Taking on Percent Change and Making the Connection to Ratios and Proportions

Home Nugget #26
Assigned on Friday October 16, 2009
Due on Monday October 19, 2009

In Algebra I book,

Page 114
# 18 - 21
# 26, 27
# 35, 36
# 39, 40

Page 115
# 41 and 43

FCAs
2 points: all problems completed
2 points: evidence provided for all solutions

Looking at Lessons 2-1 to 2-5 Through a New Lens and Continuing to Make Progress with Ratios and Proportions

Students are being asked to use last Friday's quiz (dated Oct. 9) to recreate and solve a number of problems. We talked extensively in class today about what this means and what the expectation for tonight's lesson is. Students agreed that often teachers will use the same strategy repeatedly to teach a concept, even if that technique is not proving effective. By having students come up with their own problems, that still preserve the characteristics of the quiz problems, we are allowing them to have a new lens on the subject.

I also provided a mock 'run-through' of what I would expect on a set of class notes. For the very last time, I informed students of the actual day's notes that I will be collecting and assessing tomorrow, those from Oct.6.


Home Nugget #25

Assigned on Thursday October 15, 2009
Due on Friday October 16, 2009

Using Friday's 30 point quiz, recreate AND solve problems 4 - 7, 11 and 12, 14 - 20

FCAs
2 points: all problems completed
2 points: evidence provided for all problems

Ratios and Proportions: What Does it Really Mean to Find "Cross-Products?"

Today's class saw an exploration into what is meant by ratios and proportions. Students took complete control of figuring out what is meant by these math terms and more importantly, came up with methods for determining whether two ratios actually form a proportion. Furthermore, students uncovered the truth behind why using cross-products to determine proportions works and tied this discovery in very well with our recent conversation about division of fractions.

Tonight, in addition to the formal home nugget assigned below, students are asked to complete a brief independent study based on pages 106, 107 and 108 of the Algebra book. While we explored the core topics underlying ratios and proportions, there are still sub-areas to discuss including terms like means and extremes, rate and scale. Students must read through and make sense of the content presented on these pages by tomorrow.

Home Nugget #24
Assigned on Wednesday October 14, 2009
Due on Thursday October 15, 2009

In Algebra book,
Page 109
# 9 - 12
#18 - 23
#27 - 34

Page 110
# 38

FCAs
2 points: all problems completed
2 points: evidence for solutions provided

A Chance at Redemption: Taking Another Crack at Lessons 2-1 to 2-5

Home Nugget #23
Assigned on Tuesday October 13, 2009
Due on Wednesday October 14, 2009

This lesson counts as a 20 point quiz! It gives you a chance, now that we had further discussions in class today, to take another shot at the topic of solving equations using your four principles.
1. isolate the variable
2. balance
3. undoing/opposite operations
4. collecting like terms

The problems are as follows from the Algebra book:

Page 720
lesson 2-2 # 7, 8, 19, 20, 23
lesson 2-3 # 5, 11, 12, 13, 15

Page 721
lesson 2-4 # 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
lesson 2-5 # 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

The quizzes will be graded in class tomorrow with each question being worth 1 point.