I needed a cool-ish idea for an Algebra II lesson to use while I was being observed. The topic: complex fractions. This topic brings my organizing-obsessed brain much satisfaction but is not exactly exciting. 

I went back to my roots....I love sorting!

Students were given 7 pieces to put in the correct order of being solved. 

After about 1 minute, I told the class that the piece with the @ symbol was the original problem and should be their starting point.

After another minute, I asked if they had a guess for which piece is the last piece. Most students can guess the order because it gets smaller as it goes.

Then I showed the correct order and asked what was happening from piece to piece and how did it affect the problem. 

I feel like I've been successful teaching this skill all these years without the card sort but it got us off and running much easier. It didn't seem like I was just magically pulling steps out of the air because they had a worked out example to see the process and the end result.

Here's the doc file in case you want to change anything and a pdf link if that doesn't work.

 

I laminated the pages, cut them up, and put them in snack size ziplocks for each student.

I'm pretty sure I got this original task from @pamjwilson but I can't find the original file or link. I found this one which is where I got the questions from.

I tried this before with my own family tree but it just brought on way too many irrelevant questions so my friend @howie_hua suggested I used the Kardashian family. I knew there was a big famous family that was obvious so thanks for helping me out.

I posted this photo in Google Classroom and had the students leave it open on their chrome books:



Numbers 6-10 is where the real meat is; here we have to discuss what comes first and where to start.



As students were writing their answers on their desk, I went around taking pictures, synced it with Google Photos, and then was able to immediately show them their classmates responses. #winning








Next we labeled index cards and baby post-its.





They are color coded on purpose- these are the three colors of baby post-its I had. Lol.

When I did it in class, we wrote the f(x) on the lined side of the index cards but then we had to keep flipping them over so I edited the slides to put the label in the top left corner.

Then I showed them a problem like this (the answer doesn't show at first):


And we talked about what color post-it to use and which index card to stick it on.


Then they would simplify it on their desk and I would click the slide to show the final answer.

Tomorrow I will follow up with this function composition match without the index cards which also throws in some square roots and putting a function inside itself and finally INB notes.

Here's the powerpoint:

The second half of the powerpoint gives them equations and they have to identify the type (linear, quadratic, absolute value, exponential) and the transformations.

For example, the slide says:


Another plus about this activity is that you don't need a fancy powerpoint. Just write it on the board or say it out loud and students go to work.

Low prep FTW.

Here are the pieces:



I printed each groups on different colors of paper and laminated.

Here is the powerpoint:



Good luck!

Page 7- This foldable came from Kathryn Belmonte and you can see the pictures of each flap below.






Page 8 After learning the difference between a function and relation, students do this sorting activity and justify what makes it "not" a function. This sort came from Mrs. H.



Page 9- This notation foldable came from my friend Brooke Seals.



Page 10- This was a worksheet that I turned into an INB sorting activity. First they had to write in the different forms given only one piece of information. After that, they did the sorting and glued it in.



Page 11-12 - This DIX-ROY organizer came from Sarah Hagan and I'm not sure where I got the other graphs and ___domain and range.



Page 13-14 Increasing and decreasing intervals came from here. We labeled I and D but then highlighted the positive and negative parts.


Page 15-16 This operation with functions foldable came from Brooke Seals. The practice problems came on the RHP came straight from Kuta.





Page 17-18 Function Composition foldable on LHP came from Brooke Seals and practice problems on the RHP came from a worksheet that I don't remember the origins of- let me know if it's you!