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Lesson Title/Subject:

Percent Increase and Decrease

Standards
7.RP.3 Use proportional relationships to solve multi-step ratio and
percent problems.
Purpose/Rationale
The purpose of this lesson is for students to connect being able to find
percentage changes with their own lives through discussion of
minimum wage and the proposed increase to minimum wage.
Background Knowledge
The lesson will begin with review of the conversion process between
percents and decimals which will be reviewed during bell work.
Instructional Objectives:
When given real-world examples,
students will be able to calculate
percent increase and percent
decrease to represent changes with
85% accuracy.
Language Objectives:
Students will be able to orally
describe to their partners how to find
percent increase and percent
decrease.
Students will be able to explain how
to use percents to describe change
using the appropriate math
vocabulary.
Multicultural Objectives:
Students will be able to determine if
a given change in minimum wage
will cover someones cost of living
and be able to connect the effect of
these potential changes with the
struggles of low income households.

Assessment (formal/informal)
HOW you will assess: WHAT you
will be looking for:
Individual and group response, and
monitoring progress in groups.

Assessment (formal/informal)
HOW you will assess: WHAT you
will be looking for:
Monitoring group discussion/ pair and
share listening for the proper steps
to calculate changes.
Exit ticket looking for new
vocabulary within their descriptions.

Assessment (formal/informal)HOW you will assess: WHAT you

will be looking for:
Class discussion

Materials and Safety Precautions (if applicable)

Overhead projector
Bellwork sheet
Lined paper for exit ticket

Accommodations for special needs, advanced and English language

learners
For any students who are struggling, they will be placed in groups with
1-2 academically stronger students for enriched discussion. For
students who are more advanced, they will act as peer support. There
are no English Learners in this class.
Procedures
Students will be organized in groups of four throughout the lesson.
Bellwork will include conversions from decimal to percent.
Focus Lesson (Teacher does):
Start with brief discussion of anticipation questions:
Can anybody tell me what they think minimum wage means? (It
is the lowest that an employer can legally pay a worker.)
Now, who can give me a guess as to HOW MUCH minimum wage
is? ($10.00/hr)
The average 1-bedroom apartment here in Orangevale costs
$860/month
o
I want you to talk in your groups and predict if someone,
lets call her Kathy, earning minimum wage working 40
hours per week would make enough money to afford to live
here?
Modeling:
Keep your predictions in mind, because we are going to figure out
if they would be able to afford to live here in Orangevale.
What information do we know?
o Hourly wage is $10.00/hr. Works 40 hours per week. Monthly
cost of apartment is $860.

Guided Instruction (Teacher and Students do together):

Who can explain how to calculate what Kathys monthly income
is? ($1,600) (HAVE STUDENTS RAISE THEIR HANDS TO SHARE
ANSWERS)
Kathy will have $740 left after paying rent. But do you think thats
all she pays for?
o You have 60 seconds to talk in your groups and come up
with some additional expenses that she might have to pay
for each month? (HAVE STUDENTS RAISE HANDS TO SHARE
IDEAS)
o Kathy works for a small business and is not provided with
good enough health care by her job so she pays
$200/month; food costs about $200/month; utilities:

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$50/month; phone: $50/month; internet: $50/month; car
payment/ins: $150/month.
(ON OVERHEAD WRITE:) $1,600 - $860 (rent) - $200 (heath care) $200 (food) - $50 (utilities) - $50 (phone) $50 (internet) - $150
(car payment/insurance) = $40
What can we conclude here? Does Kathy have enough money for
all her bills?
What can we infer (or figure out) about Kathys income?
How would you feel in her situation?

***California has proposed an increase in the minimum wage from

$10.00/hr to $15.00/hr. If this happened

Collaborative Learning (Students do it together):

Work in groups to find the following:
o Kathys new monthly income and her balance after paying
all her bills
o = $2,400 - $860 (rent) - $700 (bills) = $840
(Group response shout out with answer)
If you were in Kathys position, how would YOU feel about the
increase in minimum wage?
Guided Instruction (Teacher and Students do together)
Write this in your notes, what percentage was the change in
minimum wage?
o Percent Change = Amount of Change
Original Amount
o Lets find this:
= 15-10/10 = 5/10 = .5 or a 50% INCREASE!!
o Is this answer reasonable? (Does it make sense?)
Collaborative Learning (Students do it together):
***The store Kathy works for has been losing business recently,
so they decide to cut her hours from 40/week to just 30/week at
the higher minimum wage.
o What can you predict about the amount of money she will
have left over after paying rent and her bills each month
when working 30 hours/week compared to working 40
hours/week? (PAIR AND SHARE)

What is the formula that you can use to find the change in
monthly income when her hours were cut? (RAISE HANDS WITH
ANSWER, THEN GROUP RESPONSE)

Independent Learning (Students do it alone):

On your own, calculate the percent decrease of money left over
each month from working full-time to her current part-time
status?

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o
o

($2,400 - $1,800) / ($2,400) = $600 / $2,400 = .25 or a

25% decrease
(HAVE STUDENTS RAISE HANDS WHEN THEYVE FOUND
THE ANSWER, CHOOSE ONE)

Closure:
Take out one sheet of binder paper.
In you own words explain how we can use percents to describe
change. Be sure to include the following words in your response:
percent increase, percent decrease.