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Nermin Fialkowski

Dr. Monica Kelly

AIL 622

18 September, 2018

Assignment 3A- Design a PBL Learning Event

1. What is the content area?

Mathematics: Pre-Calculus (both Honors and Regular)

2. What is the content area standard(s) to be met?

Mathematics Content Standards for California Public Schools
Calculus
1.0 Students demonstrate knowledge of both the formal definition and the graphical
interpretation of limit of values of functions. This knowledge includes one-sided limits, infinite
limits, and limits at infinity. Students know the definition of convergence and divergence of a
function as the domain variable approaches either a number or infinity:
1.1 Students prove and use theorems
evaluating the limits of sums, products,
quotients, and composition of functions.

1.2 Students use graphical calculators to

verify and estimate limits.
2.0 Students demonstrate knowledge of both the formal definition and the graphical
interpretation of continuity of a function.

3. Inquiry Question(s) and Essential Question(s)/Problem to be addressed?

Inquiry Questions
1. Before I can reach my desk from the classroom door, I must first walk halfway between
the door and my desk. Then I’ll walk another halfway distance, then another halfway,
and another halfway. When will I be able to reach my desk?
! " % & !))
2. How can I find the value of " + $ + & + ' + ⋯ + "** + ⋯ without adding up 200+
numbers?
!
3. What is the value of ?
!,***,***,***,***,***,***

Essential Questions
1. How can I predict the behavior of a graph?
2. What conclusions can be made about a graph that never stops growing?
3. What additional conclusions can still be made about a graph that has no value?
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4. Set up your personalized learning environment to include resources, physical

environment and other factors that contextualize the learning.
Word Wall

Limit Continuous Hole Vertical Slant Asymptote

Asymptote
Horizontal Infinity Does Not Exist One-Sided Limit Piecewise
Asymptote Functions

Visual Graphs- posted around room

TI-84 Graphing Calculators

Desmos Online Graphing Calculator- via student laptops and smartphones

Limit Activity (https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/574de5cdab71b5085a2aad42)

College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM) Textbook

Pre-Calculus with Trigonometry (https://cpm.org/pct/)
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Differentiated Learning
Students will create their own piecewise graphs (like below) and pose various questions about
the graph. Students will then quiz their classmates on the answers.

𝑓(−1) 𝑓(1) lim 𝑓(𝑥) lim 𝑓(𝑥) lim 𝑓(𝑥) lim 𝑓(𝑥) 𝑓(−4)
4→! 4→7 4→87 4→8%

5. Describe your community of learners.

Southwest High School in San Diego is a highly diverse school, just five miles north of the
U.S./Mexico International Border. Because of its close proximity to the border, 39% of the
school’s population has limited English proficiency, while 85% come from homes where English
is not spoken. Southwest High Schools is a Title I school, where 79% of the students are eligible
for free or reduced lunch (Southwest High SARC).

This unit lesson is intended for my Pre-Calculus classes. I teach both Honors and Regular Pre-
Calculus. Both classes are made up of junior and seniors. The juniors in my classes are
advanced learners, having taken Integrated Math II, during their freshmen year, while most take
Integrated Math I during their freshmen year. The seniors in my class have a focus of studying
something science/math related after high school. This way, students will be prepared to take
calculus after high school.

The good number of students in my Regular class lack the algebraic skills needed to have
proficient procedural fluency skills. They also require more prompting and scaffolds on how to
set up specific problems. None-the-less, these students still work very hard and put in their best
effort into the class.

Students in my Honors class, are considered advanced learners compared to students in my

Regular class. These students are individual workers but work well in groups. Their cognitive
processing and critical thinking skills are high. Students in my Honors class are also in other
advanced classes.

