Sunday, July 19, 2015

MTBoS Love - Visual Patterns




The next resource that I like to use to start the class period is visual patterns.  I use these about once a week with my 9-12 students.  My ninth graders start the year not knowing anything (or remembering) about linear equations so they are really just trying to make a table of values and look for a pattern.  After we learn (review) how to write equations of lines we discuss how we can use that new knowledge to make our visual patterns easier to find.  Some of the patterns are quadratic or even exponential, so you will want to discuss this with students.  They should check to see if their pattern really is linear before beginning.

The quadratic and exponential patterns are good for my algebra 2 kids, you just need to look through the list to find them.  The creator of the site, Fawn, will send you an answer key if you want a quick reference to tell what type of function each pattern is.  On this page, you can find several worksheets that can used to help students represent their patterns in different ways.  One of my favorite things about these worksheets is that they reinforce that the patterns can be represented in many ways (visual, table, graph, equation).

No comments:

Post a Comment