits, positive/negative electric charge”.
  • Explain that students will work with a partner to improvise scenes that convey additive inverse relationships in everyday situations.
    • Students should use dialogue and pantomime in their scenes.
      • Define pantomime, and explain that students will pantomime any actions in their scenes. 
  • Model an improvised scene with a student, or guide two students in modeling an improvised scene, in which an action and its opposite are the center of the conflict. Develop the conflict to the point where one character says. “You additive inversed me!”
    • Examples could include:
      • A child earns X minutes of screen time for doing chores, but the parent discovers a rule or object that was broken and takes away the time.
      • A friend is winning a one-on-one basketball game by 13 points, but the opponent has a 13-point run to tie the game.
      • A grandmother baked 17 cookies, but the child ate 17 cookies. 

• Any actions in the scene should be pantomimed.

• Have student pairs improvise their scenes simultaneously.

• Have students write their improvised scenario as a scene, detailing what the characters said.

• Each student should write their own. They should try to remember what they can from the improvised scene but also feel free to revise and reinvent what was said as they write it down.  

• Have students draw a diagram or chart or number line that shows the additive inverse in a mathematical representation.

 

Closing Reflection

• Ask students to define and give real-world examples of additive inverses.  
• Discuss improvisation and pantomime and how they were used in the scenes.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students by observing students’ discussions around additive inverse relationships between two quantities, and observing their focus and collaboration in improvising their scene, specifically in terms of both engaging in dialogue with their partners and expressing actions through pantomime.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students can identify the additive inverse of a number.
• Students can act in an improvised scene that demonstrates understanding of additive inverse number relationships using dialogue and pantomime.
• Students can express understanding of additive inverse through a written scene.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration: Have students be more specific within their scenes, including specific measurements and equations to express the concept of additive inverses in their scenes. Remediation: Model several scenes before having students do them with partners. Have student partners improvise the same scenario that was used in the modeling. Develop an idea together and have all partners improvise that scenario simultaneously.

 

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

MuchoMath: Additive Inverse and Absolute Value

 

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by:  Barry Stewart Mann

Revised and copyright:  May 2024 @ ArtsNOW