An equation is a question, and a solution is a number that makes it a true sentence. These free printable worksheets hand over the sentence and the candidates and ask which one works — no solving allowed, just substitution.
If they get stuck
The answer key prints on a separate page.
Solving an equation is a set of moves, and a student can learn the moves without ever believing what they are for. This page asks the question underneath them: 4x + 3 = 19 is not an instruction, it is a sentence that is true for one value of x and false for every other, and putting a number in is how you find out which. Every question here is answered by substitution and nothing else.
The inequality half is what makes the idea necessary. An equation has one answer, so a student can reach it by solving and never test anything. 3x + 1 > 10 has infinitely many, so there is no answer to reach for — there is only a test that each candidate passes or fails, which is exactly what the standard describes. The candidates always straddle the boundary, and the boundary value itself is always offered, because "is 3 more than 3" is the step that gets skipped.
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Which value makes it true?, step by step