6. What accommodations and adaptations will you incorporate to meet the needs of Special
children?
Accommodations for my Special Education students are made per their individual needs.
Additional accommodations are also inclusive to provide them with success in my classroom.
Such accommodations include: promoting, redirection, additional time on assessments and
assignments, frequent check-ins, seating next to a supportive peer, flexibility in assignment
choice.
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7. What accommodations and adaptations will you incorporate to include children who are
learning English?
A large majority of my English Language Learners speak Spanish. Since I also speak Spanish, I
can translate directions and further explain concepts to students in Spanish individually on a one-
to-one basis. A Word Wall will also be used to help build vocabulary acquisition. Various
visual graphs of different functions (continuous and non) will also be displayed around the room
to reinforce the concepts of continuity and end behavior for limits at infinity. English Language
Learners will also be seated next to a peer within One English Proficiency Level of them.
Students will also be provided with sentence frames/starters when participating in class
discussions and for explaining/proving why a function is continuous/discontinuous.

8. How do you plan to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of struggling, average and
advanced learners?
Grouping Students
By Learning Style: Reflector, Theorist, Activist, and Pargmatist (Honey & Mumforad, 2006).
This grouping allows for all students to successfully access the content material.

Differentiated Learning Stations

Differentiated learning stations prior to an assessment, in addition to post-assessment. This
means having students review the content through various modalities at different stations. Some
examples of various stations include, individual work, peer tutoring, re-teaching, and group
work. These differentiated learning stations is also a form of intervention. Low performing
students can go to the re-teaching station, students who have met the content objectives will go
to peer tutoring and group work. Those few student in peer tutoring will help the students that
were not quite there in mastering the content objectives. While high achieving students work on
extension problems.

Differentiated Learning Assignment

Students will create their own piecewise graphs (like below) and pose various questions about
the graph. Students will then quiz their classmates on the answers.

𝑓(−1) 𝑓(1) lim 𝑓(𝑥) lim 𝑓(𝑥) lim 𝑓(𝑥) lim 𝑓(𝑥) 𝑓(−4)
4→! 4→7 4→87 4→8%

9. How will you assess prior knowledge?

Prior knowledge needed to be successful in this unit include: domain and range, input and output
values, and determining y-values from equations and graphs. Assessing this prior knowledge
will be done in a variety of different ways. One way is through the form of Daily Warm-Ups,
where students will be asked to solve for y-values of functions. Students will also be asked to
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write their own definition of domain and range and share with a peer. Additionally, students will
create a table of values for a given function. Students’ understanding of these prior concepts will
guide me in my instruction and pace of this unit.

10. How will you introduce your unit to gain learner interest?
Inquiry Questions

1. Before I can reach my desk from the classroom door, I must first walk halfway between
the door and my desk. Then I’ll walk another halfway distance, then another halfway,
and another halfway. When will I be able to reach my desk?
! " % & !))
2. How can I find the value of " + $ + & + ' + ⋯ + "** + ⋯ without adding up 200+
numbers?
!
3. What is the value of !,***,***,***,***,***,***?
Videos

1. Achilles & The Tortoise: https://youtu.be/skM37PcZmWE

2. Area of a Circle: https://youtu.be/YokKp3pwVFc

11. How will you use UDL strategies to challenge all learners and to reinforce content and
skill development?
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has three main guidelines: Representations, Action and
Expression, and Engagement. (CAST)

Representations
1. Given a graph, students will intuitively find the limit by using Benny & Bertha the Bug
as their approach.
What matters is where Benny & Bertha go and if they go to the same place
𝑓(𝑎) does not have to equal lim 𝑓(𝑥)
4→;
2. Limits Student Lab
http://www.mesacc.edu/~davvu41111/LimitStudent.html#MapleAutoBookmark5
3. Limits & Continuity: Desmos Activity
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/574de5cdab71b5085a2aad42
Action and Expression
1. Limits & Continuity: Desmos Activity
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/574de5cdab71b5085a2aad42
2. Differentiated Learning Assignment
Students will create their own piecewise graphs (like below) and pose various questions
about the graph. Students will then quiz their classmates on the answers.
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𝑓(−1) 𝑓(1) lim 𝑓(𝑥) lim 𝑓(𝑥) lim 𝑓(𝑥) lim 𝑓(𝑥) 𝑓(−4)
4→! 4→7 4→87 4→8%
3. Differentiated Learning Stations
4. Differentiated learning stations prior to an assessment, in addition to post-assessment.
This means having students review the content through various modalities at different
stations. Some examples of various stations include, individual work, peer tutoring, re-
teaching, and group work. These differentiated learning stations is also a form of
intervention. Low performing students can go to the re-teaching station, students who
have met the content objectives will go to peer tutoring and group work. Those few
student in peer tutoring will help the students that were not quite there in mastering the
content objectives. While high achieving students work on extension problems.
Engagement
1. Limits & Continuity: Desmos Activity
https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/574de5cdab71b5085a2aad42
2. Achilles & The Tortoise
https://youtu.be/skM37PcZmWE
3. Area of a Circle
https://youtu.be/YokKp3pwVFc

