Week 11 Reflection

Essential question: What are my challenges and successes in implementing my unit? 

            I began my UbD lesson plan on Thursday in my class. I arrived back from Europe on Monday and I needed to gage where my students were at with the material I had asked the substitute teacher to cover. In keeping true to one of my five elements of differentiated instruction I picked out, I needed to be flexible and start the UbD a few days later than planned. The students needed some reteaching and practice in graphing a linear equation using a table and identifying a function. Also, the students hadn’t gotten the chance in learning what slope was and the many ways to look at it such as real-life situations, on lines, and between two points.

Therefore, on Thursday and Friday we began looking and practicing how equations of a line are graphed in y=mx+b form. Students really enjoyed when I got on Desmos on Thursday to talk about slopes of a line by looking at steepness and direction (positive/negative). In fact, Jerry in particular was asking some great higher order questions to the class while using this program such as what would the slope need to be to create a vertical line? I used Kahoot to assess where students were at with slope. I discovered by the end that students needed more practice in rewriting equations in y=mx+b form so that they can identify the slope. We practiced doing this on personal white boards before moving on.

With keeping Jerry in mind and the few other students who really engaged with the graphing software, I pulled up Geogebra and set up an equation of a line that the slope can be changed and the y-intercept can be changed. A few of the students were able to connect that when an equation was in the y=mx+b form then the m is the slope and the b is the y-intercept. Not all students were able to grasp so I had students graph using a table and always starting with the x-value equal to zero they noticed that the y-value was always the b because x times 0 equals 0. We summarized the concepts we discovered by writing them out in notebooks and practiced graphing some equations in y=mx+b form. Kelsey was able to grasp the concept after writing out the process of graphing equations in y=mx+b. Grouping consisted then in individual or partners to graph some equations on their own. I had students fill out a check list on how they are feeling on the concepts. Jerry’s and Kelsey’s follow.

Jerry

	I understand fully.	I need more practice.	I still need to learn it.
Slope	X
y-Intercept	X
Graph y=mx+b	X

Kelsey

	I understand fully.	I need more practice.	I still need to learn it.
Slope	X
y-Intercept	X
Graph y=mx+b	X

            There are three students who checked that they need more practice and interesting enough, y-intercept was the main concept that needed to be covered. As I reflect, I realize that I quickly brushed over what a y-intercept is. On Monday, I will go over y-intercepts and its definition. Then I will assess students on it in a google form/quiz and also confirm students are able to identify the slope of a line. Then students will have a peer assessment by graphing a given equation, trading with a partner, talking about their process, giving corrections if needed, and graphing another equation after doing this.