Stephanie Vergauwen

Teaching Experiment 2
Formative Assessment Activity: __Create the Problem__
Planned Date of Implementation: __10/30/2014__
Make sure you explain how students will be working (i.e., individual, partner, group) and
how this decision was made.
During this activity, students will be working in pairs to write a real-world situation that
can be represented by the function ( )
. I decided that this activity would be best
done in pairs rather than groups of four, that way the students are required to be more engaged
and contribute to the discussion with their partners, rather than sitting back and letting the other
group members work on the task. I will be providing the students with colored pencils and
markers, as well as a large piece of paper, in order to give them the opportunity to show their
creativity and draw a picture of their scenario. Drawing a picture like this can also help students
understand the context of the problem and make sure that the situation they came up with fits the
given function.
After the students have completed their posters, the class will do a gallery walk so the
students have the opportunity to see what their classmates came up with, and so they can check
each others work. The students will be encouraged to write comments and give feedback to their
peers as they are circulating throughout the room. When the students have had enough time to
look at all of the posters, we will come back together as a class to discuss what they observed.
Students will have the opportunity to share their favorite problem with the class, and they will
also be able to ask questions about writing problems to fit functions if this is something that they
are still struggling with.
If there is extra time left after the discussion, I will ask the students to work individually
to write a scenario to fit the equation
. This will serve as their exit ticket for the
class period, and after I have read over their work, I will give them the homework assignment for
the day.
Goal(s) of Activity (i.e., Students will be able to and I canThese should include
mathematical content and process learning goals.)
1. Students will be able to interpret a function in function notation and identify the
independent and dependent variables.
2. Students will be able to reason abstractly about a function and write a real-life situation to
represent the function.
3. Students will be able to interpret real-life scenarios and critique the reasoning of their
peers in order to determine whether or not the function has been accurately represented.
4. I can pick out the independent and dependent variables of a function.

Stephanie Vergauwen

5. I can write a problem in a real-world context that represents a function that is given to
me.
6. I can interpret a word problem written by my peers and check to see that it represents the
given function.
How will you elicit thinking from the students?
I will elicit thinking from the students by encouraging them to be creative in their
responses. Since there are multiple ways that the students can think about the problem and there
is no one correct solution, the students have the freedom to interpret the function and write a
real-life scenario to represent the problem in a context that is meaningful to them. I will also
elicit thinking from students by having them interpret and provide feedback on the problems
written by their classmates. This will require the students to reason through multiple scenarios in
order to determine whether or not they accurately represent the function. During the class
discussion, students will be asked to describe what they noticed while performing the gallery
walk.
What data will you collect? How will you analyze the data you collect (i.e., How will you
determine students have understood the material/content of the activity or reached the goal of the
activity?)?
I will collect data in the form of the posters that the students create. While the students
are working I will be walking around the room and monitoring their work. This material is a
review for the students since they have worked with writing functions to model real-life
situations in the previous chapter, but this is their first time creating a problem to represent a
function.
By reading through the problems that the students have created, I will be able to
determine whether or not the students were able to accurately represent the function by correctly
modeling a situation in which one variable depends upon another, given the constraints of the
function. I will also look over the comments and feedback written on the posters, in order to
determine whether or not the students were able to reason abstractly and critique the work of
their peers.
Through the observations stated, as well as the questions asked during the group
discussion, I will be able to conclude whether or not the goals of the lesson were reached by the
students. If the students are able to have a thoughtful discussion and explain their reasoning then
the lesson goals were met, and if the students are unable to explain why their problem models the
function then the lesson goals were not met.

Stephanie Vergauwen

How and what kind of feedback will you give students? What is the purpose of your
feedback?
I will provide the students with verbal feedback throughout the activity as a way of
encouraging them to think critically and reason through the task, making sure that they stay
focused goals of the lesson. I will also have the students turn their homework assignment in to
me the following class period so I can read through their problems and provide each individual
student with written feedback. The feedback will allow students to see whether or not they are on
the right track and if they are fulfilling the lesson goals and expectations for partner work. Since
the students are creating the problems on their own, receiving this feedback will also allow them
to take pride in their work, and it will make the task meaningful to them personally.
Being able to read through the problems created by the individual students will allow me
to see who has a solid understanding of functions and how they are used in everyday life, and
who still struggles with thinking through conceptual problems. In doing this I will be able to see
who I will need to check with more regularly for understanding regarding functions and their
representations.