Lesson: Investigating Rational Polynomials

Class: Honors Algebra 2 (Sophomores and Juniors) Teacher: Mr. Goff and Ms. Schildhauer
Date: Thursday, December 1, 2016
Knowledge About Students:
Honors Algebra 2: Students in this course have a variety of different backgrounds. Some students
have decided to make the jump from Level 6 Geometry in order to push themselves to prepare them
for Calculus. There are also many students that have Level 8 Geometry and Level 8 Algebra 1 who
are coming from backgrounds that have pushed them a bit further already. Some students have
struggled a lot in multiple ways, in which, for the sake of moving a bit slower in order to be able to
conceptualize things have dropped down to Level 6 Algebra 2. Overall, the students are willing to try
new things, make mistakes and think a little out of the box, and most importantly are willing to work
hard.
Standards: What are the content standards addressed in this lesson?
(as a student intern, I was not able to gain access to them)
What are the practice or process standards that you will highlight in this lesson? (May not be
applicable to your content area.)
Math Practice 1: (Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them) Students will be working
with some technology to visually see what graphs of rational functions look like, which will allow the
students to develop ideas and persevere to solve the problem. This will allow them to conceptualize
what rational functions are and how they can be used to represent real world problems.
Math Practice 2: (Reason abstractly and quantitatively) They will have to think a bit out of the box and
be able to create their rational functions with the software and be able to diagram what each graph
looks like, which will force them to use their prior knowledge. The students will also be analyzing and
completing a word problem which will require them to reason through the problem.
Math Practice 3: (Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others) Since students will
be working individually with the technology at first but secondly will be presenting their solution to
the class, there will be many ideas for the students to have to reason out in order to solve some
problems. Thus, they will have to give good justifications on why their solution is correct.
Math Practice 4: (Model with mathematics) Using the Geogebra activity, will be another way to
graphically represent the functions.
Math Practice 5: (Use appropriate tools strategically) They need to analyze their mathematical tool
box, to find that they need to make connections between rational functions and real life scenarios.
This would mean they would have to have to collaborate with others to develop the mathematical tools
they need to solve the problem.
Math Practice 6: (Attend to precision) They will have to write down equations, diagram each graph,
and be able to justify each task they do.
Lesson Objective(s): What skill(s) and
Formative Assessment: What questions, tasks, or
understanding(s) will be developed? What
prompts will you ask as students work through the
should students be able to do or understand
lesson? Match assessment to objective where in
after completing this lesson?
the instruction did you check for understanding of
Students will be able to
that objective?
-Analyzing rational functions and the different -Analyzing rational functions and the different parts

parts to include
-Collaborate with other students with
mathematical precision.
-Make connections between real world
application and rational functions
-Justify their solutions to application questions.

to include:

I plan to ask them questions such

as:

How do you find

holes and asymptotes? What do they
represent in the context of the
problem?

Is this an accurate
representation of a real life scenario
and how?

How do you
determine if there is a slant
asymptote?
(I plan to ask these types of questions,
since it is like a review assessment,
hopefully the students will realize the skills
they need and what they need to practice.)

Students will be working together

to analyze the graph to find velocity and
acceleration.
-Collaborate with other students with mathematical
precision: (This is when they are in groups doing the
application task)

I plan to ask them questions such

as:

This can be
assessed by observing how many
students have provided input to the
group.

Making sure
students are writing down their steps
to solve the problems using correct
notation.

Also observing
and being able to correct the way to
discuss mathematics.

Making sure
everyone presents their part
accurately.

Students will be engaging to

complete a real world problem in groups,
which will hopefully encourage
collaboration, to get students to verbalize
their thoughts, and engage in the material. I

will be able to track this through observing

and helping them in their groups.
--Make connections between real world application
and rational functions:

I plan to ask them questions such

as:

How could this

question be connected to real life?

Could you picture

yourself in this career?

What observations
can make or hypothesize about the
problem before making
calculations?

What can you

recall from other classes that may
help you solve this questions?

