Solve Equations with Hanger Diagrams | 35 pages of Scaffolded Practice

Hanger diagrams are a wonderful visual model for helping kids make sense of how to solve equations...however it's hard to find enough practice worksheets to support kids in truly mastering the skill.

This is a carefully scaffolded collection of 35 worksheets that use hanger diagrams to support students in developing their algebraic reasoning and ability to solve equations fluently with understanding. My hope is that this can be a comprehensive resource to support all of your middle school students throughout the year.

I was introduced to the hanger diagram through the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum, but quickly discovered the curriculum didn't offer students enough opportunities to practice, so I created these!

I've used these worksheets:

1 - With small groups during math class: When some students weren't ready to move on to solving without a visual model, they were still able to get grade-level practice by using the hanger diagrams to support their thinking.

2- In math intervention classes: To help kids review how to solve equations from prior grade-levels to prepare them for grade level work.

3- As a fun way to launch a unit about solving equations.

4 - During differentiated practice days to support all students in building fluency

I designed this progression of activities to nudge students from reasoning about the visual models without any equations to matching diagrams to equations to creating hanger diagrams to simply solving the equations. This process repeats as students move from one-step to two-step to multi-step equations, including equations with negative numbers.

Check out the preview to see if this collection of worksheets will be a good fit for your students throughout the year.

You may also be interested in these differentiated task cards targeting 7th grade two-step equations: Two Step Equations | Scaffolded Task cards. The answers are on the back so students can get immediate feedback.