We have been working on “building” equations to solve for x , literal equations and an introduction to functions. After flooding my students with function notation, I decided we needed a day to practice. One of my favorite ways to let students practice is stations. I love station work because they allow students to move around the room AND work with different people all period. I let them pick their partners to start, and I put 2 sets of partners at each station. They can work with all of the people at their table. However, I strongly encourage them to work at their own pace. If they finish and want to move on, or want to stay longer it’s all ok. Students that work at about the same pace usually end up with each other. No students are bored waiting on others to finish, and I can spend time working with students who have question. I rove from station to station answer questions so I feel like I get to connect with individuals as I help them. It is a great day all around!
I still use the clear picture frames to display the problems, but now I put the answers online, so all students can easily see them and have them for later. This also allows students who may not finish (or who are absent) to access all of the questions and solutions later. Students can access the answers by scanning a QR code at each station. Many of my kids have a scan app, but I found out yesterday (from the students of course) that Snapchat has a QR reader. Here are my function stations. The QR codes will be active until the end of the 16-17 school year.
The first Algebra 2 chat will be on this Thursday, 9/8/16 at 9:00 PM, EST. The topic this week will be Student Engagement. What can we do to get students excited about mathematics (even if they don’l love Algebra 2)?
The chats will happen once a week on Thursdays at 9PM on Twitter at the hashtag #Alg2Chat.
If you have never participated in a Twitter Chat before, you can read this post for tips!
Topics for this month:
9/8/16 – Student Engagement
9/15/16 – Rich Problems for Algebra 2
9/22/16 – Making Groups Work
9/29/16 – How You Use Technology
TMC16 this year intensely motivated me, to the point where I cannot stop thinking about math ed, even on vacation! I came up with this idea this morning, and have to get it down before I go to the beach so I will stop thinking about it, and relax!
If you are going to be teaching Algebra 2, please add yourself to the list below! I did this when I taught middle school, and it was great! I even was able to develop a monthly newsletter of resources for those who signed up. No promises, I have much ambition before school starts and then run out of time. But for the first time in two years, I am feeling my old momentum come swinging back! Hurrah! And thank you all for inspiring me!
I created a shared Google Folder for us to drop our favorite goodies in. How great will it be to have a place with ALL THE THINGS when we are looking for resources?! As a community, I know we can do this!
PLEASE add the #Alg2Chat to any Algebra 2 post you tweet about. 🙂 Let’s bring this back!
Calling all teachers to help me make these better!
This summer at Twitter Math Camp, Glenn (@gwaddellnvhs) and Jonathan (@rawrdimus) showed us how they lead students through all of the functions in Algebra 2. Basically, they put all of the equations into (h,k) form. Fortunately, the book I am using this year, “Discovering Advanced Algebra” does basically the same thing. Since it is a “discovery” book, they have some good ideas that I have been able to modify and made into INB (Interactive Notebook) form. Never fear, this just means it’s a worksheet that you fold in half.
The first discovery was also my students first introduction to graphing with Desmos on their own. Of course they have seen me use Desmos multiple times by now since Desmos has all of those great example graphs in their side bar!
Here is how I progressed through discovery for linears, quadratics, square root, and absolute value. The Box files with the word docs are at the end.
- Horizontal and Vertical Shifts
- Linear Equations (first time with Desmos)
- Quadratic Equations
- Reflections with the square root function
- Dilations with the absolute value function – these last two are combined into one. I would love any suggestions on this – before Monday. I know, I’m asking for too much here! 🙂
Also included is a “Transformations Parent Graph” foldable that I made to sum it up. I kind of hate this one, and would love suggestions here for sure! Should I add dilations? Why is it so ugly? What else do I need to add? I need help here for sure.
Algebra 2 Function Transformation Discoveries
Please note: I did not make all of these discoveries from “scratch”. I created some of them. But some were inspired by the textbook I am using this year, “Discovering Advanced Algebra” and some were created by my amazing co-teacher. I then adapted all of them for INB (Interactive Notebook) form.