Melissa Robinson-Agles 1

7th Grade: Percentage Calculations

This lesson is geared for 7th-grade students learning to apply percentage calculations. Students
will use given information to go shopping at Target and find the best savings for the items they
wish to purchase. In doing this, students will apply percentage markdowns available from
various coupons provided.

Content Standards

Common Core State Standard (CCSS):

CCSS.Math.Content.7.RP.A.3 Use proportional relationships to solve multistep
ratio and percent problems. Examples: simple interest, tax, markups and
markdowns, gratuities and commissions, fees, percent increase and decrease,
percent error.

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematical Practices (MP):

Making sense of problems and persevere in solving them
Reason abstractly and quantitatively
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
Model with mathematics

Objectives

Through this activity, students will practice multiple skills and apply their understanding of
percentages. They will
Calculate product prices by applying percentage decreases and tax increases.
Evaluate which percentage decrease is most beneficial.
Explain reasoning and justify choice.

Materials

This activity allows students to create their own shopping experience, so they need very little.
Students will only need the following items to complete this activity:
Coupons
List of available store items and prices (pictures should also be included to help all
students visualize the products)
Questions for students to answer
Paper and pencil

Warm-up

The class will complete a few problems with percentages (and maybe a fraction). This will
remind students how to solve these problems before they are possibly overwhelmed by the
context. We can review how percentages are used or where they see them in real life.
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Class Activity

The teacher will set up the class discussion using the following scenario. When you go
shopping, how do you decide how much you are going to spend? What are some ways to save
money? (Write them on the board.)

You cant always save money by buying just cheap things. Sometimes, you have to buy more
expensive items. What are some things that our families may have to buy throughout the month
or year? (Write them on the board.) Okay, I have some items that Ive thought of too, so Ill
add them to the list.

Okay, so if were in a store and need to buy some of these items, we have to figure out how to
get the best deal. It looks like we can get most of these items from Target, so lets use that for
our shopping trip. We discussed the possibility of watching for sales or using coupons. Were
going to use these options to save as much as possible on the items that we need to buy.
For instance, if we wanted to buy a Blu-ray movie for our dads birthday, and we used the
following coupon, how much would we save? The movie is $24, and the coupon says, 15% off
one item. How do we figure out the savings? (Have class walk you through the solution and
note the savings.) Great! We just saved $3.60. Thats enough for a snack at the caf.

Im giving you a list of some items with prices and Ill post prices on the board for the items
that you suggested too. In your groups, select at least five things that you want to buy.

Student Activity

From the product list, indicate five or more items that you wish to purchase. Use one of the
coupons below to find the best deal on these items. You must purchase all items in one
transaction and can use only one coupon. Available coupons include the following:
Save 12% on the whole purchase
Save 30% on one item
$20 off of a whole purchase of $150 or more
5% off of a whole purchase of $50 or more

Answer the following questions:

1. How much would each coupon save you?
2. What coupon did you decide to use? Why? What was the purchase price after the
coupon?
3. What is the final price with a tax rate of 8.5%?

Most likely, students will need to finish this on the following day. They can leave the work in
class work with their group to finish tomorrow.
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Scoring Rubric

Questions Points
1. How much would each coupon 0-8 points:
save you?
Full credit for correctly calculating each coupons savings
(2 points per coupon). Partial credit for using the correct
methods but not providing the correct solution. Answers
will vary per student.

2. What coupon did you decide to 0-4 points:

use? Why? What was the purchase
price after the coupon?
Full credit for choosing the coupon that provided most
savings, explaining why, and providing final price. Partial
credit for solid reasoning but invalid computations.
Answers will vary per student.

3. What is the final price with a tax 0-3 points:

rate of 8.5%?
Full credit for correctly calculating price after tax. Partial
credit for correct process but incorrect solution. Answers
will vary per student.

Justification

This performance task allows students to apply percentages to real-world scenarios and gives
them the freedom to create their own problems, which will be more engaging. It is ideal for
students in 7th grade, as it meets the standard within the Ratios and Proportional Relationships
domain. They will be scored per a rubric (see below).