The purpose of UDL has a focus on “learning” not just on teaching. It is understood that a
student has learned and understood the content when they are able to transfer their knowledge.
The six facets of understanding include: explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize,
and self-assess (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). In this unit students will be able to explain if a
function is continuous, interpret graphs to identify their limits, interpret functions to determine
end behavior, apply their knowledge of limits and functions to create their own piecewise graphs
and pose various questions about the graph. In addition to self-assessments, students will then
quiz their classmates on the answers of their own piecewise function (Differentiated Learning
Assignment).

12. How will you check the progress of your learners?

Students will be constantly monitored to check their progress of learning. This will be done
formally, and informally. Informally, I will be looking for common misconceptions about limits,
so that I can address those concerns early on, before students internalize this misinformation.
Formally, students will also have weekly assessments to check their learning, where instruction
will be modified to meet the needs of students. Students will also be asked to complete the same
tasks from assessing their prior knowledge to check for growth in their understanding of the
topics. Students should be able to use the formal definition of continuity to solidify their
informal definition of what it means to be a continuous function. Exit Slips will also be used to
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check for students understanding of how to find a limit, the existence of a point is irrelevant for a
limit to be possible. What matters is what the function approaches. 𝑓(𝑎) does not have to equal
lim 𝑓(𝑥). The Differentiated Learning Activity where students create their own graphs and pose
4→;
questions about continutity, will demonstrate students’ internalization about how find limits at
various values.

13. How will your learners express their understanding of the Essential Question or pose
the solution to the Essential Problem?
Inquiry Questions
The main focus of the Inquiry Questions is to solidify the idea of a limit. The existence of a
point (or value) is irrelevant for a limit to be possible. What matters is what value is being
approached.

Essential Question #1/2

Given a function, students will be able to identify it’s end behavior. Without the aid of a graph,
students will use leading coefficients and evaluating limits at infinity to determine and describe
the end behavior of a function. Additionally, through one-sided limits and vertical asymptotes
students will be able to make conclusions about a functions behavior at undefined values. The
purpose of these Essential Questions is for students to definitively make conclusions about a
functions’ graph and its behavior even though a visual is not provided.

Essential Question #3
The main idea of Essential Question #3 is that the existence of a point is irrelevant for the
existence of its limit. 𝑓(𝑎) does not have to equal lim 𝑓(𝑥). But when talking about continuity,
4→;
𝑓(𝑎) does have to equal lim 𝑓(𝑥). Students will be able to independently find the solutions to
4→;
𝑓(𝑎) and lim 𝑓(𝑥), algebracially and graphifically. Students will then make the final conclusion
4→;
if a function is continuous based on 𝑓(𝑎) = lim 𝑓(𝑥). In the process of finding 𝑓(𝑎) and
4→;
lim 𝑓(𝑥) students will be able to describe important features and charateristics of functions even
4→;
though they may be discontinuous, or hold no value/existence.

References

CAST. Universal Desgin for Learning Guidelines. Retrieved from: http://www.cast.org/our-

work/about-udl.html#.W6gVlhNKiRt

Honey, P., & Mumforad, A. (2006). Brainbase, Keeping the Brain in Mind. Kolb’s Learning
Styles. Retrieved from: http://www.ycarhe.eu/uploads/Document/learning-styles-kolb-
questionnaire.pdf

“Southwest Senior High School Accountability Report Card Reported 2016-17”. (2017). [PDF
file]. Retrieved from: http://sarconline.org/SarcPdfs/9/37684113730124.pdf

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2011). The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High
Quality Units. Alexandria, VA: Aassociation for Supervision & Curriculum
Development.