What tools have

you accumulated in the geogebra
task that would help you solve this
problem?
-Justify their solutions to the application questions:

Students will have to write a

justification after their group work, as well
as, be able to explain their thoughts to the
class in discussion. Thus, students will be
justifying their answers.

After the activity we will discuss

how understanding rational polynomials can
help us. They will then have to give a brain
dump in the conclusion to explain the key
points that we covered and how they will
help them solve the higher thinking
questions on the test Friday.
Anticipate: What do you expect students might do with this activity? What misconceptions might that
have about this topic?
EXPECTATIONS FOR STUDENTS:
I expect most students to understand rational polynomials and how to simplify them. I also expect the
students to ask questions as they explore through the Geogebra widget online. They will be able to
start making connections between the different graphs of rational polynomials and what they look like.
I expect the students to engage with their classmates during the group work activity, and most of the
students will be able to clearly explain their work, but I think it will be good see other students that do
not always participate present their findings.

MISCONCEPTIONS:
-Some possible misconceptions that students may have is that this is a not a real assessment since they
are not used to anything but a paper test.
-Some students might not push themselves to try the harder problems, and float by, but miss some of
the required information.
-Some students might go into autopilot, and not analyze the functions as deeply.
Lesson Launch: Exactly how will you engage
Lesson Closure Notes: Exactly what summary
students in the content of the lesson? List how
activity, questions, and discussion will close the
you will build on what students already know,
lesson and provide a foreshadowing of the next
the content to the real world, and/ or provide
lesson? List the questions and how you will organize
opportunities for students to notice and wonder. the students to share their ideas. This is how you
(5-7 minutes)
connect back to your objective and the CONTENT of
I will pose the following question on the board: the lesson. Indicate plans for student self-evaluation.
(10 minutes)
What do you want to be when you grow up? Brain Dump We will do a brain dump. I will
prompt them with this:
-Using this we will analyze as well as get to
know the students better, on how rational
You are currently in about to start the test tomorrow
polynomials either fit or do not fit into their
and you start thinking about everything you have
projected profession. This will lead into the task studied and need to know, can you explain and write
of practicing before the real world problem
down those ideas that pop into your head.
presentations.
The goal of this activity is to get the students
thinking about where they are in the class, were the
activities in the lesson preparing them for what they
need for the test, can I actually find/compute
everything in my list. This was almost like a check in
to see what they took away as well as to see what
they thought was the most important parts of the
lesson/chapter.
Lesson Tasks, Problems, and/or Activities (attach student handouts or other resources needed): What
specific activities, investigations, problems, questions, or tasks will students be working on during the
lesson? Include details, questions, and ideas for how you will facilitate the student engagement in the
learning. The focus is on what students will be doing. Make sure you include all your questions
throughout the lesson.
(1) Motivation (5-7 minutes)
(2) Geogebra (20-30 minutes)
(a) The students will be engaging with the Geogebra Widget and
exploring how the graphs change as they change the function. They will be able to
see slant, vertical, horizontal asymptotes, end behavior, etc. (Getting their brains
thinking)
(b) The students will start making their own functions and analyzing

them, by labeling the key points. This will be a review for what is expected to be on
the test. I included a challenge question where it is not necessarily obvious of where
the asymptotes are.
(c) The students are asked to put things like a hole in the graph which
requires the students to remember the skills they developed over the chapter. The
students also had to justify how adding that piece changed their graph/ function.
(3) Real World Problems (20 minutes) The students will be randomly placed in groups
and given a application question. They will need to become experts on their problem in order
to present it in class. I will monitor their progress be walking around the classroom and
asking the questions above.
(4) Presentations (15 minutes) I will provide the students a rubric that explains the
expectations as well as verbalize them before the task. I asked that each person in the group
explain a part in the question.
(5) Brain Dump (10 minutes)
Evidence of Success: Ask yourself, What exactly do I expect students to be able to do by the end of
the lesson, and how will I measure student understanding? Consider the specific performances that
will convince you (and any outside observer) that your students have developed a deepened (and
conceptual) understanding of the content..
-I want the students to be able to understand the concepts and key parts to rational polynomials in
order to answer real world problems. That being said, I am hoping using the technology gets them
more excited about the rational polynomials and how they change since it is visually in front of them. I
will be able to see this through their presentations.
-I want the students to start seeing the differences between graphs and what the graphs of rational
polynomials look like. I will be able to see that in the challenge question, because they will have to
understand the differences in a graph since there is a slant asymptote in the function.
-I hope that the students will be able to understand how to properly justify their mathematics problems,
and I will be able to tell through the closure activity and in presentations!
Resources and Materials: What materials or
resources are essential for students to
successfully complete the lesson tasks or
activities?
-Worksheet
-Rubric
-Laptops
-Document Camera
-Internet

