Graphing and Writing Linear Equations (Grade 8) By: Catherine ...

Lesson 2
5.2 Rates of Change
(a) Objectives: (1) Finding rates of change from tables and graphs.
(2) Determining whether a graph or table is representative of a linear function.
(b) Instructions: (1) Review previous days homework. Give answers to all problems. Explain any
questions they had trouble with in detail.
(2) Explain the days goals to students.
(3) Think and Discuss: Back to the down hill skiing example. This time, you begin
skiing at 1500 feet (at 0 seconds) and after 30 seconds you are at 504 feet.. Does
anyone have an idea as to how we fight find the rate of change between the 2
positions of the skier?
(4)Instructional Portion: Put up the lesson's overhead. Ask students to take a few
moments to copy it down in their notebook. Present and explain the new material
on the overhead.
Example 2 p221 of text - Model for students to show how to find the
rate of change using a table.
(5) Technology Group Work: Students will work in groups of 2 or 3. They will use
their graphing calculators to help fill out the technology worksheet. Each student
will hand in his own worksheet for assessment. This exercise will help them
practice how to find the rate of change in a graph, understand dependent and
independent variables and how to determine if a function is linear.
(6) Independent Practice: For homework, write a realistic example of a word
problem that has a dependent and independent variable. Write out the word
problem and make a table displaying the X and Y values. Please make the
difference between each X value the same and each Y value the same. However,
the change in X's should be different than the change in Y's.
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