CCSS.Math.Content.6.NS.C.7c
The standard
Understand the absolute value of a rational number as its distance from 0 on the number line; interpret absolute value as magnitude for a positive or negative quantity in a real-world situation.
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
What this standard means
Students need to understand absolute value as distance from zero, not as “make it positive” without meaning. They should place positive and negative rational numbers on a number line, then describe how far each is from zero. They also need to connect that distance to real situations, such as debt, elevation, temperature change, or scores.
Mastery looks like writing and explaining statements like |−7.5| = 7.5 in context. Students often confuse the sign with the size of the quantity. They may say −8 is “less distance” than 3 because it is smaller, or forget that distance is never negative.
Ways to teach it
- Use floor tape for a number line, then have students stand at −4, 2.5, and −1/2 and measure each distance to zero.
- Prompt students: A diver is at −18 feet and a hiker is at 18 feet, what is the same and what is different?
- Give five numbers, including fractions and decimals, and ask students to write each absolute value and mark the distance from zero.
- Show a bank balance of −$42.75 and ask students to write an absolute value statement for the size of the debt.
Plan a lesson for CCSS.Math.Content.6.NS.C.7c
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Related standards
- CCSS.Math.Content.7.NS.A.1c
Understand subtraction of rational numbers as adding the additive inverse, p - q = p + (-q). Show that the distance between two rational numbers on the number l...
- CCSS.Math.Content.6.NS.C.6
Understand a rational number as a point on the number line. Extend number line diagrams and coordinate axes familiar from previous grades to represent points on...
- CCSS.Math.Content.HSN-RN.B
Use properties of rational and irrational numbers.
- CCSS.Math.Content.6.NS.C.7
Understand ordering and absolute value of rational numbers.