Notes and Nuances: Vocabulary, connections,

common mistakes, typical misconceptions, etc.
-Vocabulary: Maximal, Minimal, polynomials,
rational, rational polynomials, Vertical Slant
Horizontal Asymptotes, x-intercepts, y-intercepts,
functions

Lesson Reflections: What questions, connected to the lesson objectives and evidence of success, will
you use to reflect on the effectiveness of this lesson? This question is about your own reflection of the
lesson. What do you want to ask yourself about how the lesson?

Answer:
How in this lesson did you . . .

Engage students in productive struggle?

I engaged with students in productive struggle by first allowing students to practice their
background skills in order to compete the task, and then giving them some relevant
application questions in which they were allowed to work in a group. Students will be
engaging with their peers first before they ask me questions, which helps them try and
struggle through the problem. In addition, students were in the end responsible for presenting
their problem, so they seemed very productive in their groups in collaborating verbally about
their answers. This allowed students practice for the test as well as justifying mathematical
work in a rigorous way.

Get students to think and make connections?

I helped students begin making connections between the graphs of rational functions from
the Geogebra activity to real world problems that students may encounter in everyday life.
We discussed things like the environment, which is a growing career field, we talked about
the national defense outlays as well. This sparked discussion on how mathematics can model
real life and how important it can be. The students also started to make stronger connections
between the graphs of rational polynomials. For example, when I asked the students to add
holes to graph and to explain how it changes your graph and function, the students were
trying to get a general idea of what the graph looks like. Previously, they used the graphing
calculators every once and awhile, but this activity seemed to get good reviews from the
students on how it strengthened students ability to intercept graph.

Provide support for each student?

I was able to provide support for each student because at first the students were working on
an activity individually which was a way to help students that were struggling. I was able to
not only answer students that had questions, but check in with some students that have been
falling behind. Secondly, after the presentations and closure was over I had an extra 5
minutes because Mr. Goff had some announcements, and I was able to check in with some of
the students and make sure that they understood and knew they could come into flex and get
some extra help. Lastly, during the brain dump I was able to read over the students work and
see what topics they really found valuable, which would be the material they are most likely
to remember. Therefore, I felt like I was able to provide support for student, and get feedback
from them on how much they have been picking up.
Further Reflection:
This lesson went very well in the Honors Algebra 2 class. I think students really liked using the
geogebra widget and how realistic the group questions were. I was able to see this because
students when we were reflecting explained how they thought the concept could apply to a real

world situation. The biggest change I would have made to my lesson plan, was I wish I would
have made them work in groups during the internet activity so they could start learning how to
verbalize their thinking. I could see at the end of the lesson when students were presenting their
work in groups, that they still struggle describing mathematics precisely. They generally get the
idea, but could use more mathematically correct terminology. Overall, the students seemed to
take away the main objectives of the class, which was vital to their success on their test the next
day.
I learned a lot from debriefing with my mentor teacher. He explained that my questions were
well thought out and how, I could change a couple things that would help the students make
connections. For example, when I asked the students to do a brain dump, I should have asked
them to share with a partner before I asked them to share with the class. The reasoning for this
was to make sure that students that do not speak out as freely, have some opportunity to share
their thoughts in a less intimidating environment.