Linear and Quadratic Functions

 Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! I know I took a bit of time off but we’re back in full swing! It wouldn’t be a warm welcome back without the joke of the day so here it is:

This week will be a little different from last semester as I will be shifting the focus of my blogs to focus on lessons and explorations that my peers have constructed. We as a class engaged in micro activities and provided feedback to improve them. I will be sharing with you some of those activities and how YOU can use them as a part of your classroom instruction. 

For the first week we will be focusing on a lesson I prepared to help students create connections between the equation of a linear function, its table of values and visual representation of the line. At this point students would have been exposed to linear equations and its table of values and the following exercise will be used to tie them all together. For the minds portion of my lesson I used a card sort activity. Students were given the equations of 4 different linear functions as well as their table of values and visual representations. They were then asked to organize them with ANY similarities and had to explain their reasoning. Below are the following equations and cards I used:

This activity was rather successful after discussing it with my peers. It is a low floor high ceiling exercise that can be very eye opening to students. We agreed that ensuring a classroom discussion occurs after each student has completed their card sort will be extremely beneficial for their learning. By allowing them to uncover these findings on their own, the material will be comprehended more.

Another great benefit about the activity is that it can be used in a variety of ways. In my case I had every student separate them into their own categories. To get students moving and spark discussion, you can give each student one card and tell them to find their other two matches (The other two cards for their equation). By changing it to a student centered activity they can  come to their own conclusions and share these ideas with the class. If a student needs differentiated instruction, you can always provide them with the card sort to do on their own so they can still participate in the classroom discussion. 

Overall I would recommend using this activity as a minds on activity and if the students respond well to it, consider implementing it in other parts of your classroom instruction.

Till next week,

Madison Salmond