We recently finished our third unit of the year in Algebra 1, Relations and Functions. Here are our interactive notebook pages for the unit. This is absolutely one of my favorite units of the year to teach!
Each unit starts with a divider that sticks out slightly from our interactive notebooks.
The other side of the divider lists all of the SBG skills for the unit. I accidentally forgot to type in one of the skills when I typed the divider. I'm still frustrated by that fact.
Here's a close-up of the skills:
The first skill of the unit was to generate equivalent representations of a relation and determine if the relation was a function. We started by creating a foldable of the different representations of a relation. I have blogged about this foldable in depth before
here.
After making this foldable, we played a "Representations of Relations" telephone game that I blogged about
here.
Next, we made a frayer model to define what a "function" is.
After defining the word "function," we had a Function Auction. This activity is always a favorite with students, and I blogged about it
here.
I let my students discover the vertical line test for themselves by making human graphs on our
shower curtain coordinate plane. I blogged about this activity
here.
I pulled out a notebook page I made a few years ago to practice writing sentences to justify if a relation was or was not a function.
Students divided the next page into two columns to glue in their completed function/not a function card sort.
We also practiced differentiating between functions and non-functions by completing an open middle style problem that I created and blogged about
here.
Up next: Dependent and Independent Variables
This year, I had my students write sentences in the form _________ depends on _____________. This seemed to help more of my students master independent and dependent variables than in the past.
To introduce the concept of rate of change, I had my students act out The Crow and the Pitcher fable using graduated cylinders and glass stones.
I wrote about this activity
here.
We made two practice books. One book focused on calculating rate of change from a table or set of points. The second book focused on calculating rate of change from a graph.
Next, we began to discuss domain and range. We did a DIXIROYD foldable and two practice books. I blogged about this foldable and these books
here.
We practiced finding the domain and range of continuous functions using our dry erase pockets. The most economical way to get a set of these dry erase pockets for your classroom is to search
Amazon for "
shop ticket holders." (affiliate link).
I've blogged about this domain and range practice activity before
here.
I also gave my students this foldable to spark a discussion of domain and range restrictions. This was put together at the last minute, and there are a zillion things I wish I could change about it. I guess I'll do that next year!
It's now time to introduce function machines and function notation. I wasn't feeling super inspired, so I ended up pulling out a foldable I designed a few years ago. Every time I use this, I think to myself that I need to edit it. But, every year, I just don't have the energy. I'm definitely at that point in the year where I just need a bit of a break from school!
We practice working with function machines by trying out a task from CPM's Core Connections Algebra course. I learned about this activity at a conference this summer and blogged about it
here.
The next two pages are new this year.
Evaluating a Function From a Graph
And, Evaluating a Function From a Table.
For both, I made students write a sentence to describe what the function notation meant. I don't know why I never had students do this before!
We practiced evaluating functions from a table, graph, and equation by playing a competitive game of "
Evaluating Functions War." I blogged about this game
here.
Another activity we did in class was an open middle style problem I created to practice evaluating functions. I blogged about this problem
here.
Up next is one of my favorite activities from the entire unit: Win Some Cash! I blogged about this task in depth
here.
After graphing the "Win Some Cash!" functions, we did some more graphing functions practice. After graphing each function, students had to classify the function as linear, absolute value, quadratic, or exponential.
We kicked off our linear vs. non-linear skill by making a frayer model for "linear."
We also did a linear/non-linear card sort.
To practice our linear vs. non-linear skills, we had a "
Linear Auction." It was a rousing success! Students had been begging for another auction ever since our "
Function Auction."
When I was typing my divider for this unit, I accidentally left out one of the skills. The skill was "I can create a story given a graph and create a graph given a story." I ended up adding this on to the end of the unit as RF8.
The problems in this foldable were all found online in various resources. I didn't keep track of what came from where, so this makes me a very bad blogger. Sorry!
We ended the unit by writing descriptions for these popcorn graphs. Because I teach teenagers, I had to stop one of my students from describing George's Dad's graph as "Netflix and chill."
I have uploaded the files for these lessons
here.