This week one of my classes spent a good amount of time investigating inequalities and absolute value. Both topics were brand new to students. I looked around in my math files and decided that there might be a better way to introduce inequalities. Students are familiar with number lines, math symbols and plotting points. They weren’t familiar with extending points and graphing inequalities. So, while jumping around Twitter I came across a Tweet talking about a Desmos lesson related to this particular topic.
I took a leap and decided to check it out. You see, I’m a Desmos newbie. I’ve heard many people within the #msmathchat and #mtbos talk about how it’s such an amazing tool. I haven’t had a chance to try it out until this week. My school isn’t 1:1 and technology is used from time to time, but less frequently in math classes. After reviewing the lesson and playing around I dived in and made a commitment to use the activity. I borrowed Chromebooks from a couple other teachers and had a sample run before starting it up on Tuesday.
Students started off by plotting points on number lines. They also made predictions of what their peers would place. During the first day, students made it through almost all of the activity. Students still had questions and they were answered as I paused the slides (I definitely like the pause function). Near the end of the lesson I thought students were becoming better at being able to identify inequalities and match them to graphs.
The following day students finished up the activity with a WODB digital board. It was interesting to hear their responses and reasoning behind them.
On Thursday, students took their inequalities journey a step forward. They were asked to complete an Illustrative Mathematics inequality task. Students were given a situation where they needed to write two inequalities, graph them on separate number lines, and create a description.
Students worked in stations, but completed each sheet on their own. The students had some productive discussions during this time. I have to remember to discuss the positive elements of this with the class after the weekend. Students had to create a number line and then plot points where necessary. They had to figure out if a close or open circle was needed and where the overlaps occur. The only hiccup occurred when discussing the word between.
Does the word between in this context include 37 and 61, or does it mean that it omits those numbers. Students went back and forth on this issue and we had a class conversation about that particular topic. Eventually, the class decided that 37 and 61 were included. Students turned in the task on Thursday and I returned them back today. Just a handful of students needed to retake the task, but it was mainly because the directions weren’t fully read or labels were missing.
Today the class explored absolute value and coordinate grids. A test is scheduled for next Wednesday, but I could probably spend a lot more time on this topic. The class will briefly investigate absolute deviation on Monday and complete a study guide on Tuesday.
I’ll end this post with a Tweet that made me think a bit about math instruction.
I believe “instructional agility” is necessary and teachers become more aware of this through experience. Instructional agility can also lend itself to the resources and tools that are used in the classroom.
Educational Aspirations 
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