S+Cobleigh,+Justin

**Office:** 208 **Office Phone:** (207) 778-XXXX **Office Hours:** Tuesday and Thursday After School Until 3 ** E-mail: ** justin.cobleigh@maine.edu
 * Teacher:** Mr. Cobleigh

=Summary of Unit= Welcome to Algebra! In this unit, students will learn about linear relationships. The topics that will be covered include specific formulas such as y = mx + b, y = m ( x - x1 ) + y1 and more. Students will be able to create a linear equation and from there transfer it to a graph. They will be able to draw the graphs of functions and also the other way around, taking graphs and creating equations. Students will also learn what the x-axis, y-axis, slope, distance formula and the midpoint formula are, just to name a few. Students will be able to connect the ideas of slope, distance and midpoint to real life situations such as skiing for slope, and calculating how long a car ride may take through the distance formula. Students will also create different projects that would require them to use iMovie, SMARTboards, Glogster, GeoGebra, Wikispaces, Comic Life and the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM). Through these projects, students will be able to show their understandings of the topics covered in this unit.

=Establish Goals= Maine Learning Results: Mathematics - D. Algebra Functions and Relations Grade 8 Students understand and use basic properties of linear relationships using y = mx + b

= = =Students will understand that= • a linear relationship takes the form of y = mx + b. • linear relationships are characterized by a constant rate of change. • graphs can be drawn from equations and vice versa.

= = =Essential Questions= • Why does each piece of y = mx + b affect the resulting graph in the way that it does? • How do we find the rate of change? • How do we read a graph and be able to pick out the specific pieces to write it in y = mx + b format and vice versa, as well as other formats.

= = =Students will know= • __Definitions__: slope, rise over run, y-intercepts, x-intercepts, position, velocity, acceleration • __Formulas__: rise over run, slope-intercept format, slope, point-slope format, midpoint, position, velocity, acceleration • __Sequence__: create an equation, what do the pieces mean, solve to y = mx + b format and other possible formats, illustrate graph from equation, compare a graph to it's appropriate equation

= = =Students will be able to= • demonstrate how they find rate of change. • illustrate a graph from an equation. • create a linear equation with all of it's pieces. • compare graphs to their equations. • be open to different ways of finding rate of change. • be aware of what each piece of an equation means.

**Performance Task Overview** With an increasing amount of people wanting to snowboard over ski, Sugarloaf Ski Resort, located in Western Maine, is looking for a snowboard park designer to create a new section of their snowboard park. Your company, Whitten Architects out of Portland, Maine, has been given the task of designing a new snowboard park that would be appealing to all different experience levels. However, you will have space limitations and will need to create a slope that will be appropriate for your given skill level as well as an appropriate distance so that a snowboarder is not going faster than they should like to be. You and your design company will make your way out to Sugarloaf in order to convince the Sugarloaf Board of Directors as well as Olympic Gold Medalist Seth Wescott, as to why your snowboard park design is the best and is appropriate based on skill level. They are also interested in learning where your numbers came from, so be prepared to explain that. If your design company is chosen, your company’s design will be selected to be the new addition to the mountain but it will also increase your likelihood of being selected to create future expansions of the park. Good Luck!

=Expectations=


 * Absent / Late Policy:** If you are absent from class, I would expect that you e-mail me to discuss your plan of action for getting caught back up. Math is a very note based class and in order to keep up, getting these notes is a necessity. All students will have a "study buddy" that they can get in contact with to get the material that was covered in class and have a chance to get caught up before the next class period.


 * Assignment Expectations:** All assignments are going to be collected at the beginning of each class period. Before this is done however, I am more than willing to answer student questions about the work and help them with problems that gave them difficulties. Outside of class, students are more than welcome to work with other students on the assignments unless I have requested that it be an individual assignment.


 * Classroom Expectations:** Respect is going to a big part of my classroom. I want all students to feel comfortable while they are in the room and not have to worry about being judged for their actions or for any math topic they may not understand. I encourage students to be active in class and ask questions and participate whenever the opportunity presents itself.


 * Plagiarism:** During the course of the year, students will be working together on many projects and homework assignments. I encourage students to work together on homework assignments so that they have the chance to work with each other on any misunderstandings that they may have. This, however, does not give students the right to copy other student's work and use it as their own. Any time that students work together, I expect that all of their names appear on the paper that is passed in, whether it is a lesson project or even a homework assignment. Plagiarism will not be tolerated at all and school policy requires me to report it.

