Student Explanation

Out of the 10 people I had take the test, I picked five of them to look more closely

at their answers. I picked those five because they all struggled with the same three

questions. Those questions where The equation y=a(x+h)^2+k is the equation of a

parabola written in what form, The equation y=ax^2+bx+c is the equation of a

parabola written in what form, and in both forms, changing the value of the coefficient

a from 1 to 5 will result in:. These five students clearly struggled with formulas, and

variables. They all got standard form and vertex form mixed up. They also thought that

instead of the coefficient a creating a vertical stretch, they confused it with a horizontal

stretch. This let me know that they needed more focused instruction on formulas, and the

meaning of the variables within the formulas. After the pre test was administered, the

next day I would have a recap of the information but putting more focus into those

concepts.