Connections to Prior Knowledge
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Intro to Writing Equations for Linear Functions – Pizza and Toppings
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Simplifying Algebraic Expressions with Negatives by Eating Tacos and Burritos
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Intro to Subtracting a Negative Integer by Canceling an IOU
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Simplify Rational Monomial Expressions
This post provides details about a handout for simplifying rational monomial expressions. It incorporates a couple strategies to make the simplification of rational monomial expressions more accessible. The strategies include address prerequisites skills ahead of time, chunking, and scaffolding. This incrementally walks the students through the steps. The Pages of the Handout The handout has…
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Intro to Concept of Functions
Functions are perhaps the most prevalent and important topic covered in secondary math, aside from maybe 1 variable linear equations. The concept of a mathematical function is challenging for many students. This post provides details about a meaning making approach to introducing functions. Overview The introduction is presented on a Google Jamboard, to allow for…
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Prerequisite Skills and Current Content
The effort to provide intervention to fill in gaps is challenging for different reasons. One reason is the effort to balance support for current content while filling in gaps. This post shows an example of how to fill in gaps while working through the current topic. Overview Various rubrics used to assess teacher instruction includes…
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Introduction to Perimeter and Area
This post provides a conceptual approach to understanding perimeter and area. Overview Students are prompted to build an rectangular animal pen for some farm animals. The number of fences represents the perimeter. The number of squared segments of grass inside the pen represents the area. Google Jamboard The slides are presented below. This video shows…
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Intro to Graphing Linear Functions using Jamboard
Graphing linear functions may be the most important topic in Algebra 1. While proportional reasoning is a prelude to functions, this is the first formally identified function presented to them. The graphing leads to slope and intercepts, beyond the entry point for graphical representations to functions. This post presents an activity that can serve as…
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Fraction Multiplication with Cookies
Fractions are challenging. Multiplying fractions is really challenging! This post presents a Google Jamboard to introduce students to the concept of multiplication of fractions. Overview The artifact is chunked to incrementally move from multiplication of whole numbers to whole number and fraction to multiplication of fractions. The representation of multiplication as number of objects in…
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Introduction to Division
My focus is on working with students with special needs. Many struggle with rote memorization, including for multiplication facts. I find that skip counting, with scaffolded support in the learning process, provides them access to multiplication and therefore division. To access division, I use an approach of skip counting to find a missing factor and…