=Benchmarks (500 Total Points)=

• **iMovie:** A group of students will work together to create an iMovie that would tell all of the other students what a linear equation is. In your movie, you need to include what the equation of a line is ( y = mx + b ), what //m// stands for, and what //b// stands for. The way you chose to show this to the class in your movie is up to you and your group members but it must remain school appropriate. I encourage students to find new and creative ways of teaching math to their fellow peers. //**(50 points)**//

• **Grapher on NLVM:** Students will be given a list of varying equations in which they will need to graph. Before using the graphing application on NLVM, students must first draw out by hand what they think would be the outcome of the graphs. Once they have had the opportunity to draw out the graphs by hand, students can use the graphing application on NLVM to compare their graphs to those shown through the internet tool. You will want to then draw the graphs that were gotten online onto your handwritten ones for comparison. If there were some graphs that did not come out the same, why do you think that happened? Did you misread your equation? Did a negative sign get lost? Those are some sample questions that could be answered. This is an individual project and one equation will be given to each student to present their results in front of the class. //**(20 points)**//

• **SMARTboard:** After learning about how to calculate slope and velocity, students will work in groups of 3 to create an interactive SMARTboard presentation on how to calculate for slope and velocity. Each team will be given a set of coordinate points in which they must create a graph, solve for slope, and solve for the velocity they would constantly travel to reach the end at a constant rate of change. The presentation must show their answers and how they came to them. It is up to the group how many of their problems they choose to present to the class, with a minimum of one per group member. All other problems can be handed in on paper neatly, and with all of the appropriate work. I would like these presentations to be more than a PowerPoint where students are just reading off of the screen. There should be creativity put into the presentation so that you can keep the audience's attention. //**(50 points)**//

• **Wikispace:** Students will learn that there are a few different ways in which linear equations can be written. To show these different ways, students working in pairs will create a wiki that explains the different ways of writing these equations and which situations they would be used in. Some items that students need to include are: (1) and overview of what linear equations are, (2) When would we want to use standard form and what are advantages/disadvantages of it, (3) When would we want to use point-slope form and what are advantages/disadvantages of it, and (4) 1-2 examples of graphs being solved for their equations in either form. All work associated with the examples can be on a word document that is attached to the wiki. I also encourage students to explore the wiki and see if there are any widgets that would be appropriate to use in this assignment. //**(30 points)**//

• **GeoGebra:** For this project, students are given pairs of equations and they have to determine if they are parallel, perpendicular, or neither. Students are to first to sketch out by hand the equations to see what conclusion they can get from that. Once the pairs of equations have been sketched and you have determined that they are parallel, perpendicular, or neither, students will use GeoGebra to plot and draw their graphs. From here, they can use the built in functions of the program to see if their assumptions are correct. Each student will be selected to present an individual problem with their outcome for it. The work for all of the other problems is to be written down, neatly, and then passed in. //**(20 points)**//

• **Comic Life:** For this project, students, working in pairs, are to create a comic that explains the concepts of distance and midpoint. Each pair of students will be given a set of points and through a digital story, they must figure out the distance and the midpoint. Also, distance is a topic that can easily be related to a real life situation, such as traveling from one place to the next. In addition to your digital story of solving for distance and midpoint, students need to pick two cities, find out what the distance is between the two, and find how long it would take them to get there given a specific speed of travel. //**(30 points)**//

• **Journal:** At the end of each class period, students are to write a quick response to that class. What is written in this journal is going to be kept between the teacher and student only. No journal entries will be shared with the class. Through the journal, I hope to be able to see where you, as individual students, are having trouble or questions and that I can address them again in a future lesson. Also, if there is some part of my lesson teaching that is not clear, mention that as well. Your success is important to me and I want to be able to help in any way that I can. These entries will let me know exactly where I need to adjust. These will be graded on whether or not they were completed and handed in. //**(15 points)**//

• **Quizzes:** At the beginning of some class periods, quizzes will be given to review how well students have learned the material from previous classes. Material that was covered in the previous class would not be on the next days quiz. I want students to be able to attempt homework problems first and then return the next day with questions about how problems are solved. Only the best 6 quiz scores will be counted towards this grade. //**(60 points)**//

• **Test:** There will be a test at the end of the unit to assess student's understanding of the big topics of the unit. There will be several different types of questions on the test, such as matching, true/false, and short answer, which would be the bulk of the test in order to assess students ability to apply the appropriate solving techniques to certain problems. The test will cover linear equations, graphing, slope, velocity, parallel and perpendicular lines, distance and midpoint. //**(75 points)**//

• **Final Glogster Project:** This final project will tie together all of the topics that were covered in this unit. The Sugarloaf Board of Directors are looking to expand the snowboard section of Sugarloaf Ski Resort in western Maine. Working under certain dimensions, groups of students are to come up with the equations of lines that would be at appropriate slopes for all different skill levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced. Then, for these lines, students are to calculate the distance, midpoint, and velocity when it would take a given amount of time to reach the bottom. In order to show the Board of Directors that your slopes are the best, you and your teammates are to create a Glogster project that displays all of your answers to each piece as well as how you reached those answers. The Board is very interested in how you got to the numbers as well as why you feel these are skill level appropriate. The Glogster will be graded using one rubric and the presentation will be graded using another. They would be averaged into the final grade. //**(150 points)**//

=Grading Scale= **A** (93 -100), **A-** (90 - 92), **B+** (87 - 89), **B** (83 - 86), **B-** (80 - 82), **C+**(77 - 79), **C** (73-76),**C-** (70 - 72), **D+**(67 - 69), **D** (63 - 66), **D-** (60 - 62), **F** (0 - 59)