Sunday, August 26, 2012

That didn't take long.

I'm already toying with a tweak to the sequence. 

My fear is that the unit on linear equations (slope, graphing, solving, etc) is going to be the hardest to implement with a true modeling approach. If that's the case, I don't want to disrupt any momentum I build in the first unit by deviating from the discover & discuss method before returning to it when we finish linear equations. So why not just switch Units 1 & 2 and make linear equations first? 

It should serve as a (hopefully) easy introduction to my class as it's mostly a review of 9th grade algebra. It will give me time to get to know my class and set expectations for discussion and I can already see bridging from lines -> segments/angles (where I couldn't see a natural transition for the reverse). 

On that note, does anyone teach slope / linear equations from a student centered perspective? 

2 comments:

  1. The one thing you might think about is talking about slope with respect to parallel and perpendicular lines (that is, you might hold off the whole thing until later in the year).

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  2. Oh, parallel/perpendicular is absolutely included that unit (sorry, didn't list as much in the bullet points).

    I like the idea of doing it first so that students can use slope as a tool to investigate anything. Like as they discover trig, the slopes of the hypotenuses of similar right triangles will all be parallel (if drawn accordingly).

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