The following is my initial blog:
"My CT and I discussed the future plans, and the general estimate is that I will be teaching about transformations on a linear function. So, my objective for the first lesson is, "Students will understand how adding a coefficient to f(x) affects a linear function." The success criteria will be, "Students will be able to graph dilated linear functions and represent them on a table." The students will therefore analyze a basic function with no transformations and then compare it with functions that have dilations. To assess, I will either have students complete a worksheet that includes graphing new functions that undergo dilations and filling out their corresponding tables and/or represent this on a poster that they can later present. Every student will work on a team to complete the worksheet, though they all will turn in their own sheet, but for the poster, they will turn and present one as a group. I want to give each group a different example of dilated functions, so the class will have a variety of examples to understand what effects dilations have (does the graph reflect, shrink, stretch, etc.?). I will definitely provide examples of phrases students could be including to prepare for their presentations, such as, "The graph shrinks by," "The graph stretches by," "The slope changes to," "The graph dilates by," "The graph reflects over the x-axis," "The coefficient of x is," etc. I think providing some of these language forms will give students guidance and more confidence with their discussions. Since students will be analyzing graphs, filling out tables, and creating graphs and posters, there are a few cognitive demands at play. There are analyze level 1 since students will interpret slope changes from graphs, understand level 2 since students will be comparing different graphs with one another, apply level 2 since students will fill out tables and graph new functions, and create level 2 since students will represent all of their understanding of dilations on a poster. I'm still determining if this needs to be a 2 day lesson, however, where one day focuses on the worksheet, and the second day focuses on the creating and presenting the poster. Regardless, all of the language domains will be included as students will work with groups to discuss what they notice with one another, and each person will fill out their own tables and graph functions. To connect all of this more with my students, a lot of them are into sports, so I will try to create contexts with these problems and graphs that represent the speed of professional athletes, perhaps before and after certain trainings or playing with certain teams."
After some reflection, I believe it makes more sense to make this into 2 lessons that way students have adequate time to make their posters the next day. Moreover, whatever students turn in on the first day will give me a good indication of what they got out of the first lesson on dilations. Another change I want to include though is adding knowledge checks besides the main worksheet for the first day that allows students to answer basic questions and reflect on what they learned. In class, we talked about different kinds of formative assessment, and one good example could be giving students 2 different colors of sticky notes. To end class, the students could write on one sticky note something they learned, and on the other sticky note, they could mention something they are still confused on. This will help them understand what they understand, and this will help me know what needs to be touched on before they start creating their posters the next day. Lastly, I need to develop a rubric for my task, as that is something that still needs to be done, and I know having one for students to reference will support the quality of their work.