Lesson Plan Outline

Lindsay Pilong
A. Title of Lesson: Solving Rational Equations Day 2
B. Context of Lesson: Students will have just learned how to solve rational
equations the day before this lesson. Their homework was to try some problems on their
own.
C. Learning Objectives and Assessment
Learning Objective

UKD
#

How will it be assessed?

Students will be able to solve rational

equations for the value of x (or another
variable)

D1

Observation while students are

participating in speed dating activity.

Students will know that when the

denominators are equal, the numerators are
equal as well.

K1

Observation during speed dating and in

practice problems prior to.

Students will know that the first step to

solving a rational equation is to find a
common denominator

K2

Observations during speed dating and

practice problems prior to.

Students will understand that when solving

rational equations, they are trying to find
all possible values the variable can have to
make the given equation true.

U1

Questioning throughout class and

observations during practice and speed
dating.

D. Related 2009 Virginia Standards of Learning:

AII.4 The students will solve algebraically,
c. Equations containing rational algebraic expressions.
E. Materials Needed
I will need the notecards with equations for speed dating, and the
review worksheet for homework.
F. Procedure
Time

Mathematical Tasks to be Used,

Teacher

Anticipated Student
Comments, Questions, Actions,

Thoughts/Actions/Questions
10-20
min.
(10:15
)

and Strategies

Once students come in, I will ask

them to get out their homework
and they can ask me any
questions they have on it. I will
go over any questions they wish.
If they really struggled with the
homework, I may give them
some time to work with partners
to try to better understand.

I hope that students will have

been able to do at least some
of the homework, and if not,
they will be allowed to work
with partners to better
understand.

10
min.
(10:25
)

Depending on the results in the

exit tickets from the lesson prior,
I will go over any misconceptions
the students have on solving
rational equations.

This will be dependent on

student responses to the exit
ticket.

10
min.
(10:35
)

We will then play a game to

review, Ill have students move
the desks so that two desks are
facing each other in 2 rows
(much like speed dating would
be set up). Then, I will give each
student a card with a problem on
it and they are to solve the
problem and become experts
on it, understanding every step
to get to the correct answer.

Students may struggle with

their problem, but I will be
walking around to answer
questions and I will urge
students to use their notes to
help them figure it out.

30-40
min.
(11:10
)

Once each student has figured

out their problem and
understands it completely, we
will start the speed dating
game. One row of students will
shift down one desk so they are
facing someone new. Then the
two students will exchange cards
and each will try to solve the

I hope that by having a student

expert on the problem sitting in
front of them, students will be
able to solve the problems with
very little help from me.

I suspect some issues may

arise with the problems that
have more than one solution,
students know how to factor
and find solutions but they
tend to be confused when
things get mixed up.

others problem. If the student

has trouble or needs help, the
expert on that problem is sitting
right in front of them and they
can help one another. I will let
students work for about 2-3
minutes (I will gauge this
depending on how quickly the
students are working) and then
they will switch again.
5-10
min
(11:20
)

Once students are finished, I will

have them move back to their
seats and we can go over any
problems the students wish, and
they can ask any questions they
have at this point.

Hopefully students will not

have too many questions
because they had a student
expert helping them on every
problem. However, I anticipate
some questions on the general
procedure for solving these
problems.
If students do have questions, I
will ask the student expert to
come to the board to explain to
the class. If there are questions
beyond what the student
expert can answer, I will
intervene.

5 min
(11:25
)

Students will be given their

homework which will be a review
of rational expressions and
equations to work on over the 4day weekend.

Students will complete the

review for homework.

G. Meeting The Needs of All Students:

Students will be allowed to ask questions on the homework so if there
are any students who are still really struggling, they will be given the
opportunity to ask questions and have some additional review. When we go
over any misconceptions found in the exit tickets, this will also allow me to
differentiate based on what the class needs and if there are individuals who
are really struggling and would benefit from some additional help rather than
participate in the game, we can work that out as well.

As students participate in the speed dating activity, they will be able to

ask for help from a different student for each problem. Some of their
classmates methods could be new to them and make more sense to them,
and hearing others explain the process in different ways will help students to
understand the problems better, rather than just listening to me explain
every problem the same/in similar ways. This same differentiation tool will be
used when we come together as a class and students answer their
classmates questions.