Completing the Square Becomes More Sophisticated

Home Nugget # 10
Assigned on Friday March 19, 2019
Due on Monday March 22, 2010

THREE PARTS:
1. Continue to work on class notes for the 4th term. A set will be collected and graded next week. Bear in mind that these count as a 50 point quiz grade.

2. In Algebra I text,

Page 489 # 12 - 19, 23 - 28
Page 490 # 32, 34, 36, 44, 46

3. Two open-response questions from past MCAS (last two we'll work on from the Number Sense and Operations Strand)

2005 MCAS # 39

2007 MCAS # 28

All work and evidence must be demonstrated on separate sheet of paper. These particular questions will be graded by your classmates using the rubrics provided in class on Monday.

Alternative Methods for Solving Quadratic Functions: Completing the Square

Today's lesson continues our theme of contending with quadratic functions and forces us to think about how when we have many tools at our disposal, which is the most appropriate to use at a given time. Students expressed frustration in our last few classes at how inaccurate and labor-intensive graphing can be for the purposes of solving quadratic functions and it is precisely these 'complaints' that lead naturally to our work on methods like completing the square, where we are simply molding polynomials into perfect square trinomials for purposes of convenience.

Home Nugget #9
Assigned on Thursday March 18, 2010
Due on Friday March 19, 2010

In Algebra I text,

Page 489 # 1 - 11

Weaving in Strategic MCAS Prep Over the Next Few Weeks

Today's class was our first formal venture into thinking about strategies for preparing for the math MCAS in May and actually involved our trying out a number of questions from the first strand on our agenda: that of number sense and operations.

Tonight's home nugget addresses a portion of the math MCAS that counts for 40% of the exam grade, the open-response questions. Students have two multi-part questions to respond to this evening and it will quickly become apparent to them that while the math is far from challenging, much attention has to be paid to providing evidence/explanations for their solutions.

Home Nugget #8
Assigned on Tuesday March 16, 2010
Due on Thursday March 18, 2010 (no school tomorrow)

From double-sided sheet;

2006 8th grade MCAS question 9

2008 8th grade MCAS question 22

All work, evidence and solutions should be clearly presented on a separate sheet(s) of paper.

Last Practice at Graphing Quadratic Functions for the Purpose of Finding Roots

Home Nugget #7
Assigned on Monday March 15, 2010
Due on Tuesday March 16, 2010

From,

Practice Sheet for lesson 9-2 # 1 - 10

and

Word Problem Practice Sheet for lesson 9 - 2 # 1 - 5

while solutions may be presented on the sheets themselves, any additional work (which is required) should be presented on attached sheets.