Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Day 47: Pepper with Function Notation

Quote of the Day“Talking about what went wrong rather than who went wrong will make those around you much less defensive.” - Mark Sanborn

Question of the Day: "Does spelling count?" This was a reference to the word hypotenuse on the quiz. "Doesn't f(x) mean multiply?"

Regular Math Objective: Correct past errors regarding Pythagorean Theorem and scientific notation

Regular Math Standards: 8.G. 6a. Understand the relationship among the sides of a right triangle. b. Analyze and justify the Pythagorean Theorem and its converse using pictures, diagrams, narratives, or models.
8.EE.7 Apply the Pythagorean Theorem to determine unknown side lengths in right triangles in real-world and mathematical problems in two and three dimensions.
8.EE.8 Apply the Pythagorean Theorem to find the distance between two points in a coordinate system.

Regular Math Lesson Sequence:

  1. I had students fill out their self-assessment sheet. The first question that was asked was did you do the study guide at home and why or why not. The second question that was asked was how would you feel about a potential catch up day and would you be willing to help classmates at such a day. I did not read responses to the first question yet, but the response to the second question was in favor of catch up day. My honors class has already successfully implemented catch up day, so I talked to the class about how important peer teaching was to the entire process. 
  2. Students worked in partners to correct at least one of their mistakes on a marker board. This is either the second or third time I've used this routine following a quiz this year with these particular students and I am finding that some of them are getting worse at it rather than getting better. In order to get students to work I have to say individually to them to write down their mistake either on the marker board or on the quiz. 
  3. We did a think aloud regarding catch up day. 
  4. I started Act 1 of Dan Meyer's video of the Taco Cart and passed out this sheet. Students then conversed amongst one another about what potential math questions came out of this answer. We debriefed as students all came to a consensus around the general theme of who will be first to the taco cart? 
  5. They made predictions about who would be first. It was nice to hear them use math vocabulary as they referred to the paths because they were actually talking to each other rather than to me. In other words, they were not afraid to sound like a nerd. 
  6. We discussed what other information would be relevant to solving this problem, and I showed them the information that they would need in order to solve. 
  7. Time ran out and we went our ways. Next class we will revisit Pythagorean Theorem as it is a short week, so I'm actually going to sneak in a catch up day on Thursday before Veteran's Day. 


Honors Math Objective: Identify the coordinates given a statement of function notation; apply and analyze function notation in a real-world context

Honors Math Standards: A1.F-IF 2 Use function notation, evaluate functions for inputs in their domains, and interpret statements that use function notation in terms of a context.

Honors Math Lesson Sequence:

  1. I gave the students two problems in which they had to substitute a value for f(x) and then solve for x. I did not give instruction initially and had two different pairs of students put their solutions on the board. I then had a random classmate critique the work. Both pairs of students were successful in putting the problem on the board and the person critiquing recognized it. 
  2. From there, we did a second problem. I had assessed about half the class already by circumventing the room and also seeing and hearing the work of the five students above. I wanted to solidify the concept though. It seemed like students were able to wrap their heads around substation for the output in order to discover the input. 
  3. QSSQ. As part of the question of the day, I also revisited some of the questions that were asked during our Desmos lesson the previous class. I communicated that we need to stay within the framework of math vocabulary based questions and resist the urge to say "Is your graph in the top row?" or "Is the line blue?"  
  4. We played pepper with function notation. Again through the auditory responses that I was receiving it was apparent that students were able to use function notation correctly. 
  5. Students began the homework with about twenty minutes left in class. I really liked the questions that were created for this assignment and the students found them challenging as well. Particularly the one about the function relating the number of students to the cost of a field trip. 

No comments:

Post a Comment